Some great tracks on this one
amazon. Watch Video Here: http://www. amazon. com/review/R1N3526JDKRH6R My name is Jeremy Gloff. I am a musician (check me out on Amazon!) and retro music enthusiast. If you enjoyed this review make sure to check out my Amazon user profile to check out my other reviews. I am always up for making new friends and discussing the music I love!!! .
Simply fantastic
Five years after its release, I find myself motivated to write this review. I love this album - just love it.
As detailed in the excellent Destiny Rules dvd, this was originally intended to be a double album, but to keep prices down, Lindsey Buckingham agreed to pare it down (just a little - as the final product is 18 songs and over 70 minutes long) to a single disc. The deluxe edition has a couple other excellent studio songs and two well-done live versions of songs from the album.
Though there was a long gap between the last time Buckingham recorded with Nicks, Fleetwood, and Mac, the musicians were hardly idle, working on other projects. Nicks was the most prolific in her solo career, but Buckingham's Out of the Cradle made up for in quality what his solo career lacked in quantity.
Say You Will is often criticized for being a Buckingham solo album mixed together with a Stevie Nicks solo album, and it's a valid point. Much of the cd was, in fact, recorded before Nicks was brought into the fold, making it a Fleetwood Mac affair rather than a Buckingham solo album, but (despite Christine McVie not wanting to participate) the Fleetwood Mac-ness really comes through on Stevie's contributions. No matter how good her solo work has been, from the brilliant early stuff on Bella Donna to the excellent Trouble in Shangri-La, the fact remains: No one can play with her like Buckingham, Fleetwood, and Mac. They know how to add muscle to her tunes when it's needed, or to gently back her on her quieter numbers. Just listen to that guitar part on Destiny Rules. Or the beautiful music of Goodbye Baby. Really amazing stuff. And, for her part, simply adding her backing vocals to songs like Miranda and Bleed to Love Her elevate them in a way that no other singer could.
What's great about this cd is that it's Fleetwood Mac, but it's modern. It's not a rehashing of any of their albums. The only thing this album has in common with Tusk is length. It doesn't sound like their inspired 70s work, or have the gloss of their 80s albums. The members of the band weren't some oldies act trying to recapture a little of that old feeling. Instead, they made a vital, endlessly interesting album that hasn't been out of my regular rotation in the five years I've had it.
Best since Tusk ...
Lindsey Buckingham's material is strong, especially the strikingly original "Red Rover" and "Murrow" and the sappy-sweet but musically moving "Say Goodbye. The Rumours-era band's best album since Tusk. " Add "Come" and "Miranda" to the package, and I'm longing for a solo album. But Stevie Nicks does offer at least one angry number to throw furniture to: "Everybody Finds Out. " "Illume" and "Silver Girl" are quite silly, but "Thrown Down" and "Destiny Rules" are just wistful enough to fit the album. And she manages a few really interesting lyrical turns with "Goodbye Baby. " .
Stevie Nicks is as hot as ever... even though she sounds like a goat.
With a wide variety of songs that range from catchy-pop, to ethereal, hypnotic and lyrically introspective, this has been the most frequently played album in my collection for the past year (that and the newest Crosby and Nash album). This is my favorite Fleetwood Mac album. As experiemental as Tusk, but without the expectations and definitely more accessable, this album is never far from my cd player.
I wish I could have been around when Rumours (a totally killer album) was first released so that I could guage the music based on the time period in which it was released against other albums of the time. Being as I was only born in 1982, I only have my limited exposure to Fleetwood Mac's albums (which is slightly out of context being as I can't experience their albums as they impacted the time they were released). I know what my ears have an affinity to like and they love this album.
