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Aug 18, 2016Sure, Pure + Simple doesn’t have an instant classic like Parton’s 1973 standard “I Will Always Love You.” But it shows that five decades into her career, Parton isn’t a nostalgia act—she’s still one of America’s most vital country songsmiths.
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Oct 10, 2016As she breezes past 70, the mood of Dolly’s songs is inevitably nostalgic and retrospective.
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MojoSep 8, 2016The main deal here concerns a dozen new tracks, deliciously delivered in that soulful quaver of a voice. [Oct 2016, p.92]
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Aug 18, 2016This sounds like an album Parton could have made in the mid-'70s, before she made her bid to become a cross-genre superstar, and for fans who want to hear "the Real Dolly," Pure & Simple will hit the spot like a glass of iced tea on August afternoon.
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Aug 18, 2016The instrumentation, forms, and concepts are familiar: “pure” country, as it were. Lyrically speaking, love, companionship, and family (‘Mama’) represent persistent threads; even more so, though, the passing of time seems to be Parton’s chief concern.
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Aug 19, 2016Pure & Simple is at best a middle shelf release in Parton's discography.
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Aug 19, 2016Generally tasteful and acoustic, Dolly Parton's 43rd studio album is most effective at its most effortless, as when she breezes with contented charm through the title track's celebration of uncomplicated love. But the legend stumbles when she tries too hard to be cute.
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Aug 18, 2016While the best moments prove the country queen is still at the top of her game, missteps like spoken word breaks add unneeded cheese, and Pure & Simple isn't all that thematically diverse.
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Aug 18, 2016Some great songs, some not-so-great songs, an impressively sharp realism that gets submerged beneath corn and goo: perhaps this album does offer pure Dolly Parton after all.
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Aug 24, 2016Though Pure & Simple will be palatable for her fans, it lacks the depth that put Parton in the spotlight to begin with.
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Aug 18, 2016Pure & Simple sticks for the most part to an agreeable neo-traditional approach.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 7 out of 11
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Mixed: 2 out of 11
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Negative: 2 out of 11
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Dec 28, 2022
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Sep 1, 2016
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Aug 19, 2016