Red Mosquito

wease wrote:

liebzz wrote:Tusk

This one is really a tale of two album’s interspersed with one another. Lindsay Buckingham is intent on not repeating Rumours, and instead channels his inter Talking Heads and maybe some experimental Beach Boys to create the wildest sounding songs in the Fleetwood Mac catalogue to this point. Tusk is the classic in this style towards the end of the album, and maybe most emblematic of this. What Makes You Think You’re the One sounds just like Talking Heads, though the genius of these parts of the album is that Buckingham, unlike his predecessors, sounds like he’s taking inspiration rather than simply making a neutered version of what already exists.

The other piece of this album is more in line with the Fleetwood Mac past with the songs contributed by Christine McVie and Stevie Nicks. Mc Vie comes out hot with Over & Over and Think About Me, though the rest of her contributions seem lost in the shuffle and in line with the pre-Buckingham and Nicks days. Nicks brings in two stellar songs in Sara and Sisters of the Moon - both songs build nicely and have the right amount of space here.

It’s great to hear the disjointed aspects in the start of Over & Over into The Ledge, and this one certainly holds its own with the last two albums, though one certainly gets the sense that they barely shared a room in recording this. Buckingham is clearly off in his own universe, the rest of the band be damned.

Oh man. You clearly liked this one a lot more than I did. I could barely make it thru it. Tusk (the song) has always been a favorite but almost all of the rest of it is a let down for me. I’m not against going in different directions or whatever but I just don’t feel any of Buckingham’s selections really landed. Other than the title track. (Which was what they’d play as intro music on the previous tour). I’ve never liked Sara and feel that Beautiful Child and Sisters of the Moon are much stronger. Until Brown Eyes came on, I was sorely disappointed in McVie’s offerings.

Overall, I was disappointed in the whole thing. With only 2-3 tunes out of 20 that I would ever really go back and listen to I’d call this one a dud. And I know I’m in the minority.

i got bugs wrote:Didn't CMV tell JMV you make loving fun was about her dog?

liebzz wrote:

wease wrote:

liebzz wrote:Tusk

This one is really a tale of two album’s interspersed with one another. Lindsay Buckingham is intent on not repeating Rumours, and instead channels his inter Talking Heads and maybe some experimental Beach Boys to create the wildest sounding songs in the Fleetwood Mac catalogue to this point. Tusk is the classic in this style towards the end of the album, and maybe most emblematic of this. What Makes You Think You’re the One sounds just like Talking Heads, though the genius of these parts of the album is that Buckingham, unlike his predecessors, sounds like he’s taking inspiration rather than simply making a neutered version of what already exists.

The other piece of this album is more in line with the Fleetwood Mac past with the songs contributed by Christine McVie and Stevie Nicks. Mc Vie comes out hot with Over & Over and Think About Me, though the rest of her contributions seem lost in the shuffle and in line with the pre-Buckingham and Nicks days. Nicks brings in two stellar songs in Sara and Sisters of the Moon - both songs build nicely and have the right amount of space here.

It’s great to hear the disjointed aspects in the start of Over & Over into The Ledge, and this one certainly holds its own with the last two albums, though one certainly gets the sense that they barely shared a room in recording this. Buckingham is clearly off in his own universe, the rest of the band be damned.

Oh man. You clearly liked this one a lot more than I did. I could barely make it thru it. Tusk (the song) has always been a favorite but almost all of the rest of it is a let down for me. I’m not against going in different directions or whatever but I just don’t feel any of Buckingham’s selections really landed. Other than the title track. (Which was what they’d play as intro music on the previous tour). I’ve never liked Sara and feel that Beautiful Child and Sisters of the Moon are much stronger. Until Brown Eyes came on, I was sorely disappointed in McVie’s offerings.

Overall, I was disappointed in the whole thing. With only 2-3 tunes out of 20 that I would ever really go back and listen to I’d call this one a dud. And I know I’m in the minority.

I definitely did, but I wouldn’t want place it in the pantheon of great albums some people do. I take some level of dissatisfaction with anyone calling it experimental. I mean I get the term is both loaded and on a sliding scale depending on the artist, but disjointed is the better term. I’d put it probably above the albums I have been crapping on, but maybe just below Then Play On. It has some really good moments, and I would probably take say a bit over half the album. That’s the half I meant to say holds up with their other stuff from the era.

liebzz wrote:Yes. I would say so far Rumours, Fleetwood Mac, Mystery to Me, Then Play On, Tusk…

liebzz wrote:Lindsey Buckingham - Law and Order

Apparently after the band decided Buckingham’s oddball additions to Tusk were beyond the purview of Fleetwood Mac, Buckingham decided solo albums would be a good outlet for him. There are moments here, like the hit song Trouble, or I’ll Tell You Now, where it gets interesting. Mostly these seem like half-baked song ideas I am not convinced he listened back to or had any voice editing his ideas. Bwana and That’s How We Do It in LA are examples of that, and Johnny Stew has the bones of a good basically wasted.

liebzz wrote:Stevie Nicks - Bella Donna

In the year of the solo album, Nicks finally delivers something worth a repeat listen among the bunch. Bella Donna is a fantastic soft rock album. It sure helps to have some rock star friends, and Tom Petty’s classic duet with her, Stop Dragging My Heart Around, is one of the top highlights here, with Edge of Seventeen, Kind of Woman, and Bella Donna. Leather and Lace is another hit, though it’s basically Landslide with Don Henley and different lyrics.

liebzz wrote:Mirage

After the brief hiatus we just experienced, Fleetwood Mac attempts a return to form with Mirage. To my ears, this seems like largely a mediocre affair with the whole album being carried by Stevie Nicks’s contributions of That’s Alright, Gypsy, and Straight Back. Wish You Were Here is also pretty decent and the outtro in Eyes of the World caught my attention for a moment, but I would be lying if I didn’t express the feeling that this band at this moment largely seems creatively bankrupt at least in the studio. There won’t be another album for 5 years from this, and perhaps that was wise.

liebzz wrote:Stevie Nicks - The Wild Heart

The second solo album from Stevie Nicks doesn’t have all the recognizable hits of Bella Donna, nor does it quite live up to that album, but it’s pretty good in its own right. The title track, Gate and Garden, and Enchanted establish Nicks as an 80s pop rock force to reckon with, Stand Back is the hit, I Will Run to You a wonderful duet with Tom Petty (and the Heartbreakers), Nightbird, Sable on Blond all solid. Stevie seems to be the one who’s got the 80s locked down. The jury’s definitely out on the others as we approach a string of solo albums.

liebzz wrote:Stevie Nicks - Rock a Little

I found this one to be a much more difficult listen than wease. Not that he was writing poems about the genius of this thing, but I saw even less in it maybe. Yes, Nicks is trying to rock a little more, but my sense is that she’s fully swept into the 80s pop universe, her very real voice trapped in a bevy of synthetic sounds everywhere. There’s potential in I Can’t Wait, Imperial Hotel, Some Become Strangers, Talk to Me, and No Spoken Word, but all I walk away with is that synthetic Rocky III or IV sounding soundtrack. A sad development for a great voice.