The SWS Reviews Thread
 

I guess the reviews of the album are going to start coming in any day now so we should have a thread for them all together.

Here's a short on from Classic Rock:

http://www.classicrockmagazine.com/n...s-round-up-57/

Encouraging stuff!

http://www.calgarysun.com/2011/08/25...top-cd-reviews

This one is such a great description of why I love Lindsey Buckingham. Thanks for posting.

^That is a glorious review.

I laughed at the Calgary Sun singling out Lindsey's "high whispery vocal." Ummm, I'd rather he not become known for that.
Michele

How about, "lush sweeping overtone"? ;)


Thanks for these reviews. They've made me even more excited. I just wish Linds would care a little about singles and the success of the album. I mean, it's great he just wants it to be out there, but as a major fan, I want it to succeed with some promotion.

second that - so nice to read that review, and adding to anticipation! :)

http://somethingelsereviews.com/2011...s-we-sow-2011/

Rock music, uncategorized — August 29, 2011 9:39 am
Lindsey Buckingham – Seeds We Sow (2011)
Posted by Nick DeRiso

You keep waiting for Lindsey Buckingham, the old rebel, to soften into middle-aged acceptance, to conform. This isn’t that record. Credit Buckingham for never trading true emotion for sentiment. Seeds We Sow is as hard eyed as it is musically ambitious — beginning with its abruptly confessional album-opening title track.

“In Our Own Time” follows, as Buckingham reminisces about a lost love amidst an almost mathematical cascade. “This time I think she’s gone for good,” Buckingham says, then adds: “But I never really know.” Then all of the implications, all of those hurt feelings, all of the still-burning confusion, are echoed in his frenetic, contradictory chording. It’s a triumphal marrying of words and music, and not the last one.

“Illumination,” with a smack-you-around rhythm and smart lyricism, becomes the first echo of his familiar Fleetwood Mac-era mixture of angular pop musicality and the angry admonition. That makes the initially prosaic, old-timey texture of “That’s The Way Love Goes” all the more devastatingly effective. Just when Buckingham has lulled you into a sense of safe melancholy, however, he rips off a series of brick-loosening riffs. Love can be like that too, all soft and safe, then heart-splashingly, completely over.

Buckingham, awake in the middle of the night chasing regrets, drags us across a desolate dreamscape on the echo-laden, pulsing “Stars Are Crazy.” It’s a song of hollow majesty. Then “When She Comes Down” bursts out, powered by a sky-high multi-tracked vocal that runs completely counter to its crepuscule subject matter. Back in their prime, this track probably would have been swiped for a new Fleetwood Mac album. Just like that, though, Buckingham begins banjoing through “Rock Away Blind,” a staggering lament. Those days, he seems to be saying, are gone.

And maybe that’s a good thing. After all, his old band might have struggled with the complexity of “One Take” – a tune that seems to set up as a moment of repentance, with somebody answering for whatever missteps happened along the way. Not in Buckingham’s hands. Looping a half dozen singing Lindseys over a torrent of strangely metallic blues licks, he doesn’t sound sorry — not at all — on this brutally frank rocker.

So, yeah, Seeds We Sow, due on Sept. 6, certainly has its dark moments, culminating with “She Smiled Sweetly.” Sung in an after-midnight whisper, the track doesn’t even try to sort out the mysteries of life, much less of women. Yet, there is a lasting transformative quality to tracks like “Gone Too Far,” this clanking piece of pop confection; and “End of Time,” a surprisingly upbeat moment of ambivalence that again belies its title. Taken together, they end up imbuing this project with a pleasing thematic rhythm, as Buckingham ultimately finds purchase somewhere between striving for community and feeling his oats.

Makes sense. Buckingham, for all of the things he rejects, for all of the things that piss him off and make him play the guitar in a bloody-fingered rage, was never about nothingness. Buckingham’s music, in a move that belied his era, didn’t settle for cheap thrills, quick answers — or something so obvious and easy as nihilism.

And, lucky for us, it still doesn’t.


-------------


I really liked that review! :thumbsup: They've all been good so far!

^That's a spectacular review, which captures Lindsey's explosiveness.

And that's what so great about Lindsey's music. Sometimes, his lyrics have to be bare and simple, because he marries them to complex sound which translate them for us. When you are playing with such emotion, too many words can only distract from it. For instance, the way he plays Go Insane, you don't really want him to say more than "I scream your name. She's a lot like you." The feeling is there. It's primal and instinctive. You don't need more words to bring it out and right into our hearts.

This reviewer has captured the way Lindsey's guitar finishes his sentences.

Hurt is only anger and love blended. Anger is only love and hurt. This reviewer hears Lindsey breaking down those components and stringing them back together.

Michele

I love that many of these reviewers seem to "get" what Lindsey is about. He seems to be reaching into that part in a lot of people- where passion, complexity, emotion, beauty and a little of the anal-retentive 'quirk' seems to be stored. He's got all of it at once.

Ha!
 

I think it's hilarious how when we (the general public, not we on this board) read reviews from critics who love what we love, we are happy with them and say they know what they are talking about. Then, when they hate what we love, it's "Stupid critics, they don't know what the h*ll they are talking about!"

:lol: It's just funny to me, dat's all.

