Rocks and Honey

Rocks and Honey is the sixteenth studio album by Welsh singer Bonnie Tyler, first released by ZYX Music on 8 March 2013.[1] Eight years since Wings was released in 2005, this was the longest gap between album releases in Tyler's career, and is the first of her studio albums to chart in the United Kingdom since 1988.[2] With tracks written by Nashville-based songwriters such as Frank J. Myers, Desmond Child, Brett James and Beth Hart, the album consists of a number of country songs reminiscent to Tyler's country albums from the 1970s with elements of rock.

Rocks and Honey
Studio album by
Bonnie Tyler
Released8 March 2013
RecordedFebruary 2012 at the Blackbird Studios, Nashville
May 2012 in Los Angeles
Genre
Length51:14
LabelZYX Music, Labrador Music, AXR Music, Celtic Swan Recordings, Warner Bros.
ProducerDavid Huff
Bonnie Tyler chronology
Wings
(2005)		 Rocks and Honey
(2013)		 Between the Earth and the Stars
(2019)
Singles from Rocks and Honey
  1. "Believe in Me"
    Released: 13 March 2013
  2. "This is Gonna Hurt"
    Released: 16 August 2013
  3. "Love Is the Knife"
    Released: 16 September 2013

The album received generally positive reviews from music critics, who praised Tyler's vocals as well as the album's consistency.[3] Rocks and Honey charted in Europe, reaching number 28 in Denmark, number 52 in the UK and number 59 in Germany and Switzerland. Tyler embarked on her South Africa Tour 2013 following the Eurovision Song Contest.[4] The single "Believe in Me" represented the United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 in Malmö, Sweden on 18 May 2013,[5] and has charted in the UK Singles Chart at number 93. The album was named in reference to the contrast between the voices of Tyler and duet partner Vince Gill on the track "What You Need From Me". The follow-up singles, "This Is Gonna Hurt" and "Love Is the Knife", were released in August and September 2013 respectively.

Background
Tyler performing in Ingolstadt, Germany, on March 2, 2013 during the "Rock Meets Classic" 2013 Tour.

Plans for the release of Rocks and Honey date back to as early as 2008, where an interview with Tyler was published in a Turkish newspaper precessing a concert in Northern Cyprus. She announced that she would be working with Jim Steinman for her new album and was aiming for a release in summer 2009.[6] Due to health reasons, Steinman did not end up working on the album. Then in September 2008, Tyler was interviewed on an internet radio show called The Bat Segundo Show, where she stated that she had recorded demos for several tracks and had approached Bryan Adams to do a duet for the album, but he said that it was "not the right time".[7]

During a 2010 interview in New Zealand when preparing to perform at a charity concert, Tyler stated that she had recorded six tracks for the album, expecting a release at some point in 2011.[8] In years leading up to the album's release, Tyler has performed new songs such as "You Are The One", "Don't Tell Me It's Over Now", "It's My Name", and "Is That Thing Loaded?". However, none of these songs were added to the album, despite Tyler announcing during various concerts that they had been recorded, or were due to be recorded for it. "Under One Sky" was also due to be released on the new album, but was instead released on Tyler's 2011 compilation album, Best of 3 CD. During an interview while promoting the album in the UK, she said that it was a possibility that "Is That Thing Loaded?" may be included on a future album.[9]

Tyler performing at the S.Oliver Arena, Würzburg, Germany, on March 10, 2013 during the "Rock Meets Classic" 2013 Tour.

On 22 February 2012, Desmond Child announced on his Twitter account that Tyler had been recording some of his songs in Nashville with David Huff as producer.[10][11] An update about news of the new album was posted on Tyler's old website on 13 February 2012, where it was announced that Tyler had been recording in Nashville. News of a demo recording of "What You Need From Me" was added on 16 April 2012, where it also said that she had visited Los Angeles to help with the mixing of some tracks. Tyler made the title of the album public during an interview in Norway in July later that year.[12]

Between the release of Rocks and Honey and Wings in 2005, Tyler had released a number of compilations including Best Of 3 CD with Stick Music, her previous record company. ZYX Music, the first record company to release Rocks and Honey, first signed Tyler in 2011 and released Live in Germany 1993, a CD and DVD.

