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Fleetwood MacAlbums ReviewedFleetwood Mac (1975)Rumours (1977) Tusk (1979) Mirage (1982) Go Insane (1984) Tango in the Night (1987) Out Of The Cradle (1992) The Dance (1997) Fleetwood Mac(1975)I am aware that Fleetwood Mac led a a respectable previous life as a blues band, but I'm not really interested in blues so the group's 1975 eponymous album is where this page starts. While the subsequent Rumours is the group's peak, Fleetwood Mac is a remarkably accomplished debut. All three songwriters, keyboardist Christine McVie, guitarist Lindsey Buckingham and tambourinist Stevie Nicks, are close to their peaks, while the group is firmly entrenched into its classic sound with intricate production and smooth harmonies. The low point of the album is McVie's single by numbers 'Say You Love Me'. Otherwise Fleetwood Mac is virtually impeccable; McVie delivers the sweet pop of 'Warm Ways' and 'Over My Head', Nicks contributes the enigmatic 'Rhiannon' (based on Welsh mythology) and the gentle acoustic 'Landslide', while Buckingham bookends the album with the upbeat pop of 'Monday Morning' and the darker 'I'm So Afraid'. While it is justifiable to dismiss Fleetwood Mac as mere pop music, it is so proficient that it demands respect. Stevie Nicks brings an unpredictable myticism to the group, Buckingham contributes his studio perfectionism and sometimes fiery guitar playing, while McVie is a talented melody writer. These individual talents set Fleetwood Mac apart from an average pop band; when they add genuine emotion in their next album, they are the equal of any more critically favoured group. 
Feedback: from Lee Rumours(1977)There's a temptation to dismiss Rumours as the opiate of the masses, as it spent six months on the top of the U.S. charts, and is one of the highest selling albums of all time. 'Don't Stop' also served as Bill Clinton's campaign song in the 1992 elections. Rumours is catchy and highly produced, but more importantly is filled with passion. Rumours was recorded at a time of emotional turmoil for Fleetwood Mac; Buckingham and Nicks split up, the McVies divorced, Fleetwood divorced his wife and had an affair with Nicks, and Christine McVie had an affair with the lighting director. All three songwriters channelled their feeling into their songs, while the group wrote 'The Chain' as an exercise in emotional rehabilitation. As is often the case, pain generated tremendous artistic results. Nicks arguably emerges from Rumours as the nicest songwriter; only 'Gold Dust Woman' has a trace of nastiness, while 'Dreams' and 'I Don't Want To Know' are non confrontational. Lindsey Buckingham's powerful 'Go Your Own Way' seethes with pain and aggression, while John McVie's self esteem must have plummeted recording 'You Make Loving Fun', his former wife's tribute to her new lover. Apart from a couple of tracks, 'I Don't Want To Know' and 'Oh Daddy', which are a touch pedestrian musically, Rumours is virtually beyond criticism. Buckingham contributes the wonderful opener 'Second Hand News', with the memorable line "just lay me down in the tall grass and let me do my stuff," and 'Go Your Own Way', the very epitome of classic rock. McVie has two lovely ballads ('Songbird' became the title track of an Eva Cassidy album), while Nicks' 'Gold Dust Woman' is a disturbingly spooky closer. The best part of Rumours is the little guitar lick that Buckingham plays in 'You Make Loving Fun', just before McVie sings "and I don't need to tell you you're the only one." A measure of just how strong this album is is that the group were able to omit the classic Stevie Nicks song 'Silver Springs' without ill effect, although it's restored to the album's 2004 remaster.
Tusk(1979)After two very tight and polished albums, the sprawling Tusk finds the three Fleetwood Mac songwriters pulling in different directions. Therefore, I will review Tusk as a set of three different EPs. i) Stevie Nicks While Nicks' songs are long and a trifle monotonous, they are enhanced immeasurably by the intimate story-telling of her lyrics. 'Sara' is possibly the best record Fleetwood Mac ever released, although it is regrettably edited on the CD release. I also enjoy the mellow and meandering 'Storms' and 'Beautiful Child', while 'Sisters of the Moon' is Tusk's best rocker.
 ii) Lindsey Buckingham Buckingham dominates Tusk, contributing nine out of the twenty songs. Stylistically he's all over the place, often making a special effort to be abrasive, presumably to gain critical appreciation. Most of the new wave songs are too short to outstay their welcome while 'That's All For Everyone' and 'Walk A Thin Line' are lovely pop songs reminiscient of The Beach Boys. The title track blends the U.S.C. Trojan Marching Band with Fleetwood Mac, resulting in an entertaining mess.
iii) Christine McVie While Nicks is indulging in song therapy and Buckingham is indulging in experimentalism, McVie is content to keep churning out product. She produces a couple of top-drawer pop songs- 'Never Make me Cry' is particularly lovely- but in general her material is bland. 'Never Forget' is ironically a very forgettable album closer.