GREAT reviews, but I think most music critics love LB. It's the general public that's always going "WTH is this?" Heh.

I tend to agree with the reviewers more often than not anyway. But the ones who I disagree with are clearly wrong and don't know what they're talking about. ;):lol:

I like that a lot. :nod:

Boston Globe review
 

By Steve Morse
Globe Correspondent / September 5, 2011

Whenever Lindsey Buckingham is apart from Fleetwood Mac, you worry that he’s going to drift into the ether. Buckingham needs the tension of Fleetwood Mac to bring out his best work. He can get too quirkily self-indulgent on his own, but this new solo album, “Seeds We Sow,’’ has moments of considerable beauty. His fingerpicked acoustic guitar once again shines, leading the way on the hypnotic title track and on such layered gems as the Nick Drake-influenced “Stars Are Crazy’’ and the edgy “End of Time.’’ His vocals throughout are often processed in a heavily reverbed manner. A few songs don’t work - “In Our Own Time’’ has some guitar fills resembling a buzzing gnat - but Buckingham’s sheer gift for melody wins out. The ballad “When She Comes Down’’ is a stately coup, while “One Take’’ is a political insight into this country’s dwindling middle class. Buckingham has made a hobbyist record to please himself, and he ends with a lovely, folk-flavored remake of the Rolling Stones’ “She Smiled Sweetly.’’ It’s almost a lullaby in his hands. (Out tomorrow)

Ha, I like this description. But I think I like the buzzing gnat quality. You know how they go away and you think/hope that you've gotten rid of them, but then you return? That's how the song is. The verses are relatively calm and then this angry gnat comes in, "it wouldn't make any difference. We crossed the line" and the gnat kind of shakes things up and changes the mood. Lindsey's voice and his guitar, pairing like two people, coming back to make demands.

Michele

L.A. Times review
 

Album review: Lindsey Buckingham's 'Seeds We Sow'


September 5, 2011 | 4:22pm

It’s been a good year for Fleetwood Mac, even without the actual existence of Fleetwood Mac, which last toured in 2009 and hasn’t released a new studio album since 2003’s "Say You Will." In May, the hit Fox series "Glee" devoted an episode to the band’s 1977 record "Rumours," the same day that singer Stevie Nicks released "In Your Dreams," her best-received solo disc in decades. And echoes of the group’s lustrous West Coast pop have cropped up recently on records by buzzy young acts like the Belle Brigade and Fleet Foxes. No wonder, then, that Lindsey Buckingham told Rolling Stone last week that Fleetwood Mac will likely return in 2012.

Until then, here’s Buckingham’s latest solo album, his third in five years and the first one he’s releasing himself following a lengthy stint with Warner Bros. Like all of the singer-guitarist’s own work, "Seeds We Sow" is thornier than Buckingham’s material for Fleetwood Mac, with an emphasis on his percussive, sometimes-discordant acoustic guitar playing and on his intimately recorded vocals, which in a stripped-down rendition of the Rolling Stones’ "She Smiled Sweetly" push intriguingly at whatever border separates passionate from creepy. (Buckingham’s originals reflect his usual blend of midlife introspection and limousine-liberal hand-wringing.)

Several cuts, though, suggest that the man who wrote "Second Hand News" and "Go Your Own Way" has indeed been thinking big of late: In "That’s the Way That Love Goes" he layers an insistent vocal melody over a zippy fuzz-pop groove, while "Gone Too Far" has the lush light-rock feel of Fleetwood Mac’s radio-bait late-’80s phase. Stand by to see what these "Seeds" grow.

--Mikael Wood

Lindsey Buckingham

"Seeds We Sow"



Three stars (out of four)

For me, SSS runs for the border and crosses the dividing line into creepy.

As for the limosine liberal hand-wringing, ok I'll give him the "limosine liberal" but I wouldn't call One Take hand-wringing.

Michele

USA Today
 

http://www.usatoday.com/life/music/r...Top+Stories%29

Lindsey Buckingham, Seeds We Sow
* * * of 4 POP
Buckingham has, happily, been recording at a steadier pace in recent years. Seeds is his third solo album since 2006 and, like its predecessors, is both intricate and supremely listenable. The Fleetwood Mac guitarist remains one of the most lyrical musicians around, fashioning arrangements that veer from gentle beauty to edgy effervescence. His melodies have a similar pungency. — Elysa Gardner
>>Download:One Take, End of Time

disjointed review
 

this person seem to be just throwing names of the songs out there in hope that some of them actually do sound like each other, but no luck - almost none of the song comparison/similarities listed are really there... [either that or i really can't hear]:


http://blogcritics.org/music/article...gham-seeds-we/

Music Review: Lindsey Buckingham - Seeds We Sow
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Author: Kit O'Toole — Published: Sep 05, 2011 at 6:24 pm 1 comment

BC Music Premium

Since he surfaced into the public consciousness through his work with Fleetwood Mac, Lindsey Buckingham has established himself as a one-of-a-kind talent. His offbeat arrangements, quirky but deeply personal lyrics, and superior guitar playing exemplify an artist who enjoys taking chances. From his ambitious Fleetwood Mac projects like Tusk to his eclectic solo career, Buckingham continues forging his own path. His sixth solo album, Seeds We Sow, furthers this journey with an intimate sound and superior musicianship.

