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Lost In Music: Fleetwood Mac – Tusk
Posted by: Jamie Clarke in Music 18 October 2013
Released on 12 October 1979, Tusk, the third album from the Buckingham/Nicks incarnation of Fleetwood Mac, should have been one of the most well-known albums of all time. For some reason though, the album sank without much impact and has come to be later appreciated by fans and critics alike.
The band's previous album, Rumours, had sold 10 million copies worldwide in the two years it had been available prior to Tusk's release. To put those figures into perspective, however, Rumours had sold 40 million copies worldwide by 2009 and is still, 36 years on, the 14th best selling album in UK history - quite an achievement.
To date, Tusk has sold two million copies in the US and 300,000 in the UK. A stark contrast when compared to the success of Rumours. Critics deemed the album a failure and jumped on the album's production costs ($1 million - the most expensive album ever made, at that point in time), deeming the cost an unnecessary extravagance.
The band admitted that the record company just wanted 'Rumours II' from them, but they didn't want to sell out for the cash or fame and wanted to create something they were proud of, a real body of work. So, the 21-track, double-disk album Tusk was conceived.
There are three distinct personalities within this particular line-up of the band, Christine McVie brings the blues background and spritely keyboard compositions to the mix, Stevie Nicks delivers ethereal and left-field musical poetry, and Lindsey Buckingham a more guitar-driven rock sound. The band had made every effort to blend each of their sensibilities on Rumours, but on Tusk, they are fractured. Their songs are their own compositions packaged together on a double-disk collection. Tusk is an album that demonstrates a band all but broken up, merely held together by obligation to their art.
Lindsey Buckingham was the driving force behind the style of Tusk. Not satisfied to create radio-friendly polished pop as they had on Rumours, he was influenced by more alternative developments such as new wave and punk. The band put their faith in his abilities as an accomplished musician, songwriter and producer. They would later admit that following the album's failure, there was open hostility towards him.
Time has been very kind to Tusk. The production techniques employed by Buckingham, such as recording vocals lying down on his tiled bathroom floor and creating drum loops from tapping on his knees, though radical at the time, add a level of depth to the emotion of the songwriting - they're organic, you feel them. The personal struggles the band were facing during recording are still present. The relationships deteriorating and the struggles of still working with your ex are in the subtext of these songs, though not as obviously referenced as on Rumours. Essentially, Tusk is a folk band making a rock & roll album.
Nicks' voice throughout the album is hoarser than ever before, caused by her publicly discussed struggles with cocaine. But the hoarseness of her voice adds to the emotion of the tracks she's singing. It enhances the lyrics that usually concern landscapes affected by the four elements in a very 'gothic fiction' manner. The highlight being 'Sara'.
McVie can be relied upon as the constant. Here she delivers a collection of straightforward and sweet love songs, her album highlight being 'Never Forget'.
It's the Buckingham tracks that will make or break this album for you. They're messy and they often don't make sense. If you give them a chance, however, their experimental nature may come to grow on you. 'I Know I'm Not Wrong' is a highlight, complete with accordion riff.
The album's title track is perhaps its most bizarre. With no clear structure and no real form, it's simply a chant, built around African tribal drums, that builds maniacally to an insane crescendo - complete with USC Trojan Marching Band backing and shouts of 'don't say that you love me', amongst other paranoid and emotional cries.
Mick Fleetwood, the band's drummer and namesake, has said as recently as their 2013 world tour that Tusk is his favourite of the band's albums. He put its commercial failure down to the fact that it was played in full on a US radio station in the run up to its release allowing mass home taping. Also, due to its double-disk status, the list price ($15.98) was double that of a regular album, which deterred some from buying.
Tusk is an album that you should be aware of, though it's not always an easy listen. It's an album you need to make sense of. It commands your attention and you should give it this attention it deserves.
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