is it just me or was In The Meantime really
 

mediocre?

I can't figure it out, but I expected much more for this record...

It's okay for me. I haven't listened to it enough, but I just don't seem to be able to get into it. I've been too busy listening to boots that have been posted on the net.

It's dull, light mallpop. Something one would likely hear while browsing the travel section at Waldenbooks. Half of the album is great fun, while the other half just gives off the impression that she shouldn't have bothered. It's inoffensive enough, but a whole album of it is just too damned much.

i really like it

i wish she would do more blues, but i never get what i want :shrug:

The production is incredibly bland; the middle tracks are especially filler. I don't listen to it very often. But she sounds great.

I really don't like it except for a few songs. I enjoy all of her FM songs and her 1984 solo album but In The Meantime is just too dull and bland for me.

Probably. Though I can't say for sure because I only listened to it once, which was the day it arrived in the mail.

Haven't had any desire to give it a second spin.

that's cos we love u:o

I think this is a question of expectations.

I expected typical Christine pop/rock for grown ups and that's what I got. The bonus was the voice which to me sounds better than ever.

I have to admit I had to listen to it a couple of times before I really started to like it. For Christine I was prepared to make the effort.

On the other hand I have only listened to Stevie's Trouble in Shangri La once because there wasn't enough in it to make me put it on again. For Stevie I wasn't prepared to make the effort.

As for Mick and John I didn't even buy the albums!

I still play ITM although not as much as I used to. I think it's a very honest piece of work and I like it more than her 1984 solo album.

Gail

I like the first 3 or 4 songs.....then......:cool:

i love it, its obviously not her best work, although i do think you are and friend are really really good! but i still love it, although i agree i would have preffered some blues stuff & i prefer her 80s album

What you said.:nod: :nod: Cept Stevie lost me earlier, on OSOTM. I LITERALLY(once even a huge fan) played it one time.


Still, imagine ITM's best 5 or 6 songs on SYW!:woohoo: THAT would've been an album I could've really gotten into!

I find it absolutely divine that it's the Christine fans on the Christine board who feel the need to bring up Nicks all the time.

I didn't bring it up, but I'll accept your claim of divinity.:shrug: :D :shrug:

Tsk tsk. I'm dissapointed that it took you over 12 hours to respond in this thread.:lol:

Ah yes! That would have been worth a listen! Sigh

Gail

Ermm. Sorry can we not say her name?

I believe I also mentioned the M word and the J word. Is that also divine?

Gail

Yeah. I have to admit, I don't think she really flies as a solo artist. I love her and her voice to bits, but as a reviewer put it, she works best as a 'side dish' than a main course. Or something to that effect. LOL. It's not that her solo work is BAD... I adore her Christine Perfect stuff, actually, and both the '84 album and ITM have good songs on it, but I don't think those last two are full, solid records. The jazz stuff, however? Rocks. I'm not even a big fan of that kind of music.

The best songs on ITM are Calumny and Friend. Those are my two favourites, along with Anything is Possible. Reminds me of something from the Mac days. Bad Journey is just... a bad song. :eek: The rest is kind of "eh". I wrote up an entire review during the summer. It's sitting in a notebook in my drawer. :shrug:

Christine is mellow, MOR, AC. All three of her solo albums are like this. Yes, even the Perfect album has its boring songs and that's an album where she didn't practically write everything as in her later solo albums.

ITM is nice and mellow. Period. It never intended to break new ground and is nothing short of a cute little pet project with her nephew.

Oh, yeah, I like Sweet Revenge. I was just singing that one last night.
Everyone seems to love You Are, and it got some radio play in the UK, but it's not really a favourite of mine. The random high notes kind of... eh. Don't really grab me. Forgiveness is okay. I also like So Sincere... more the lyrics than the song itself. :shrug: It's a little cryptic. Reminds me of something you know who would've written, with the "Funny little white car with the broken light".

I think Northern Star could've been a great song, if it had been arranged properly.

If you go back a bit in my LJ, you'll find the post where I talked a bit about each of the songs. :wavey: It's not a proper review, but it's basically my first impressions of them, since I posted it the day I bought it.

oh yea, and i love northern star, & calumny especially

I can't really get into it but I do think her voice still sounds amazing.

It's not mediocre at all for me. I like most of the songs, even if a couple seem composed on the autopilot. I agree, the production damaged the album. To sound homemade could work for grunge (if it still exists) but not for a sophisticated lady like her, IMO.

Romy

Calumny is my favourite, actually! I don't know if it's just me, but I tend to visualize voices... In terms of textures, and shapes, and stuff. I know, I'm insane. But there's a part where her voice sounds round, when she sings the word "soft" in the "oh, so soft and sweet" bit. It's just something in her voice that really gets to me. Same with Songbird, when she goes, "I wish it from myself". Chills.
;)

it is a bit cheesy... Therefore, radio friendly.:laugh: I kid.