Lyndsey Buckingham is obviously the brainchild of this album. In Christine McVie's absence, he no doubt felt the need to fill the void left where her formidable organ use to reside filling out the songs with his lush, multiple tracked, melodic and sometimes spastic guitar parts. This man's ability create moods with his guitar is amazing. The production quality of this cd is clear and warm. The use of reverbs and filters, coupled with some unique and eclectic song-writing enables this album to transcend being a collection of simple-pop songs (although there are some simple pop songs as well), and adds to the various moods of the album. His songs are my favorites on this cd. Murrow Turning Over is hypnotic and the vocal overdubs and use of tinny guitar overdubs makes this weird song a stand out for me. His pop sensibilities are still intact in songs like Peacekeeper and What's The World Coming To. I always liked Lyndsey's lyrics because it always seemed like they weren't limited to love (unlike Christine McVie, who's voice was great, but lyrical content always seemed shallow and formulaic to me). Exceedingly cool guitar parts like the main riff on Miranda, the finger picking on Red Rover, Say Goodbye and the steamy Come, not to mention his underrated lead guitar that covers various styles (spanish in Smile at You, more traditional on Running Through the Garden, spastic on Murrow Turning Over, blistering on Come) makes Lyndsey one of my top three favorite guitarists. His voice is equally cool and unique. His choice of strange harmony (the ninth on "everyone's gone to the moon" in What's The World Coming To, and Red Rover are examples) adds to the flavor of this album.
Stevie is in great form here, and with Lyndsey's help, has arranged some exceptionally cool songs (she was always a formidble songwriter in her own right after all). I've always loved this gals unique voice and the chemistry of harmony potential between her and Lyndsey. The sum is definitely greater than the parts with these two. They're just better together. Although her voice has gotten deeper(probably from smoking. . . at times Lyndsey sounds higher than her), her vocal performances on this album are very effective. My favorites include her own song Smile at You, and her screechy singing on Lyndsey's song Come. I'm not a big fan of Illume' because it doesn't seem to go anywhere. . . but the 9-11 tribute is sincere and I can appreciate it lyrically. It's the only song i don't care for on the album, and it's still highly listenable.
John McVie's bass playing is quite impressive and intelligent on this album. On Smile At You, McVie's cool chromatic bass line adds tension and helps Stevie propel the song. Mick Fleetwood's use of auxillary percussion and steady non-encroaching style makes for some very groovin' music. There's a reason they named this band after this stellar rhythm section.
If you're Christine McVie fan, I can see how she might be missed and I suggest getting her new solo album In The Mean Time. Personally, I feel that Lyndsey makes up for her absense with light hearted tunes such as Steal Your Heart Away and Bleed to Love Her (where you can hear Christine's Beautiful voice adding back-up vocals). If you're not a diehard Mac fan, I wouldn't buy the bonus disc version of this album (although I love the bonus material. . . especially lyndsey's Bob Dylan cover). The live versions of the songs are quite similar to the studio, but with some variation in vocal performance. . . lyndsey's use of chest voice on bleed to love her, "somebody's got to see this through. . " is very cool. This is an impressive collection of songs considering most people thought they had dried up. Rock on Fleetwood Mac.
Ersatz
I'm a Fleetwood Mac fan from waaaayyyy back in the very early 1970s and consider Lindsey Buckingham, along with Mike Nesmith, an outstanding musician. A lot of ardent reviewers are hailing this as "a return to form" or even "one of their best" but that's simply not true unless you are referring to the post-1987 Fleetwood Mac. I would also agree that much of Stevie Nicks' solo output in the 1980s was often superb, so I've established my credentials as "a hardcore fan" - hell, I bought Mick's early solo album "The Visitor" and STILL play it occasionally. But this album, after constant playing since its release, appears to suffer from being what people "think" Fleetwood Mac should sound like. Some of the tracks are undeniably good. . . but not excellent and, while one could usually pick up a Fleetwood Mac album pre-1987 and be guaranteed that almost all of it would be good, this has a number of tracks where Nicks especially seems to be "phoning it in" and where Buckingham's contribution is far less passionate and vivid than other work. It's been, dare I say it in light of earlier Dashut/Buckingham work, over-engineered and over-produced. It sounds, for all the world, as though it's been put together by a committee of music historians rather than musicians. It sounds CLICHED. As if someone has put together every Fleetwood Mac riff and hook from earlier material and assembled a paint by numbers Fleetwood Mac album. Prior to its release, I replayed constantly over several months all of the Fleetwood Mac team and solo material I own (not a lot of post-1987 stuff in there) and this album AS A WHOLE just doesn't stand up to comparison with that material. There ARE several good tracks, but it doesn't hang together as a good album overall and I suspect that the rapturous reception is very much due to the fact the there has been a lot of poor music released as 'Fleetwood Mac" since 1987. I hope that the forthcoming solo release by Buckingham doesn't have the same problems.
You can see a complete list of all Fleetwood Mac discography, or go back to the Fleetwood Mac tabs
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