“Just Another Love”
Tanya Tucker
Written by Paul Davis
Radio & Records
#1 (1 week)
September 19, 1986
Billboard
#1 (1 week)
October 18, 1986
Tanya Tucker kicked off the comeback of the decade with Girls Like Me, her debut album for Capitol Records. Released in 1986, it produced four top ten hits, and returned her to No. 1 for the first time in a decade.
Tucker joining the Capitol roster followed a series of professional and personal struggles. You can hear the fire in her voice on “Just Another Love.” This is a talented artist who is very well aware that this is her one shot at a comeback, and she does her damndest to sing the hell out of a weak song over a chintzy pop-country production.
And damn if she doesn’t pull it off. This record is better than it has any right to be, and it’s all because of Tucker’s performance. At times, she sounds like she’s being thrown off by the band behind her, but she keeps going without missing a beat.
The elements that would make this comeback lead to her longest run of hits at country radio aren’t all together yet, but they’re starting to emerge. Paul Davis would write better songs for Tucker, even singing one of her No. 1 hits with her. Producer Jerry Crutchfield gets a great performance out of her, but he hasn’t yet realized that she sounds better with more organic instrumentation. It really does sound like they booked Sylvia or Juice Newton for the session and Tucker showed up instead.
They’ll figure it all out on her next album, which will be the first in a long string of gold and platinum releases. But for now, it’s just good to have her back.
“Just Another Love” gets a B-.
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There is a real sense or urgency and hunger with this Tanya Tucker performance, a “fire in her voice.”
The sound of the way forward for country music is incrementally becoming easier to hear. Just as obvious are the stuttering and stalling attempts by some artists to make what had previously worked so consistently before work again, just one more time.
I already celebrated how much I loved the energy Reba brought to “Little Rock,” and I think Tucker matches it here, even with a production value that can’t keep pace or match her vocal intensity.
This is the sound of momentum changing in Nashville.