Album title

"What You Need From Me" was written by Jon Randall and Jessi Alexander and a demo was played to Tyler when visiting a publishing company in Nashville in 2011. After hearing the song she approached Vince Gill to record the track as a duet. After recording the song, Tyler stated that someone compared her and Gill's voices to a combination of rocks and honey, which led Tyler to name the album "Rocks and Honey".[14] American singer-songwriters Melissa Bollea and Bill DiLuigi wrote a song with the same title for Tyler, though she had already finalised the naming of the album and turned down the song.[15]

Development

The majority of songs were recorded in various studios in Tennessee between February and May 2012.[16] Tyler has already stated that she has enough remaining material from Nashville-based publishers for a seventeenth studio album.[17]

Two songs were written by Desmond Child. This was the first time Tyler had worked with Child since 1988, on her Hide Your Heart album. All thirteen tracks were newly recorded by Tyler, with the inclusion of two covers; "Flat on the Floor" was originally recorded by Carrie Underwood on her 2007 album Carnival Ride, and "All I Ever Wanted" was first recorded by Beau Davidson in 2010.

While Tyler and her manager were living in Nashville, they visited the Bluebird Cafe on a songwriters' evening where she first discovered some tracks that would be included on Rocks and Honey.

"You have to cue up to get in there, it was like a tiny little house, and all these songwriters sit around a table with their guitars and they all sing their original material. This is where I heard one of the songwriters on the album - I do a song on there called "Mom", it's all about a baby talking to God before it's born. - I heard this singer there, and he was just amazing. There's so much talent there, it's just fabulous. I want to do another album there before the end of my career."[18]

— Bonnie Tyler talking about the Bluebird Cafe. BBC Radio, May 2013.

Release and promotion

Tyler first announced the title of the album on BBC Radio Wales in August 2012. On the same show, "What You Need From Me" became the first track of the album to be played on radio internationally.[13] The second track to be made public was "All I Ever Wanted", which Tyler performed live in Germany for a New Year's Eve show,[19] and again in February, though the middle eight was cut.[20]

Rocks and Honey was due to be released in October 2012, though after Tyler was asked to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest, the release was postponed for five months.[9][21] The album was first made available for sale on the French Amazon store in February 2013.[22] A promotional album artwork was later added before the official artwork was made public.

Singles

"Believe in Me" was announced to be the UK's Eurovision Song Contest entry on 7 March, and was released in the UK as a download single on 13 March and as a maxi CD on 15 March in Europe.[24] The song received constant airplay on BBC Radio 2, who 'A-listed' the single on their music playlist.[25] On 28 March 2013 they also listed the single as "record of the week".[26] In an interview with Female First Magazine in April 2013, Tyler announced that it was likely that the track "Sunshine" will be a second single for the album.[27] However it was later announced that "This Is Gonna Hurt" would be the second single, and was released in August 2013 on CD and digital download.[28] On 16 September it was announced that "Love Is the Knife" would become the third single, released in Scandinavia as a digital download. She performed the song on the Danish TV show Charlies Hjertegalla.

Although Tyler herself did not release the song, "Mom" was later released as a single by Garth Brooks on his 2014 album Man Against Machine.[29]

Touring

Tyler has expressed her wishes to tour with the new album in the UK and France.[9][30] While promoting the album in France, she met with a tour company on 1 June 2013 to discuss a tour of France.[4] In August 2013, Tyler began her South Africa Tour 2013, in which she performed at five concerts in three different South African cities.

Bonnie Tyler in the Eurovision Song Contest 2013
Tyler at the Eurovision Song Contest press conference in Malmö, Sweden, 15 May 2013.

On 28 April, Tyler underwent several interviews with media organisations including Digital Spy, The Sun, and the Daily Mail. At mid-day, Tyler was interviewed and then performed an acoustic version of the song on BBC Radio 2's Weekend Wogan with her Eurovision group.[31]

For further promotion, Tyler was a guest on The One Show on 19 March 2013 and was interviewed on several British radio stations leading up to the Grand Final.[32] On 19 May, a day after the Eurovision Song Contest, the Official Charts Company announced that Tyler's song charted highest of all Eurovision entries in the UK.[33]

After the contest finished, the BBC published the reaction of several journalists and singers towards Tyler finishing 19th. Irish entrant and three-time winner of Eurovision Johnny Logan complimented Tyler, but argued that the song wasn't strong enough. He continued, "If you're going to win Eurovision, to go through some of the incredible voting I've noticed over the last few years, you have to have something that's going to stand out above everything else. Otherwise you're just going to hope to pick up 10 or 11 votes." Similarly, Nathan Moore agreed that the song was not strong enough, but said "It was a great idea to get Bonnie involved, there's a lot of love for Bonnie out there."[34] Mick Dalley (of Yahoo! News) agreed that "although Tyler herself was on form, singing beautifully and rousing the crowd with her podiumed finale, "Believe in Me" was simply not good enough as a song".[35] 1997 UK winner Katrina Leskanich (of Katrina and the Waves) stated that she was underwhelmed by Denmark's entry, and expected Tyler to have scored higher than she did. British journalist Dave Goodman acknowledged that Tyler's entry was an improvement on the previous year, though argued that it was a combination of a poor position in the running order and the song that kept the UK from scoring higher.[34]

