Nick of Time

I got to this late, due to a trip, so came back to it while stood up on a packed train.

I would like to think this didn't affect my marking too badly, but I did not find this album interesting. At all. She has a nice voice but the tunes are dull. I am not mad at it, but I genuinely don't understand why this is one of the 1001 Albums you should listen to before you die.

Following my self imposed "just being dull can't get you 1/5" marking system means this is a 2 (but should have been a 1.5 in a better scoring system).

2/5

On the plus side, she has an engaging voice. And I liked this more than I expected to. But I wasn't exactly blown away by it, and the production was a little dated. A low three.

For a country record, this album really ping pongs back and forth between country and R&B style pop. The opener is pretty great, but once ot gets beyond that its a lot of standard country or 80's style pop rock similar to Huey Lewis.

But overall, not really enjoying it. Not much that I haven't heard before.

Was dreading listening to this one...but ultimately it was better than I expected. 2/5

For what this is, this is great - it's a solid pop record with fantastic songwriting and performances from Bonnie Raitt. As a Brit I'd never heard of her before today, but I enjoyed this enough to listen again and check out another album by her. Only real negative for me is that the production and overall sound feels dated even for the time period - there was some really good pop from this period which stood the test of time and this one is definitely a record from 1989.

It would be hard to imagine an album I'd be less interested in listening to.
Not interesting enough to get a 1, but absolutely nothing justifies this being included on a list of 10000 albums, let alone 1000.

Surprisingly good, really enjoyed this

Songs range from amazing (Nick of Time) to incredibly corny (Have a Heart). Some were just kind of there, seemingly just to fill time.

Mostly really good blues rock classics, with sadly a couple of snoozers thrown in.

I really respect Bonnie Raitt as a sort of pioneer of women guitar players. Sure she wasn't the first but for a while (maybe still?) she was one of the most prominent women who took over what has always been a male dominated instrument. And I'm not sure why more women haven't been considered superstars of guitar until even just the last few years.
Anyway, that's to say that I appreciate her contribution to music and showing people that women can be guitar players too. But I don't really care for her music. This album suffers from massive 80s overproduction. The list of people involved in writing, performing, recording, and producing this album is a mile long. It's too much and somehow the record still sort of lacks something. Listening now it's super dated and cheesy. I do really like the bass on most of this record though. There's something about that over-produced 80s bass that I actually like a lot. But, really, most of the album is fairly typical and forgettable. 3/5

𝘕𝘪𝘤𝘬 𝘰𝘧 𝘛𝘪𝘮𝘦 is a polished mix of pop, folk, and blues that showcases Bonnie Raitt’s warm voice and tasteful slide guitar. It’s solid and heartfelt, with moments of real charm, but it doesn’t quite reach the heights its reputation suggests.

Today’s listen was Nick of Time by Bonnie Raitt—an artist and album I had never come across before. Unfortunately, this one really didn’t land for me.

Overall, I found the album to be a rough example of dated '80s production. The sound felt overly polished in a way that stripped the emotion from the songs, and I struggled to connect with it. Real Man stood out—but for all the wrong reasons. Honestly, it might be one of the worst songs I’ve ever heard. I really did give the album a fair shot, but it just wasn’t for me.

Favourite track: I couldn’t pick one—I didn’t enjoy any of them enough.
Least favourite track: Real Man
Album artwork: Very much of its time—classic ’80s aesthetic.

If there was one genre of music I couldn’t stand while growing up, it was 80s pop music. Close second would be country music. While I was open to weird experimental music, I was incredibly closed minded to anything I perceived as being commercial and 80s pop seemed to be the epitome of commercial music in my mind. I definitely missed out on a lot of music because of that. This album in particular probably isn’t something I’d return to frequently, but it’s pretty enjoyable, if somewhat straight forward pop with a bit of a bluesy and country flair.

Tough one. The early tracks with 80s synth were not a good choice. There’s no really memorable single on this album either. That said, I like Bonnie’s voice, and the final track ‘The Road’s My Middle Name’ finally seems to get it right. Chalk this one up to the sins of late 80s production style, I guess.

Definitely one of the albums of all time. It's by far the most recent I've heard, and of all the albums, it's definitely one of them.

(It did not do anything for me I'm afraid lol)

An old favorite. A lot of these songs hit hard emotionally. I love Bonnie Raitt’s voice, songwriting is unassailable in my opinion: hooky pop tunes with a little country flavor (?). A desert island disc with a lot of subtleties below the surface and super clean production that brings the song into the light.

Great writing, with some really excellent high energy moments. Mostly more sedate, well done, not my taste.

love the electric piano but the hokier songs brought it down

Favorite songs: Thing Called Love, The Road's My Middle Name, Real Man, Love Letter, I Will Not Be Denied, Nobody's Girl

Least favorite songs: Cry on My Shoulder

4/5

Nick Of Time was a pretty good album. This album was certainly a country album, i will give it that. This album basically had all the sound styles that you would expect from a country album like the slow guitar song, the more upbeat song with some harmonicas among many other things with some of those being blues elements as well. Most of the songs here were pretty good and had some pretty groovy vibes to them and at worst they could be a little bit boring and forgettable. The forgettable songs were not very common in this album but unfortunately, they were still there. This album is a pretty solid album that i would not be against listening to in the future.
Best Song: Love Letter
Worst Song: Nobody's Girl