Stevie Nicks breaks through as a solo artist on "Bella Donna": The 1981 album features exceptional vocal performances and four hits, including "Edge Of Seventeen" and "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around". Experience the record's spontaneous feel, unadulterated emotion and organic arrangements in transparent sound on Mobile Fidelity's numbered hybrid SACD. Stevie Nicks had a lot to prove when she first went solo and created Bella Donna. Despite her superstar success with Fleetwood Mac, the singer was often in the background compared to the other band members - and struggled to get her songs onto an album due to the concept of the group. With Nicks' status as an independent artist, this changed with the timeless Bella Donna. Mobile Fidelity's numbered hybrid SACD, taken from the original analog master tapes and housed in a mini-LP-style gatefold package, performs with superb transparency, dynamics and detail. It benefits from exceptional clarity, openness and separation and captures the action in the studio with tremendous realism and presence. Working with sympathetic producer Jimmy Iovine and rock'n'roll icon Tom Petty, Nicks took control of the creative process for the first time in her career. She allowed the material to evolve spontaneously - a trait that is well understood through the natural, balanced sound and unadulterated emotionality. Nicks' organic methods were due to both her desire to collaborate with the studio musicians and necessity. Because the musicians who worked on the record had busy schedules, no one had the time to do take after take in pursuit of perfectionist or technical goals. The expansive, sonically rich soundscapes you hear - instrumentation that feels live, vocals that soar yet sound wholly innate, the synergy between the musicians that places them in a room together - remain as integral to Bella Donna as the personalized songs. About those songs. Nicks recorded 16 tracks, selecting material she'd written a decade earlier. Though she described "Bella Donna" as "kind of a chronology of [her] life," she was most proud of the songs' ability to address themes that everyone can relate to. Her intuition proved prophetic. Audiences embraced her solo debut en masse, sending the album to No. 1 and selling more than four million copies - numbers that make "Bella Donna" more successful in the U.S. than any other Fleetwood Mac work except Rumours. The enthusiastic commercial and critical reception was well deserved. From a musical point of view, the playing on "Bella Donna" alone deserves the highest praise. The makeshift band consists largely of guitarist Waddy Watchel, drummer Russ Kunkel, organist Benmont Tench, bassist Bob Glaub, percussionist Bobbye Hall and guitarist Davey Johnstone, all of whom have stellar resumes and approach their parts with the utmost professionalism, restraint and chemistry. Nicks also enlisted E Street Band pianist Roy Bittan for five songs and began a long collaboration with backing vocalists Sharon Celani and Lori Perry. For the first single, "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around", Nicks performed a duet with her writer Tom Petty and almost all of the Heartbreakers, with legendary bassist Donald "Duck" Dunn filling in for Ron Blair. The infectious, sassy tune reached #3 on the Billboard charts and captures the independent spirit Nicks displays throughout the album. She, Petty and the Heartbreakers struck similar sonic gold on the quivering "Outside the Rain," reflecting toughness, sinew and determination. On the follow-up single, "Leather And Lace," Nicks turns to another famous luminary in the form of Eagles singer, drummer and former lover, Don Henley. The acoustic ballad full of disparate imagery climbed to #6 and is characterized by its lack of frills. Thoughtful, conversational and pure, the song is bursting with sincere emotion and honesty. When Nicks sings, "I am stronger than you know", it's also the mantra for "Bella Donna". In fact, Nicks' gritty and glamorous vocals on this set are among the best performances of her career. She invests in every word, nailing her trademark rasp and exploring a wide range with seeming ease. Nicks weaves magical spells and haunting breath amid ghostly webs of notes on "Kind of Woman"; she conveys great caution, thoughtfulness and consistency on the slow-building title track; and she throws herself with abandon into "After the Glitter Fades," a top-40 lament framed by piano motifs, pedal steel fills and country accents. As for the album's most important moment, the infectious favorite song that Rolling Stone ranked #217 among the greatest songs of all time? Nicks rarely finds air on "Edge of Seventeen," as the helicopter-chop riffs and chugging rhythms correspond with her ascending and descending vocal flights, call-and-response harmonies and throaty timbre. She is the epitome of cool and always remains composed, addressing grief in an inimitable way that sounds more relevant today than it did four decades ago. Long may the white dove soar.