For the first time, Buckingham is releasing the album on his own label, and took full reins on producing, mixing, and performing. These changes enhance the deeply intimate listening experience—the quiet, subtle arrangements place Buckingham's multidimensional voice and intricate guitar picking up front. Unlike the lush production of his 1981 hit "Trouble" or the almost robotic feel of 1984's "Go Insane," Buckingham performs delicate ballads like the title track, his hammering of the guitar strings enhancing the pain expressed in the lyrics:

Soldiers of fortune they do conceal
Everything they’re afraid to show
Everything they once gave now they just steal
Oh the seeds we sow

"Stars Are Crazy," another ballad, sounds strangely hypnotic with Buckingham's dizzyingly fast guitar plucking and his soaring voice. Similarly, "When She Comes Down" is propelled by a gentle rhythm, his multi-tracked vocals floating ethereally over the gentle acoustic guitar.

That pounding, rhythmic sound continues on "In Our Own Time," with Buckingham expressing frustration with a glimmer of hope: "It wouldn’t make any difference we crossed that line/From the fire we will rise again in our own time."

While he performs dark, stripped-down material on Seeds We Sow, fans of Buckingham's more mainstream work will find much to like. "Illumination" is slightly reminiscent of "Trouble" in its tight harmonies and pop hooks and memorable chords, while the uptempo "That's the Way That Love Goes" sounds like an edgier track off Rumors. Here, Buckingham demonstrates the range of his voice's inflections—he can sound soft and tender one moment, then radiate anger in another. "I'd like to take your pain away," he croons in the beginning, leading to him chanting "In the dungeon couldn’t believe it no/Took a look and then saw your secret" in the chorus. Fleetwood Mac fans will particularly appreciate "Rock Away Blind," which sounds like an update of "Second Hand News" minus the strong drums. One can definitely picture Stevie Nicks, Christine McVie, John McVie, and Mick Fleetwood providing harmonies and adding more heft to the song on future Fleetwood Mac reunion tours.

Buckingham may write and perform delicate ballads, but "One Take" demonstrates that he can still rock. The rage present in such tracks as "Wrong" from his underrated 1992 album Out of the Cradle shines here. "No I have no reputation and I’m not on any list/That’s because I’ve got a publicist who covers up the avarice of where I put my fist," he spits out. "And if you don’t see me it doesn’t mean I’m not there/It only means that when I steal from you I don’t want you to know because I really really care." His lyrics apparently address greed and recklessness, arguing the need for moral responsibility. Interestingly, "Gone Too Far" immediately follows, with Buckingham crying for redemption: "Save me/It’s gone too far," he cries over perhaps the most lush arrangement on the entire album.
Perhaps no other track summarizes Seeds We Sow's overall theme of reflection than "End of Time," which could be seen as a companion piece to "In Our Own Time." Like the latter song, "End of Time" expresses both despair and hope for our current times:
Sliding down the karma slide
Seems like it never ends
When we get to the other side
Maybe then we’ll make amends
The midtempo song finds Buckingham musing on his mortality, longing for his youth. However, he sings, "When they finally come to bury us/Maybe then we’ll tell the truth." Overall, he argues, love transcends death: "Even though I may be dead and gone/And though we may be far apart/My love for you is strong." Is redemption possible, both in love and life? Buckingham poses these questions in Seeds We Sow, but does not provide answers. Still, even the title Seeds We Sow challenges listeners to ponder these complicated issues.
Buckingham's work with Fleetwood Mac certainly merits its critical and commercial success. But his fascinating solo catalog should not be overlooked, and Seeds We Sow ranks as his most sophisticated and intriguing album to date.

Well, I agree with the Wrong and One Take comparison. I made that before hearing all of One Take, but I agree with you that musically they are nothing alike. I felt the messages and attitudes were similar. Michele

yeah, wrong and one take is the only one that kinda works, and i'm thinking primarily of musical comparisons, not lyrics. but rock away blind and SHN? illumination and trouble?

Chicago Tribune review
 

Album review: Lindsey Buckingham, 'Seeds We Sow'

Greg Kot


10:27 p.m. CDT, September 5, 2011
3.5 stars (out of 4)
In the increasing down time between Fleetwood Mac tours and albums, Lindsey Buckingham has become unusually prolific as a solo artist, doubling his career output in the last five years by producing three albums. The latest, “Seeds We Sow” (Eagle Rock Entertainment), is essentially a one-man-band affair, with Buckingham donning his mad-scientist lab coat to orchestrate mood swings on voice, guitar and percussion.

Unencumbered by the commercial and ego demands in Mac, Buckingham affirms his talent for turning eccentricity into twisted pop songs. He tackles big themes: how time reveals consequences; the grudging arrival of enlightenment. He favors undulating guitars, voices woven into choirs, a shimmering sense of space. Not that he’s gone soft. Instead, he’s restless, anxious, as exemplified by the protagonist in “Stars Are Crazy” who awakens in the middle of the night to torture himself with questions he can’t answer.

