Karla Bonoff
seems to have had some trouble coming up with material for her second album, which may explain why it took two years (a long time in the '70s) and contained covers of
"When You Walk in the Room"
and
"The Water Is Wide,"
and also why the originals weren't as uniformly excellent as those on her first album. True, leadoff track
"Trouble Again"
was a gem (as
Linda Ronstadt
proved when she recorded it on her
Cry Like a Rainstorm -- Howl Like the Wind
album in 1989). As usual, half of L.A. was playing and singing on the record, which meant that you got people like
Don Henley
James Taylor
for your money. But
Restless Nights
did not represent the leap that would have been required to vault
Bonoff
into the ranks of her star friends (it didn't have a big hit single, either), and so it caused a rethinking of career direction reflected on her third album. ~ William Ruhlmann