I think there are only a few songs that sound very polished. Calumny, Northern Star, and Friend spring to mind.

In terms of lyrics, I think some of them border on being overly cheesy... But then again, I have to say, most of her songs do. I don't think she'd object to that statement either, as she's said she's a "pretty basic songwriter". And she is. She's never been very prolific, with the exception of songs like Songbird, and Show Me a Smile. I think, though her songs are very simple (a style that I believe comes from her background in jazz), it's her delivery that really makes them what they are. Some songs just have to be sung by the right person.

I've heard others say something like this and I just don't understand it. It rocked, grooved, kicked, swayed, cruised, simmered, burned, and cooked. There weren't any piano ballads on it, but the record had a lot to offer. Why couldn't more people see this?

i see it!!! although, that is quite a few things to see!

If half of any album is great, I'd say it was justified...

That was what I noticed first: No piano! Calumny was the only song with piano, right? I think that is what people expect from her, since the piano is what she is associated with. Hey, that's what I was expecting from her, too. :shrug: I don't think this is a terrible album, but nothing to get totally excited about... I guess it all comes down to personal taste.

maybe she didnt want to do what was totally expected from her? although its still all very christiney, calumny is probably the closest, i think

Hmm... Yeah, that could've been it. Christine doesn't really seem like the type of person to venture out of the little style she's carved out for herself, but you never know. :thumbsup: She does have a fun, spunky side that she shows more on the Legendary Christine Perfect and some of the songs from the self-titled album. Maybe that's what she was going for here? If that's the case, I think she might've done better by balancing it out a bit more with some lovely piano ballads like Calumny, since, like I said, that's what people recognize as her prime talent.

Definitely. I intended homemade more as repetitive and uninspired, done by a not very skilled producer. Acoustic friend, for example was much more poignant, IMO.

I love her songwriting and simple style, but with some great songs (I return to Friend that's one of my all time favourite of hers or Calumny, Sweet Revenge, Bad Journey, You Are) there were some fillers.

Romy

Bad Journey? :eek: It doesn't sit well with me. Sounds like she's trying too hard to return to her roots, with that faux-jazz. I liked the acoustic version of Friend. :wavey: The album version is good, too. I really enjoy the song itself. Calumny is the standout track for me. I could listen to that one forever!

I wasn't going to comment on this thread since it was started by a person who doesn't care for Christine McVie anyway. But a few of the die-hard Christine fans have posted, so I will too. I like all three of her solo albums, but In The Meantime is my favorite. I LOVE it! There is a comfort, an intimacy to it that I love. The production is a bit simplistic. So what? There is such a thing as being over-produced, too. That can turn me off. She is a simple, basic love song writer...no pretense or crap. That's what she did here. That's what I was expecting. What I didn't expect was how fantastic her voice still is. It's better now than it was 20-30 years ago, which is ridiculous. Nobody's voice gets better as they age. Her voice is the focal point of the album, in my opinion.

By the way, Christine is not a solo artist. She would be the first to say this. She made her first album because her then manager pushed her into it. She made her 1984 album & ITM purely for fun. It's that simple.

Everything else aside, I totally agree: her voice is beautiful. I've likened it to a fine wine... Much like Chris herself. She sounds great.

There is such a thing as over-produced, but there's also the flipside: being underproduced. Not that ITM was, I just think it could use a bit of tweaking here and there. In the little review I wrote down, I summed it up as an album to listen to on a rainy day, since it is a *cozy* sort of album.

Well... Don't assume that everyone knew those facts about how the albums came to be. I didn't even know that was the reasons why she did the Christine Perfect and the '84 records. ITM, I knew was something she said was "totally unexpected".

FWIW I don't even recognize the person who started this topic, so I had no idea whether or not they were a McVie fan.

That's too bad. "The Visitor," "I'm Not Me," and "Gotta Band" were actually quite good. They're definately among my favorite solo projects.

Admittedly, "Shakin' The Cage" hasn't aged so well, and I really haven't listened to "Something Big" much. For that matter, I really haven't listened to too much of the newer stuff (TISL, SYW, ITM, "Something Big") as much as the older stuff. I'm getting lazy.

Soooooo, the opinions held by the person who started this thread are somehow less valid than the opinions held by the fans who actively participate in this forum? My word, even the horse I ride upon isn't that high.

you made kishka out of your horse :lol:

I don't intend to speak for Macfan57, but, to me(and it's only my guess as to what she was inferring), that lately, a few of the NON-regulars are coming here looking for an argument/bashing. I, for one, am not interested.

Are things that sloooow in Stevieland?