Critical reception
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Daily Express[36]
Entertainment Focus[37]
MigMag(7/10)[38]
Music-News[39]
Music OMH[40]
So So Gay[3]
The Yorkshire Times[41]
Virgin Media[42]

Rocks and Honey has received mixed reviews from critics since its release. Dirk Neuhaus of Country Rock Magazine published a favourable review of the album, crediting David Huff and Matt Davis for the album production and called "What You Need From Me" a "fantastic track."[43] Norbert Schiegel of G+J Entertainment Media highlighted the tracks "Sunshine" as a "pleasantly catchy" song, and "What You Need From Me" as "sensational." He described the whole album as "outstanding."[44] Jeremy Williams of The Yorkshire Times gave the album a 5/5 rating. He asks, "has the gritty vocal of Bonnie Tyler still got what it takes to make you tingle? The simple answer is YES," and marks the album as an "impressive return to her country roots". He also questions that the track "Little Superstar" was not chosen for the UK's Eurovision song over "Believe in Me".[41] Similarly, Music-News' Andy Snipper suggested that the track "Mom" would have been better suited as the Eurovision song, though describes Rocks and Honey as "a fine album."[39]

The album received a mixed review from Adam Carroll from Seen It Heard It. He says that "This is Gonna Hurt" provides a solid start to the album, with "Sunshine" being his favourite song, and though not keen on ballads, describes "Believe in Me" as a fantastic song. However, he considers "What You Need From Me" to be one of the weakest tracks on the album, describing Tyler's voice as "rough and beaten" and that her and Vince Gill's voices do not go together well. Despite this, he still describes the album as solid, and ends with "Bonnie Tyler proves that she is still one of the greatest vocalists out there."[23] Virgin Media's Ian Gittins gave the album 3 stars. He stated that the album has nothing new to offer, and could have been recorded any time between 1978 and the present day.[42] The most critical of the album has been Thomas Ingham from OMH Media, who gave the album 2 and a half stars, described the album's format as "simple – loud, quiet, loud, quiet" and is compiled of a mixture of "cheesy ballads" and "country pop-rock" songs, describing "Flat On The Floor" as "clichéd, but worryingly catchy." He ended with predicting that Tyler will not be able to take the UK out of its poor Eurovision results trend.[40]

Track listing
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."This Is Gonna Hurt"Kurt Allison, Kelly Archer, David Fanning3:07
2."Sunshine"Stefanie Ridel, Michael Smith, Jen Alden2:52
3."Believe in Me"Desmond Child, Lauren Christy, Christopher Braide3:57
4."What You Need From Me" (with Vince Gill)Jon Randall, Jessi Alexander4:03
5."Crying"James House, Kyle Jacobs, Drew Copeland3:24
6."Little Superstar"James House, Beth Hart3:08
7."Flat on the Floor"Ashley Monroe, Brett James3:20
8."All I Ever Wanted"Frank J. Myers, Gary Baker, Zoran Konevic3:46
9."Stubborn"Desmond Child, Keeley Hawkes, Peter Mansson3:46
10."Love Is the Knife"J.D. Leonard, Jim Sells4:40
11."Lord Help Me"Ashley Monroe, Katrina Elam, Carrie Underwood3:33
12."Mom"Wynn Varble, Don Sampson3:54
13."You Try"Anthony Little, Greg Friia, Mary Danna, Andrew Lane4:19
14."Believe in Me" (Eurovision/radio edit)Desmond Child, Lauren Christy, Christopher Braide3:01
Total length:51:14
UK iTunes bonus track[45]
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
15."Total Eclipse of the Heart" (2013 version)Jim Steinman5:53
Total length:57:07

Chart performance
Chart (2013) Peak
position
Danish Albums (Hitlisten)[46] 28
France Downloads (SNEP)[47] 116
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[48] 59
UK Albums (OCC)[49] 52
UK Independent Albums (OCC)[50] 13
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[51] 59

Personnel

Credits adapted from Allmusic:[52]

