agree! :thumbsup:

yes, except that soon for the Mac has been over 2 years now...

all great points! :thumbsup:

Thanks :xoxo:

I take your point, but I honestly think this whole planned studio release is motivated by a sense of "well... the fans REALLY want it", which would be lost if Stevie was missing. The "for their soul" argument sounds good on paper, but has this band honestly found working as a fivesome at all artistically gratifying or even enjoyable since 1977? Maybe very ocassionally, but for the most part I think these members wouldn't find it worth the hassle except for the fans. This move seems to be more about rewarding fan response (be it monetary or something more abstract) than anything else.

It's not going to sell anyway. That's the point. Whatever fear they had 20 years ago about their lack of popularity without Stevie is a moot point now. They have to give up that fantasy of going gold or platinum, even with Stevie.

They shouldn't be trying for record sales. Will the record get critical attention? Yes and maybe more so when the press plays the band dissension angle. They might study the album more closely to grade it in light of Stevie's absence. This could bring them more criticism as critic after critic talks about what is missing without her (as they did with SYW) or it could bring them surprise praise. We don't know.

But this is not 1987 when they needed Stevie for record sales. Sadly, they won't be getting those with or without her.

Michele

At this point I think the "for their soul" albums are the solo albums. FM is always an attempt to be commercial / more successful, despite whatever guise it's labeled under, and despite the fact that they're simply not going to be in this day and age.

And if FM were to do a "for their soul," album, then in my mind that would certainly be the point when they wanted it to be all 5 of them.

Otherwise they'd all just guest on each other's solo projects, as they have in the past.

But they get to exploit that same "we're all back together" hype for the On With the Show tour, so I think they will get their mileage out of that and it will be at the box office, which is more lucrative for them than album sales are anyway.

If Stevie were not touring with them, they'd have a real problem. Her presence on the album is not a problem. It could be if they are still trying to connect with a record label like Warner Bros. though. But they shouldn't be doing that. They need to change their mentality and grow (age) with the times.

Michele

exactly! while as 4, Lindsey and Christine obviously enjoy working together as songwriters. so why not release what they can put together instead of trying to force what has not been working for decades?

they don't do any of it for the fans, let's not fool ourselves. :D

Very good point. I don't think they ever have.

I'm not trying to paint any of them as selfless anti-capitalist saints, or anything. Don't get me wrong! ;) But I do think that, money aside, even having a bunch of fans gushing and going "OMG YOU GUYS ARE SO AMAZING ALL TOGETHER I AM SO HAPPY I COULD WRESTLE A RAINBOW" feels awesome and can be a really strong motivator to do something a certain way. Solo projects and a more fragmented incarnation of FM just don't give any of the members that kind of reward on the same scale. And I do think that sort of fanbase "high" is the main reason they want to do this as a fivesome. If it was just for artistic gratification then Lindsey and Christine would already be doing what we suggest. That's not what these guys have on the brain.

I get what you're saying -- but we don't even know that they're still having to beg or coerce her, or that she doesn't want to record with them. Sure, that was true of the very recent past -- but the past is still the past. Stevie's changed her mind before. When she left the band in 1991, she said she didn't foresee herself ever working with Fleetwood Mac again. Ultimately she did, saying that she "woke up one morning and realized I wasn't mad at anyone anymore." Things change.

Also, and I can't stress this enough, the prospect of recording an album last year, meant that it would be just her, Lindsey, Mick & John. Christine's return is a total game-changer.

So Stevie not wanting to record an album last year, doesn't automatically mean that she doesn't want to now. Neither does the fact that she hadn't yet committed to a "how" or "when."

I said weeks ago, that Stevie may have been waiting for Dave Stewart to be available, before she could commit to a time-frame with Fleetwood Mac (if Dave was to be the one producing her tracks). With this latest information, it's very possible that a new solo album had been on the cards for a while now -- and that it's the reason she couldn't definitively tell Fleetwood Mac, "I'll be available from this date to this date," because she didn't yet know.

Maybe Mick is "hoping" that she'll actually be done in two weeks, because they intend to go into the studio with her the minute she's back in LA.

Well, for one thing, I highly doubt they have anything to release yet. Was a month & a half at the Village Recorders (if they were even there that long) enough time for Christine to record keyboards and vocals for Lindsey's five remaining Froom tracks, and for the band to completely record five or six of Christine's songs (some that, by her own admission, were in such raw demo form that Lindsey had to fashion them together)?

Seems like a tall order.

On top of that, they were working with limited involvement from John, due to his health issues. I would hope they'd be mindful to not over-tax him physically just to rush out a new album.

Us "old dogs" waited ten years between 'Tango' and 'The Dance,' for this lineup to work together again. And another sixteen years after that. (We also waited fourteen years between Lindsey's solo albums, and ten years between Stevie's.)

I find the prospect of waiting one more year to be a cake-walk after all that.

I do understand how you feel, though, Elle. And I can't say that I was always this patient waiting for the band members to release material.

yes, but they are in their 60s and 70s now. time is not on their side, anymore.

Except, for Stevie, recording with FM is not "for the soul," so the album can't be that for the 5 of them, since it's not that for her.

Michele

And it's already been 11 years since SYW. There's no need to keep waiting and hope something different will happen, since that hope has been extinguished before.

Michele

If Stevie is done with a brand new solo album in 2 weeks, HELL even an EP, I'll eat my tambourine.