887 Fleetwood Mac - Tusk (1979)

 887 Fleetwood Mac - Tusk (1979)

Studio Album - Art Rock



About the Act:

Fleetwood Mac are an American/English Art Rock band that existed from 1967 and still have some sort of vague existence.

They started out as a blues band, with Peter Green, Mick Fleetwood, Jeremy Spencer and John McVie. The band name was formed from Mick Fleetwood and John McVie's names. In 1970 their session keyboard player Christine Perfect married John McVie to become Christine McVie, and officially joined the band. After some guitarist turnover, they persuaded Lindsey Buckingham to join in 1974. He agreed as long as his musical and romantic partner Stevie Nicks could also join.

Hence from 1975, for a while, they were the "classic" line-up of McVie, McVie, Buckingham, Nicks and Mick Fleetwood. Initially this was two couples and Mick Fleetwood, but during the recording of their smash hit album Rumours in 1977, both of the couples broke up. They managed to hold together as a band for 3 more albums before they started to fall apart. There have been multiple line-ups and reunions since.

They are one of the best-selling bands of all time worldwide, and Rumours was one of the best-selling albums of all time. 


About the Album:

This album was the one following after their smash hit Rumours. It was considered a flop because it only sold 4 million copies. At the time it was the most expensive album in the world made, with a price tag of 1 million dollars. It was a period when Lindsay Buckingham had got quite obsessive, and was behaving quite strangely at the time. Three tracks were just his work. It is a double album.


My History with this Album:

I have had a copy for a while but have hardly listened to it.


Review:

So, Fleetwood Mac are a band that escaped from me somewhat. It wasn't until I realised that I quite liked quite a few of their songs that I got hold of a set of their albums. I have not actually listened to them that much though.

This is quite an odd album in some ways. They had just had a smash hit with Rumours which was pretty mainstream. Apparently, Lindsay Buckingham was determined that this would be more "post-punk" and so let his weird out. This is sporadically successful, like in the track "Tusk" which has a great sound. Three of the tracks were recorded solely by Lindsay, and some of the others by overdubbing on demos he made. Apparently some of the drums were made by him hitting a Kleenex box, which I can believe, as those tracks just by him sound raw and unpolished, but especially in the drums.

In-between the weirdness is more classic Fleetwood Mac fare. They have this versatility of three people who can take lead vocals, and the girls sound good together. Some of these tracks sound archetypically Fleetwood Mac, and remind me of other, better-known tracks.

The musicality is good, the song writing is patchy, the arrangements are mixed and it feels like there was not enough solidarity of vision. If feels scattered and disjointed. On the whole, I feel like it is kind of OK, but not a great album. It even finishes in a way that feels like a comma, like the sentence is not actually....


6.5/10


Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/1d075yQcykHjerQ2BN0ABn

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-bkXQhNbE3qe-l3q7RUaMDjEjQ4tQphg

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tusk_(album)


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