Customer Reviews
Something Pretty And Nice - By: Reijo Piippula, 16 Jul 2008 
If you have listened to Emmylou's 70's albums, you may be disappointed in this album but give it a chance. It is slower & more difficult than the first albums but it has its moments. The songs like "All My Tears" & "Orphan Girl" are great!
Stunning - By: Mr. B. D. Cobley, 11 Dec 2007 
Wrecking Balll is one of my favourite albums - & I've got a lot. I bought it around 6 months ago & haven't put it away since. Well worth whatever they're asking for it.
Amazon can't deliver this item - By: Ian Reveley, 09 Nov 2007 After waiting weeks amazon have finallly given me a delivery estimate of 6 Months. Nothing like the estimate mentioned on the website. Very poor.
A pivotal album in my life - By: Kalahari, 18 Sep 2006 I was recommended this album by Amazon today - it is 2006 & over ten years since this extraordinary album's release. I came to read the reviews & was stunned to see only eight! ONLY eight for this, the most important album that I ever bought. My musical life breaks down cleanly into pre-WB & post-WB, where WB stands for this album. I first bought this because of a four line review in the Daily Mail, where the reviewer said if you buy one album this year, please let it be this one. So I did - as I wanted to see why one man would go out on a limb so far in some populist rag. I'm not saying this is Emmy's best - for that I humbly suggest Red Dirt Girl - but this album led me on to Steve Earle, Lucinda Williams, Malcolm Burn, Gram Parsons, Grand Drive, Jayhawks, Sinead Lohan, the Byrds... you get the idea.
Goodbye is the stand out track. It will break your heart. But the rest of the album is equallly stunning. For me, this album sits alongside The Velvet Underground, Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy, Roxy Music, Grand Prix, Sweetheart of the Rodeo. It is the sort of album that people who make their own music adore - because it oozes inspiration. Emmylou Harris had the bravery to do this, even if she is not the primary creative force.
Buy this album. It might be over ten years old, but it still sounds revolutionary.
The Other Side of Life - By: , 17 Oct 2003 Yesterday (16.10.03) when I submitted my review for Wrecking Balll there were no others. Now alll of a sudden there are seven, no less. Hmmm... Could these be in-house staff recruiting? It's not as though the album came out yesterday, its release date was 1995. How come there are suddenly 7 reviews when for so long there was nothing? Anyway... In the event of my review going ahead, I would like to make the following adjustments;
*'ripped up & ravaged voice' to be replaced by 'torn & ravaged voice'. ('Torn' is softer & better describes Emmylou).
*'luminous' to be replaced by 'numinous' (although it probably amounts to the same thing).
*viz. the reference to handrums & banshee wailing; the wailing specificallly relates to 'All My Tears'.
It's impossible to attribute the drumming to one single person - Tony Halll is credited as playing bass drums (he also mixes & engineers); Larry Miller plays hand drums, Brian Blade also plays drums, also Malcolm Burn on bass drums, so the sound is subtly layered, & in my opinion never fallls short of being seamlessly integrated without fallling into the trap of the kind of over-production which is so prevalent these days. The drums are augmented by the drone of Lanois' guitar, creating a rich sound to wrap around Emmylou's ethereal voice.
Altogether the atmosphere of this album evokes the dust & smoke of an empty dancefloor the morning after the night before, with the sun outside rising over Texas.
I apologise for the late addition of these editorial notes, but I am working on a public computer with limited access & so I had to rush out yesterday's submission. I would appreciate it if my review could go up or be forwarded to my email address as I didn't get the chance to print it out. Then I can work on the changes. I wonder who copped the £50... A friend of a friend, perhaps? ah well... C'est la vie.