While Tusk doesn't have the mass appeal of Fleetwood Mac and Rumours, dedicated fans of Fleetwood Mac will enjoy Tusk immensely as it allows a closer insight into the three songwriters, particularly Nicks. It's also arguably better than my scientific rating system indicates, spinning unpredictably between the three songwriters.
Feedback: Rochelle writes Mirage(1982)After the experimentalism of 1979's Tusk, Mirage reverts to the safer conventional territory. Except Lindsey Buckingham who continues the disonnant approach of Tusk ('Empire State') or indulges in fifties throwbacks like 'Oh Diane'. His compositions don't fit alongside McVie and Nicks' more conventional pop songs, despite the occasional transcendent moment of beauty such as the guitar intro to 'Eyes of the World' or the harmonies of 'Book of Love'. While Buckingham is out of step, Nicks and McVie continue to march on. Nicks' wonderful spotlight 'Gypsy', about a friend who died from cancer ("the gypsy that remains faces freedom with a little fear"), is enhanced by Buckingham's acoustic picking at the end. While McVie is my least favourite of the Fleetwood Mac writers, she is in splendid form on Mirage. I don't see anything particularly exciting about the single 'Love in Store', but 'Only Over You', 'Hold Me' and 'Wish You Were Here' are all beautiful. Overall Mirage dips below the writing standard of Fleetwood Mac and Rumours, and isn't as interesting as Tusk. But it is still a solid outing and has aged reasonably gracefully, especially compared to its 1987 follow up Tango in the Night.
Lindsey Buckingham: Go Insane(1984)Obviously, Buckingham was going to tire of the commercial expectations of Fleetwood Mac at some point, not to mention having to constantly work with his former partner, and he launched his solo career with a pair of solo albums, released on either side of Mirage.While you'd expect that Buckingham's solo work would be more experimental than Fleetwood Mac's work, Go Insane is actually more accessible than Buckingham's work on Tusk and Mirage, but also different in character than Fleetwood Mac's recent albums. The slick seventies L.A. pop sound is subsumed by two quite distinct influences; firstly, Buckingham's stylistic debt to Brian Wilson has never been more evident than it is here, with rich harmonies and less guitar-oriented arrangements, and secondly, he's much more reliant on eighties technology here than on Fleetwood Mac's albums, with large amounts of synthesisers and drum machines and with Buckingham playing nearly the entire record himself. The result is obviously dated, but it's also creative - it's urgent and vital, with a strong undercurrent of lust through most of the songs, while Buckingham still uses his guitar wisely to flesh out the record with a stinging guitar solo or aggressive riff to liven things up further if necessary. For someone who occasionally seems to struggle with song writing and who even resorts to recycling ideas, the songs Buckingham writes here are easily different from anything else in his catalogue. The closer 'D.W. Suite', dedicated to Dennis Wilson, who lived with Christine McVie for a couple of years before his death, is based entirely on three traditional British folk melodies, while many of the other songs are based around their synthesiser parts, either bouncy ('I Want You') or atmospheric (the two part 'Play In The Rain'). If the stacked harmonies of 'I Want You' and 'I Must Go' are persuasive, perhaps most startling of all is 'Loving Cup', with its explosive lyrics; "You are the object of my desire/Open your mouth and put out the fire." There are a couple of songs that don't really go anywhere, but Go Insane is still the equal of any Fleetwood Mac album that isn't Rumours; it's an overlooked near-classic, much more interesting than either of Fleetwood Mac's albums during the eighties.
Tango in the Night(1987)Because Tango in the Night was recorded in 1987 Fleetwood Mac felt obliged to introduce synthesisers to their sound, which don't protrude too objectionally. More problematic are the big '80s drum sounds, and Tango in the Night is more dated than any other Lindsey-era Fleetwood Mac album. Even more dated are the haircuts in the inside cover; Stevie has a frizzy perm while Lindsey sports an awful flat top. Like Tusk and Mirage, one songwriter on Tango in the Night is letting the team down. This time it is Stevie Nicks who fails to hold her corner of the triangle up. She didn't write most of her only memorable song here, 'Seven Wonders', while her other two contributions are rambling and incoherent. Nicks' songwriting lapses on Tango in the Night are problematic because she is the group's most idiosyncratic writer and vocalist, and her virtual absence leaves Fleetwood Mac vulnerable to pop blandless. Meanwhile, Buckingham and McVie are in reasonable songwriting form. Buckingham's 'Caroline' and 'Family Man' suffer from shoddy lyrics ('Caroline' rhymes"cagey" and "stagey") but win by being emotive and catchy. His title track and 'Big Love' are much better, although I could do without the sexual noises at the conclusion of 'Big Love'. McVie writes the nice singles 'Little Lies' and 'Everywhere', as well as the lovely 'Mystified'. Tango in the Night was the last Fleetwood Mac studio album to feature production kingpin Lindsey Buckingham, although he returns for 1997's live album The Dance. If you don't mind eighties production and fashion values, you'll probably enjoy Tango in the Night as much as the other records in Fleetwood Mac's catalogue; there's still plenty of strong material here.
