Eagle When She Flies

Dolly Parton's solo albums of the '80s and '90s are as spotty as a Dalmatian in a leopard-skin coat, as she moved from writing powerful ruminations on isolation and loss, to playing good ol' gals in the movies and dueting with hunks du jour to stay on the charts. With Eagle she manages to rid herself of the tacky production that marred many of her latter releases, only to lose ground to an age-old problem: Parton seems not to be able to weed out her worst work, witness "Dreams Do Come True," a musical romance novel in which she whispers the gooey line, "Like the morning sun, his love moved across every inch of my body." Once out of Janet Dailey mode, however, Parton shines on a host of understated songs, including "Rockin' Years," with Ricky Van. Although it would be years before she made another album equaling the brilliance of her early work, Eagle finds a spark of new promise. --Alanna Nash