Release history
Country Date Label Format
Austria, Germany, Switzerland March 8, 2013 ZYX Music CD, digital download
Sweden April 29, 2013 Labrador Music CD, digital download
Finland May 3, 2013 AXR Music CD
United Kingdom, Ireland May 6, 2013 Celtic Swan Recordings CD, digital download
Worldwide February 29, 2020 Bandpick Limited Digital download
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References
  1. "Rocks & Honey". ZYX Music. Retrieved 8 February 2013.
  2. "Bonnie Tyler UK charts". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
  3. B, Jon (May 8, 2013). "Album Review: Bonnie Tyler – Rocks and Honey". So So Gay. Archived from the original on May 13, 2013. Retrieved May 9, 2013.
  4. Arcadio, Bernard (1 June 2013). "Bernard Arcadio avec Sylvain Luc, André Ceccarelli et Philippe Chayeb // Passi // L'tarn-et-Saône // Bonnie Tyler". France Inter. Retrieved 1 June 2013.
  5. Repo, Juha. "UK: Holding out for a hero – it is Bonnie Tyler with Believe in me". Eurovision Song Contest Today. Retrieved 10 May 2013.
  6. "Bonnie Tyler warming up for comeback album in 2009". Today's Zaman. 1 July 2008. Archived from the original on 12 November 2013. Retrieved 5 April 2013.
  7. Champion, Edward (12 September 2008). "The Bat Segundo Show: Bonnie Tyler". The Bat Segundo Show. Retrieved 5 April 2013.
  8. "Bonnie Tyler does her bit for Kiwi kids' charity". Television New Zealand. 11 November 2010. Retrieved 14 June 2013.
  9. Good, Jo (24 April 2013). "BBC London 94.9 - Jo Good, Bonnie Tyler". BBC Radio. Retrieved 29 May 2013.
  10. Desmond Child tweet, 4:31 PM, February 22, 2012.
  11. Desmond Child tweet, 4:33 PM, February 22, 2012.
  12. Glans, Mari (July 8, 2012). "Helt greit om publikum er fulle". VG. Retrieved 10 May 2013.
  13. Noble, Roy (August 2, 2012). "Roy Noble, 02/08/2012". BBC Radio Wales. Retrieved 10 May 2013.
  14. Bence, Inkei. "Sziklák és méz - Bonnie Tyler a Quartnak". Quart. Retrieved 9 February 2013.
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  16. Celtic Swan Recordings, Rocks and Honey (Bonnie Tyler) CD booklet, p. 6.
  17. Norton, Graham. "Graham Norton: Bonnie Tyler and Alison Moyet". BBC Radio 2. Retrieved 19 March 2013.
  18. MacAuley, Fred (7 May 2013). "Bonnie Tyler: Celebrity Interview". BBC Radio. Retrieved 8 June 2013.
  19. Bonnie Tyler - Live ZDF Willkommen 2013 on YouTube. Broadcast 31 December 2012. Retrieved 12 February 2013
  20. Bonnie Tyler - ZDF Willkommen bei Carmen Nebel 16feb 2013 on YouTube. Retrieved 17 February 2013
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  28. "This is Gonna Hurt (Single CD)". ZYX Music. Retrieved 8 July 2013.
  29. Yap, Timothy. "Garth Brooks "Man Against Machine" Album Review". hallels.com. Retrieved 21 March 2015.
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  32. "Loose Ends: Alan Davies, Alice Lowe, Anthony Horowitz, Bonnie Tyler, Emma Freud, Soweto Kinch, Cody ChesnuTT". BBC Radio 4. Retrieved 20 March 2013.
  33. Lane, Daniel (19 May 2013). "Bonnie Tyler beats Denmark in Eurovision chart race". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 29 May 2013.
  34. "What next for the UK in Eurovision?". BBC News. 19 May 2013. Retrieved 30 May 2013.
  35. Dalley, Mick (23 May 2013). "Eurovision: What's next for the United Kingdom in 2014?". Yahoo! News. Retrieved 23 June 2013.
  36. Ingham, Thomas (May 13, 2013). "Album Reviews Bonnie Tyler – Rocks And Honey". Express. Retrieved May 9, 2013.
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  43. Bonnie Tyler: Rocks And Honey review. Country Rock Magazine, Dirk Neuhaus, 21 March 2013. Retrieved 5 April 2013
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  47. "Le Top de la semaine : Top Albums Téléchargés – Semaine du 8 Avril, 2013". SNEP. Retrieved 3 December 2017.
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  49. "Bonnie Tyler | Artist | Official Charts". UK Albums Chart. Retrieved 12 May 2013.
  50. "Official Independent Albums Chart Top 50". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 14 May 2013.
  51. "Swisscharts.com – Bonnie Tyler – Rocks and Honey". Hung Medien. Retrieved 7 May 2013.
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