The turbulence lurking just beneath the surface crashes through on “One Take,” a nasty song about a despicable character (A politician? A rock star? Buckingham himself?) who’s “got a publicist who covers up the avarice.” The jumpy beat gives way to a lovely vocal interlude, only to have Buckingham shatter the fine china with a crazed guitar solo.

Buckingham has a knack for disrupting beauty, intruding on the serene. A deceptively hushed vocal brings “Seeds We Sow” to a seething finish. Tense guitar-playing and furtive percussion overtake “In Our Own Time.” And even as mortality closes in on “End of Time,” the narrator still can’t let go of the lies and hostility that wrecked a relationship.

A cover of the Rolling Stones’ “She Smiled Sweetly” makes for a particularly apt closer. The guitarist is a huge fan of the Stones’ mid-‘60s pop era, a time of gloriously jaded singles and social commentaries. He plays “She Smiled Sweetly” as a sparse, haunted, 3 a.m. reckoning, exhaling the lines as if he were expiring. “Don’t worry,” the song’s femme fatale advises as the narrator stresses out, his fate sealed.

greg@gregkot.com

i like this one a lot :thumbsup:

allmusicguide 4 star review
 

Review

by Thom Jurek

Since resuming his solo recording career with 2006's Under the Skin, songwriter and guitarist Lindsey Buckingham has worked steadily but quietly. After the gorgeous Gift of Screws in 2008, he toured briefly and returned to the shadows; but the three years between it and 2011's Seeds We Sow was fraught with change. Buckingham left the major Warner umbrella and created his own label, Mind Kit Records. He recorded, performed, and produced Seeds We Sow at home. The sound of this album is very different form anything we've heard from him before, even if his musical and lyrical signatures are all over it; they pick up where Gift of Screws left off. That said, sonically it couldn't be more different than anything he's done before: it sounds like a self-made recording, which is a very good thing. Buckingham's classy songwriting and guitar playing are trademarks, but so is his ambition as a record producer. Seeds We Sow is delightfully ragged. "When She Comes Down" has a bassline that's actually distorted in the final mix, as if it were a polished demo. That said, its gorgeous melody and lyrics, carried by layers of voices and guitars, create a blissed-out love song. "In Our Own Time" is a labyrinthine rock tune whose guitars simulate strings, as organic and synthetic percussion create twin pulses that contrast beautifully with his melodies (there are two of them) and which criss-cross and breed. "That's the Way Love Goes" is the only track here with other musicians: drummer Walfredo Reyes, keyboardist Brett Tuggle, and bassist Neale Heywood. It passes for a big, explosive rocker on this set, full of Buckingham's knotty Baroque pop touches, but it's a very basic production. "Stars Are Crazy" is about the results poisonous romantic relationships reap. Buckingham's lyric understands that they are all too human; long after they end, they pick at our emotional scabs. His multi-layered acoustic guitars and harmonies act as other voices, empathically reflecting back to us the haunting regret and desire for redemption in the middle of the night. "One Take" is a punchy, snarling, confessional rocker. "End of Time" is a classic Buckingham tune. It may be about karma, but it feels like a guttersnipe Fleetwood Mac delivering a pop song. He delivers -- and makes his own -- a solo acoustic cover the Rolling Stones' "She Smiled Sweetly," to mark the end of a remarkable, homegrown project that challenges listeners to expand their definitions of Buckingham and include him as an indie singer/songwriter.

Lindsey Buckingham
Seeds We Sow
(Mind Kit)
★★★★ 1/2 Stars (out of 5)

It's a good year for the two pillars of Fleetwood Mac's best-known records.

Stevie Nicks, forever the group's most identifiable face in her space-cadet witch regalia, surprised skeptics in May with the unexpectedly solid In Your Dreams. Lindsey Buckingham, the real visionary behind the lush, sparkling Mac sound that once sold records into the platinum stratosphere, does not surprise us at all: with Seeds We Sow, he delivers yet another terrific collection of songs.

Buckingham's solo career has been a matter of one reliable gem after another, so there's always a danger of simply taking his modest little masterworks for granted. The multi-instrumentalist and gifted songwriter never returns to form because the standard has yet to slip.

Like his last two releases, Under the Skin (2006) and Gift of Screws (2008), the new disc - his sixth studio recording and first self-released effort - is defined by Buckingham's hyperactive acoustic fingerpicking and ultra-melodic hooks. The wonderfully familiar pattern is quickly established by the title track, which opens the album, and In Our Own Time, which follows it.

As usual, one of Buckingham's most intriguing quirks is that it's sometimes hard to lock into the groove of his songs: a chorus will come around and you're looking for the natural place to move your head with the rhythm. In Our Own Time and That's the Way That Love Goes are perfect examples. On the latter, the guitarist wails contentedly with two bare-bones electric solos.

Playing virtually all the instruments and doing his own producing and mixing, Buckingham manages to make an insular work sound far-reaching and timeless. Rockers like Illumination and One Take alternate with dreamier tracks like Gone Too Far, which is the most obvious Mac sound-alike on the disc, and When She Comes Down, which evokes the Irish folksong Wild Mountain Thyme as well as Brian Wilson's sunnier choral beds.

Once again, Buckingham raids the deep tracks in the Rolling Stones' mid-`60s catalogue. Having covered I Am Waiting on Under the Skin, he closes the new album with a haunting version of She Smiled Sweetly, surely one of the most tuneful beauties in the Mick Jagger and Keith Richards oeuvre.

