Wild Child (Valerie Carter album)

The Globe and Mail wrote that Carter "has a very nice voice and, in fact, her singing abilities probably outweigh her songwriting ones," but concluded that "her versatile voice is being over-processed into pop slickness too much of the time." Smash Hits called Wild Child "an accomplished American album of gentle, shuffling songs done Fleetwood Mac style. It's all a bit too effortless to be actually wild, but this album has a wistful, haunting beauty." Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic writes that Wild Child "never transcends its time, except for the most hardcore soft-rock collectors." Joe Marchese of The Second Disc writes of Wild Child, "The versatile singer-songwriter had a hand in five of its nine songs compared to just three on the previous LP, making Wild Child arguably a more personal album despite the sleek production. The lyrics to the ironically upbeat opening track, "Crazy," may have cut too close to the bone for an artist who battled her share of personal demons over the years: "I'm always gonna be this way/Reckless and crazy/That's probably true…" An authenticity, not to mention confidence, surges though the album." ==Track listing==

Track information verified from the LP's liner notes and Sessiondays. ==Personnel==

Musicians • Valerie Carter – lead vocals • James Newton Howard – piano, keyboards (all tracks) • Steve Porcaro – synthesizers (1, 2) • Mike Utley – organ (8) • Steve Lukather – guitar (1, 2, 4–6, 8–10), guitar solo (5) • Ray Parker Jr. – guitar solo (2) • Jay Graydon – guitar (3, 7) • Fred Tackett – acoustic guitar (2, 4, 10), guitar (3) • Davey Johnstone – guitar (7) • David Hungate – bass guitar (1, 3, 5, 7, 10) • Chuck Rainey – bass guitar (2, 4, 8) • Verdine White – bass guitar (6, 9) • Jeff Porcaro – drums (all tracks) • Victor Feldman – percussion (1, 3), piano (8, 10), percussion (10) • Lenny Castro – percussion (7, 8) • Don Myrick – saxophone (4, 9) • Tom Saviano – saxophone (6) • Jim Horn – saxophone (9) • Steve Madaio – trumpet (9) • Chuck Findley – trumpet (9) • Vini Poncia – background vocals (3) • Wendy Haas – background vocals (3) • David Lasley – background vocals (4, 7, 9) Technical • Producer, string arrangements – James Newton Howard • String arrangements, conductor – Jimmy Haskell • Horn arrangements – Thomas Washington • Concertmaster – Jimmy Getzoff, Sid Sharp • Design – Nancy Donald, Tony Lane • Engineer – Tom Knox • Assistant engineers – Bob Schaper, Dana Latham, Howard Steele, Jim Isaacson, Kevin Meyers, Rick Ruggiere, Ron Hitchcock • Mastered by Doug Sax, Mike Reese • Photography – Sam Emerson • Cover photography – Bob Seidemann • Production manager – Robin Rinehart • Remix engineer – Bill Schnee Personnel information retrieved from Discogs, Session Days and AllMusic. ==References==