Linda Ronstadt Mad Love CD

Live Recording

Personnel: Linda Ronstadt (vocals); Peter Bernstein (acoustic guitar); Dan Dugmore, Danny Kortchmar (electric guitar); Mark Goldenberg (electric guitar, background vocals); Mike Auldridge (dobro); Bill Payne (keyboards); Bob Glaub (bass); Russell Kunkel (drums); Peter Asher, Steve Forman (percussion); Rosemary Butler, Waddy Wachtel, Kenny Edwards, Andrew Gold (background vocals).
Recorded at Record One, Los Angeles, California between October 1979 and January 1980.
Released in 1980, Mad Love featured Linda Ronstadt taking on new wave with mixed results. At this point, her albums with producer Peter Asher became routine and repetitive. This album's predecessor, Living in the U.S.A., hit the cutout bins, so a change was in order. While many may miss the customary Ronstadt here, most of Mad Love does indeed work. The insinuating "I Can't Let Go" and the playful "How Do I Make You" do help Ronstadt attain a certain cuteness and freshness. The biggest hit, the cover of Little Anthony & the Imperials' "Hurts So Bad," has a great vocal and is made even better by Danny Kortchmar's emotive guitar solos. While the originals and style of guitarist Mark Goldenberg did predominate, Mad Love is mostly known for its three Elvis Costello covers. Although the often pitch-perfect Ronstadt is more than antithetical to Costello's angst, she more than connects with "Party Girl." Costello's "Talking in the Dark" closes the album on an oddly sweet note. The strange thing about Mad Love is that it did include a lot of players from Ronstadt's previous albums. Kortchmar, Russ Kunkel, Andrew Gold, and Nicolette Larson's great backing vocals all appear here. For the most part, Mad Love stood the test of time and is certainly different from the Ronstadt albums that preceded and followed it. ~ Jason Elias
Since the 1960s, Linda Ronstadt has gone down many different musical paths in her career, but with MAD LOVE it's quite clear she was in a rockin' state of mind. Kicking off with the title track (written by new wave band the Cretones, who back here on this album), Linda shows that rock can also mean pop, as this is as catchy as they come. "Party Girl" is the first of three Elvis Costello covers, and this version should have made Elvis proud. The Blondie-ish hit "How Do I Make You" features Nicolette Larson on background vocals.
"I Can't Let Go", shows that a beautiful voice can also be a rock & roll one. "Hurt So Bad" is the sole ballad on the album and is a soulful cover of Little Anthony & The Imperial's hit. The covers continue with an excellent version of Neil Young's "Look Out For My Love." The album concludes with Elvis Costello's "Girls Talk" and "Talking In The Dark." Linda had covered Elvis' "Alison" on her LIVING IN THE USA album and continues the tradition here. MAD LOVE is a high energy, rousing record with catchy riffs, fantastic vocals and solid production.

CMJ (1/5/04, p.6) - Ranked #17 in CMJ's "Top 20 Most-Played Albums of 1980".