If the recurring themes of betrayal and distance add a blue note to the proceedings, the music on this disc overflows with joy. Never take it for granted.

- Bernard Perusse
Montreal Gazette

http://www.canada.com/Reviews+Montre...762/story.html

Guitar Omnivore
 

http://www.guitaromnivore.com/2011/0...medium=twitter

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 2011

Best Guitar Cds of the Week - Week of 09/06/2011
Lindsey Buckingham - Seeds We Sow

Lindsey Buckingham fans are in for a treat. All the things you would want from a Buckingham solo album,the slightly oddball arrangements,the lush Beach Boys inspired background vocals,the unique finger style guitar, are not only here but are better than ever. Headphone listeners in particular will have fun as Buckingham,who handled all of the mixing and production duties,has his trademark guitar tone doing all manner of cool tricks in the stereo field.It is,of course,the guitar in particular that caught my attention. There is an impressive amount of drool-worthy playing that never takes away from the focus of the song.

I was also surprised to notice that this is the first time Buckingham,a noted control freak,has released something on his own label. The freedom seems to suit him well. Instead of leading to self indulgence,Buckingham has released his most intimated and focused solo album thus far. No word on a solo tour yet but Buckingham reports he's hoping for a Fleetwood Mac tour in 2011.


EDIT: huh - no word on the solo tour?!?!?! - people should really read up on what they are writing from time to time! :)

doesn't like production?
 

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/al...e-sow-20110906

Lindsey Buckingham
Seeds We Sow
Mind Kit
Rolling Stone: 3/5 star rating

By WILL HERMES
SEPTEMBER 6, 2011
Lindsey Buckingham's 2008 Gift of Screws, assembled with some of his Fleetwood Mac compadres, was a shockingly good set from a dude who hardly needed to prove anything. This self-released and -produced LP is a true solo affair. The best moments - the title track, the Rumours-echoing "Rock Away Blind" - show a sweet guitar picker, a haunting high-tenor and an unmistakable melodic touch. But the recording suffers from thin, uneven sound and, on tracks like "Stars Are Crazy," a surfeit of muddling reverb. Sometimes a man needs to go it alone, but sometimes it's good to bring your buds.

Listen to "Seeds We Sow":

IOOT review
 

http://www.rollingstone.com/videos/n...medium=twitter

Lindsey Buckingham
'In Our Own Time'
SEPTEMBER 6, 2011

Fleetwood Mac's Lindsey Buckingham has mellowed a lot with age, but he's never stopped being an artistically restless type. "In Our Own Time," a highlight from his new self-released solo album Seeds We Sow, finds an interesting middle ground between the serene, cascading finger-picked guitar parts of his more recent work with the offbeat, manic qualities of his early solo material. There's some studio trickery in evidence on the recording, but this live performance clip showcases Buckingham's ability to play dazzling, super-fast arpeggios on his guitar.

Related
• Lindsey Buckingham: Fleetwood Mac Will Return Next Year

Recording Buddies
 

"But the recording suffers from thin, uneven sound and, on tracks like "Stars Are Crazy," a surfeit of muddling reverb. Sometimes a man needs to go it alone, but sometimes it's good to bring your buds."

While Mick and John are mainly studio players when it comes to LB's recent work, back in the heydey, I think they brought a different perspective that made the whole greater than the sum of it's parts. I personally feel the same way about Richard Dashut's involvement. That may be (for me) what sets OOTC (and LB's songs on FM albums through 1990) apart from LB's recent efforts (beginning with GOS original effort in the mid to late 90s). While there are some gems, the entire CDs have not been that I would listen to them without skipping some songs. Some of the live songs have the Neale Heywood influence (that "musical sensibilities") that make them that much more enjoyable. I will probably end up liking the live "Stars Are Crazy" better than the studio version, once it is released with the DVD.

while i am really really happy that DVD/CD with live versions are coming out (that IOOT live video LB just released sounds just perfect!), i have to say that SWS might be the only LB or FM album where i don't skip any songs! [well, besides stars are crazy sometimes:p]. but, as i keep repeating to anybody who would listen, while i think it works as a whole, i would be even happier with this album if he didn't process his vocals so heavily on many of the songs. and that's probably part of the reason why i'm so happy w/ songs like illumination or one take (and SSS) on the album - he didn't overprocess his vocals on these!!

I can see the point being made about the quality of recordings. Not that they are necessarily worse, but OOTC just has a different atmosphere than his last three albums. The difference might be what LB used to record the last albums. Weren't most of them done on his four-track machine? I know a lot of stuff for UTS was, sans a few Cavallo-era recordings. Dashut did add something for sure. Lindsey has also paired down is array of instruments that were deployed in OOTC.

http://www.directcurrentmusic.com/mu...t=music+review

Lindsey Buckingham - Seeds We Sew
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 at 10:43AM

Lindsey Buckingham - Twenty-five years after "Go Your Own Way", a song that moved Fleetwood Mac from British blues-rock pioneers to SoCal pop hitmakers, guitarist/songwriter and occasional frontman Buckingham is back with his sixth solo project in advance of a Mac reunion next year // Release: Seeds We Sew (September 6) // Sounds like: Buckingham's trademark reedy tenor and remarkable guitar playing are in fine form on this diverse collection...the slightly caffeinated left-of-center idiosyncrasy and prickly unpredictability which has always been a Buckingham production hallmark (remember "Tusk"?) are also featured within some odd time signatures ("In Our Own Time", "One Take") and reverb-heavy vocals ("Stars Are Crazy") but this is a focused, mainstream and melodic affair...the intricate finger-picking guitar forms the base of a number of Seeds' songs, minimally processed from the ticking electronic rhythms that undoubtedly backed up the original demos...