Lindsey Buckingham: Out Of The Cradle(1992)Buckingham is often unfairly overlooked (for instance, my friend thinks that Fleetwood Mac would be improved if Nicks sang all the lead vocals); he is a proficient guitarist and talented producer, with occasional experimental tendencies who would enjoy far more credibility if his work wasn't within the soft-rock context of Fleetwood Mac. Buckingham released two solo albums in the early eighties; apparently they're more experimental and less song based than Out Of The Cradle. Outside the occasional tour-de-force like 'Go Your Own Way', however, songwriting has never been a particular strength for Buckingham. He's obviously making a huge effort on Out Of The Cradle, but some of the songs seem like they've been written before; the excellent 'Countdown' always feels like it's going to break into 'La Bamba', while 'Doing What I Can' is little more than a rerun of Tango in the Night's 'Big Love'. Ultimately though, the songs are little more than hooks for Buckingham to hang his excellent vocal, guitar and production skills on, and they're more than robust enough to hold the weight. Out Of The Cradle is virtually a true solo album; Joni Mitchell's ex-husband Larry Klein guests on bass for a few tracks, while Suzanne Vega's ex-husband Mitchell Froom contributes an organ part, but Buckingham handles ninety five percent of the instrumental parts himself. His drum and bass tracks are relatively low key so that most of the attention is focused on his guitar parts, which are as enchanting as ever. The production is also first class; while Tusk, Mirage and Tango In The Night all seem tied to their respective eras to some degree, Out Of The Cradle is lush and pretty like Rumours. Buckingham displays his Brian Wilson influence in glorious pop songs like 'Soul Drifter', 'Say We'll Meet Again' and 'Surrender The Rain', laced with gorgeous vocal harmonies, while 'All My Sorrows' and 'Street Of Dreams' are subdued and beautiful. 'This Is The Time' may be a little awkward, but the chorus simply rocks. While it doesn't pack the emotional clout of Rumours, it's difficult to imagine Buckingham coming up with a better solo album than Out Of The Cradle, and it is highly recommended to any Fleetwood Mac fan.
The Dance(1997)During The Dance, Buckingham explains to the audience that the reformation of Fleetwood Mac was an organic process that begun when he asked Fleetwood to drum on his upcoming solo album (which never appeared, instead evolving into a full Fleetwood Mac record Say You Will). I first became interested in Fleetwood Mac after I caught highlights from this concert on television, and purchased this album. The Dance is a surprisingly effective showcase for the five members of Fleetwood Mac, with an excellent song selection which focuses on the first two albums and reasonably strong performances. The only songs that sound noticably inferior to their studio counterparts are Nicks' 'Rhiannon' and 'Dreams', which lack some of their original mystical qualities, while 'You Make Loving Fun' and 'Go Your Own Way' lack bite, largely because Buckingham can only play one guitar at once. On the other hand 'Tusk', performed with the U.S.C. Marching Band, actually sounds punchy and focused here, while 'Big Love' sounds far better as a solo Buckingham acoustic performance. 'Say You Love Me' is gracefully countrified, a memorable scene on the film version where all five members are at the front of the stage, with John McVie singing backing vocals for the first time in his career. The group also throw in some lesser-known tracks; 'Landslide' and an extended version of 'I'm So Afraid' are album tracks from Fleetwood Mac, while Nicks' stunning Rumours outtake 'Silver Springs' appears on an album first time. It's a lovely song, even if Nicks contradicts herself within the chorus: "I know I could have loved you, but you would not let me" is followed by "You'll never get away from the sound of the woman that loves you." The set is predictably augmented with four new songs; McVie's 'Temporary One' is reasonably inconsequential, while Nicks' 'Sweet Girl' mixes lyrical sentiments and chord sequences that both existed long before she did. Buckingham's sweet 'Bleed To Love Her' is easily the highlight, even though the bridge is recycled from Out Of The Cradle, while 'My Little Demon' is interesting despite the sound effects and Buckingham's hollow secular pep talk ("Fight for the positive choice"). The Dance is both graceful and passionate enough to deserve more than the "Rumours Reheated" label that an insolent local reviewer gave it, while it contains enough new songs and significant reworkings to make it a necessary purchase for fans.
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Written 2001-2007, Graham Fyfe