Quote: "I've had what you might call 'the big movie' with Fleetwood Mac. I also have the small movie, the independent movie that has to do with my solo work...I ended up making probably the best solo album I've ever made..." // What we like: it's hard not to compare Seeds We Sew to Buckingham's best writing and -- happily -- many of these new songs stand up well: the Mac-ish "When She Comes Down", "Gone Too Far" and "End of Time" all provide vivid glimpses into what has made Buckingham such an enduring force as a performing songwriter...the ability to meld a memorable hook with glistening guitar lines is still a marvel to behold...

avclub review
 

by Jason Heller


Lindsey Buckingham
Seeds We Sow

B av club rating


There’s a reason Lindsey Buckingham is portrayed as the aloof-and-silent type on Saturday Night Live’s “What’s Up With That?”: In real life, he’s always seemed that way. Yet his songs with Fleetwood Mac—many of which he sang—remain some of the most heartrendingly intimate ever committed to mass consciousness. His solo work since Mac’s prime has been hit or miss, but 2008’s Gift Of Screws was a beautiful reminder of Buckingham’s bygone directness and warmth. His new album, Seeds We Sow, sees him shying away again. But not always in a bad way.

Seeds’ biggest barrier is one Buckingham has always shielded himself with: the studio. Otherwise stunning folk-rock gems such as “Stars Are Crazy” and the disc’s title track drown stark, naked folk in staccato reverb and air-conditioned acoustics. Often, though, Buckingham elicits gooseflesh for the right reasons. “Illumination” is a sharp, accusatory screed that vibrates like a Tusk outtake, and “In Our Own Time” wrings sorcery out of Buckingham’s signature finger-picked arpeggios and haunted swathes of harmony. But where Gift Of Screws showcased the unforced and immediate passion of his voice, even the best moments on Seeds feel as though they’re being heard through a stethoscope placed upon Buckingham’s chest.

One thing Buckingham has never forgotten, though, is how to construct albums with the consummate balance and gravity-defying magic of an architect. After laying a foundation of sprawling airiness and sumptuous overdubs, he tops Seeds with “She Smiled Sweetly,” a bittersweet, almost medieval-sounding love song that falters and quivers like collapsing lungs. And when he closes the track—and the album—with what might be the soft, breathy aftershock of a kiss, he once again cuts through all the effects and atmospherics to deliver a little raw piece of his hear

http://www.realgonerocks.com/2011/09...-seeds-we-sow/

Real Gone - reviews, news and more...

LINDSEY BUCKINGHAM – Seeds We Sow
Written by Real Gonepop, singer songwriterSep 6, 2011
Following 1992’s ‘Out of The Cradle’, Lindsey Buckingham continued to write new material, but largely stayed out of the spotlight. In the early 00’s he had almost completed a solo album, provisionally entitled ‘Gift Of Screws’, when destiny called and he rejoined Fleetwood Mac. A few songs scheduled for ‘Gift of Screws’ were reworked with Fleetwood Mac and eventually surfaced on their 2003 release ‘Say You Will’.
After touring for that record, Buckingham resumed his solo career and released the intimate acoustic record ‘Under The Skin’ in 2006, followed by a finished, partially different ‘Gift of Screws’ in 2008. As 2011’s ‘Seeds We Sow’ is Buckingham’s third solo release in five years, it marks his most prolific period in some time. It’s a very home-spun recording, with a lot of programmed mechanical elements, but that’s certainly not to say it sounds hurried or remotely slapdash compared to works on which he spent three times longer.
Despite the drum loops, ‘Gone Too Far’ has a pop purity, which with a little tweak would be worthy of inclusion on a Fleetwood Mac disc, with pleading lead vocals and a plethora of backing voices. Musically, it’s much simpler than some of Buckingham’s works, but it stands up well. The vocals alone would carry most of the number, but a few plays in, the unobtrusive guitar solo stands out as being particularly noteworthy, capturing a very clean and distinctive sound. ‘In Our Time’ is a superb off-kilter pop number which Buckingham very much makes his own. Not just with a plethora of finger plucked moments, but the addition of staccato keyboard strings for emphasis hints at the anger of a couple of his ‘Tusk’ performances. Almost a complete opposite ‘When She Comes Down’ is rich with harmony vocals. The music is relatively simple, but Buckingham is acutely aware that a strong hook and stronger vocal will win out. It’s enough to make you wonder how this would have sounded with the embellishment of Stevie Nicks and Christine McVie… [‘Seeds We Sow’ may be rather mechanical on the whole, but even after a few plays, it’s so obvious that most of these songs are vastly superior to those which filled Mac’s ‘Say You Will’, which was let down in part by Christine McVie’s absence].
‘That’s The Way That Love Goes’ is credited as featuring other musicians (everything else is arranged and recorded by Buckingham alone), but even so, it doesn’t sound much more natural than the other cuts. The drums come with a clipped march, the bass only slightly warmer than on other numbers and the keyboards add little interest overall. As expected with a Lindsey Buckingham recording, however, this track is still very much “The Lindsey Buckingham Show” – and frankly, his contributions are almost beyond criticism. His vocal retains exactly the same presence as it has always had -as if barely any time has passed since those drug-fuelled ‘Tusk’ sessions and days of excess – while the music contains a few slightly more angular moments. ‘One Take’ is the album’s most urgent cut, both musically and lyrically. The bass notes rumble as Buckingham settles for a far less showy guitar style. Clanging rhythm chords provide most of the focus, but the two instrumental breaks are where it’s at; each one brimming with fury – a sharp reminder of the man who played the screaming solo at the end of ‘The Chain’. Combined with Lindsey spitting lyrics like “I have no reputation and I’m not on any list / That’s because I got a publicist who covers up the avarice and where I put my fist”, it’s certainly the closest ‘Seeds We Sow’ comes to presenting anything resembling an angry rocker. Placed alongside some of the more refined numbers – particularly those with a strong bias towards finger-picked guitar – stylistically, this feels a little shoe-horned in. On the other hand, it comes loaded with a chorus that’ll stay with you after three or four plays, so it’s still a really great track.
It’s with the solo number ‘Rock Away Blind’ ‘Seeds We Sow’ unleashes what is unquestionably it’s most amazing piece. Buckingham’s voice has a pop musician’s purity, and as such is extremely admirable, but looking beyond that, his guitar work is just astounding. His voice compliments a furiously plucked acoustic guitar which is subjected to an appropriate studio shine (and possibly some kind of delay). The blanket of notes is mesmerizing – this is every reason Buckingham is revered as a musician as well as song writer. With this track, he captures the essence and brilliance of that performance of Fleetwood’s ‘Big Love’ (the one featured on ‘The Dance’) on a studio recording. It’s a track which can be played on a loop and never lose any of its sparkle. Similarly, the cover of The Rolling Stones’ ‘She Smiled Sweetly’ – which wraps things up – proves a fantastic showcase for Buckingham’s sounds of wood and strings pitched against breathy vocals. A track so subtle, yet brimming with professional brilliance, this provides a most appropriate ending.
Although this album stretches Buckingham’s work into a couple of new places stylistically and isn’t always as polished as some of his previous outings, his voice retains a heart-warming familiarity which will keep most listeners coming back time and again. And while some musicians would sound cheap surrounded by drum machines and programmed elements, throughout ‘Seeds We Sow’, Buckingham’s song writing runs rings around most and that – combined with his superb voice – is enough to make ‘Seeds We Sow’ a fantastic listening experience.
September 2011

By Chris Willman at TheWrap
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/...82468120110906

Review: Lindsey Buckingham Goes His Own Way, Again, With 'Seeds We Sow'
Tue Sep 6, 2011 10:53am EDT

For someone who plays so well with others -- as attested to by tens of millions of records sold with Fleetwood Mac -- Lindsey Buckingham sure does create a hermetically sealed world when he makes his one-man-band solo albums.

“Seeds We Sow,” his latest, is another pipeline directly into his brilliant head, an echo chamber marked by equal parts obsessive neuroticism and dexterity. As always, it’s a fascinating place to visit, though if you dared to live there, you’d probably want to bring along a rhythm section, if not a chick singer.

This is the paradox of Buckingham: When he's with the Mac, you wish Stevie Nicks would do fewer songs so we could get more of his genius, but when he's by himself, you start to wish another human would show up, even if just for a cameo, to assure us we haven't been locked into his brain alone.

The trademark of his last few independently released solo efforts has been endlessly repeated, time-signature-avoidant acoustic guitar arpeggios, which inevitably sound like they’re being played by three sets of hands at once. These patterns are beautiful, but maddening after a spell -- “mad” perhaps being the operative word for a guy who titled an early signature project “Go Insane.”

When he deigns to do something resembling a pop song, your gratitude for the relief of a simplistic beat and sing-along chorus may know no bounds. That arrives in the form of, among other songs, “That’s the Way That Love Goes,” but don’t go looking for any lyrical comfort even there, amid the almost cheerful sounds. Sample lyric: “I lie alone and watch you sleep/I’d reach for you but I might weep/If you should tell me I must keep/Away.”

That’s minor paranoia by Buckingham standards. “I can’t touch you anymore, it causes you harm,” he sings in “Stars Are Crazy.” The title track's seeds aren't blooming into anything too sweet, either: “Pretty things are dying, in the penny arcade of Edgar Allan Poe.”

Is there a tell-tale heart beating underneath all these bad vibes? Warmth does rear its ugly head in the gorgeous chorus of “When She Comes Down,” although it’s not at all clear who are what the imminent “she” in the tune is. Maybe it's death itself, since that’s the theme of “End of Time,” where Buckingham suggests, “When we get to the other side, maybe then we’ll make amends.” (Those are probably the words he dictates to the telegram operator every time he turns down another Fleetwood Mac reunion.)

Maybe he’s setting more commercial material aside in case he succumbs to another Mac attack, but more likely, this is the only muse he’s following nowadays. And it’s one worth following with him, if you’re a freak for brilliant acoustic guitar playing and the strange hooks Buckingham breaks them up with. But “Seeds We Sow” is deeply claustrophobic, so don’t go in without a lifeline to pull you back out.

“I’m just another madman/I turn it off, I turn it on,” he announces in “One Take," doing some role-playing but probably speaking for himself, too. That’s our Lindsey: still going insane after all these years.

[I haven't seen the original review by Barry Walters, but an excerpt of whatever he wrote was quoted on this blog by "Joe"]

http://17dots.com/2011/09/06/new-arrivals-5/ September 6, 2011


Lindsey Buckingham, Seeds We Sow: I’ve been getting pretty into Tusk lately, so I’m sure I’ll probably give this a listen. This is some truly amateurish cover art, but Lindsey is a great songwriter, so I’m sure there are at least a handful of gems here. Barry Walters certainly seems to think so. He writes:

http://www.americansongwriter.com/20...-seeds-we-sow/

American Songwriter
By Ryan Reed September 6th, 2011 at 12:41 pm

Lindsey Buckingham:
Seeds We Sow
(Eagle Rock Entertainment)
Rating: ***

In a year when longtime Fleetwood Mac mystic (and his former flame) Stevie Nicks released some of her worst songs to date (the underwhelming In Your Dreams), there’s something especially comforting about the ornate fingerpicking that opens Seeds We Sow, Lindsey Buckingham’s sixth solo album. “Had a dream that you reached for me in the night, touched me soft and slow,” he nearly whispers, his paper-light voice shrouded in homespun reverb. “Everything was wrong, but everything was right.”

It’s a moment of astounding, nostalgic beauty, alarming in its quiet and even more so in its blinding emotion. As great of a pop songsmith as Buckinghams’ always been, something even more mesmerizing always happens when he strips back the excess, trimming the mix to his acoustic and vocals. The album version of Fleetwood Mac’s “Big Love” now sounds dated and restrained; Buckingham’s now legendary solo performances of the track are transcendent, often featuring the singer screaming himself hoarse over his windmilled spirals of fingerpicked color.

“Seeds We Sow” is yet another moment of sparkling clarity. Elsewhere, Buckingham’s at his best where he so obviously feels most comfortable: strapped to that acoustic, armed with nothing else but his fingers and that journeyman’s tenor. The electronic-spattered “In Our Own Time” climaxes in a torrent of head-rush arpeggios. His hypnotic, double-tracked assault on “Stars Are Crazy” is jaw-dropping, wrangling out his trademark alien noises from only a six-string and a capo.

Buckingham’s no stranger to the recording process, but Seeds We Sow is his most DIY moment yet. He wrote, played, produced, and mixed every inch of this batch, which he is also self-releasing. There’s a rough, intimate charm throughout—as if you’re listening in on basement warm-ups rather than final takes. Buckingham’s voice is breathy and intimate, typically coated in trebly reverb, even when he soars to his usual beefy choruses (“In Our Own Time”); and the emotions are expansive and fully-bloomed, even when the music is dated. (“When She Comes Down” sounds like a bad Steve Winwood B-side as heard on the soundtrack to a direct-to-video ’80s rom-com—but it somehow gets by on its own craftiness.)

Ultimately, the most “song-like” tracks here (like the rowdy, half-baked rocker “One Take”) are also the least interesting. Those moments feel stifled and awkward. Ironically, the more pop details Buckingham adds, the less impact he achieves; at times, you can’t help but wish for a Mick Fleetwood drum fill or John McVie’s liquid bass pulse.

But Buckingham knows his true strengths. Seeds We Sow waves goodbye, just as it began: with quiet meditation. “She Smiled Sweetly” is nothing more than folky plucks and ocean breeze whisper, evaporating gracefully into the fog of a half-gone dream.

[QUOTE=michelej1;1014735]http://www.americansongwriter.com/20...-seeds-we-sow/



"In a year when longtime Fleetwood Mac mystic (and his former flame) Stevie Nicks released some of her worst songs to date (the underwhelming In Your Dreams)"

eeek that's harsh ..and I'm sure not the last one we'll hear of IYD bashing once all the indie/hipster critics that panned her album hand in their reviews.

In real life, he's never seemed that way. He may be aloof, but he's really not all that silent. Just because his voice is high and soft doesn't mean he wasn't using it all of the time.

This reminds me of a video he was doing. I think he and Chris and Mick (and John?) were doing promos and he came in with a sweatshirt and a hood on and Chris told him he looked like a robber or something. Well, when he came in looking like that you'd think he was just going to sit in a corner and kind of brood (and heaven knows he can brood with the best of them), but the next thing I know he's up and saying, 'should I take it off? Should I stand this way? What if I say . . ." He was all into it.

Michele

[QUOTE=BombaySapphire3;1014794]The surprising thing is in the current issue of their magazine they've got like 4 page spread/interview with Stevie and in the first couple of paragraphs call her new album a "strong ouput".