Originally Posted by AncientQueen
Personally, I missed Christine so very much on SYW, but not only her playing, singing, or her melodic songs brightening the mood. I missed all of that, but much more. Without her, noone hold the egos of Stevie and Lindsey in check, noone dared to tell them when an idea was just not good enough, a song too long, lyrics too stupid or too mean. Noone filled the harmonies, or even considered giving the record a wholesome sound and atmoshere. Instead, we got two solo albums mixed together. I couldn't listen to the album without thinking: "How good would that have been with Christine on board, bringing out the best in both of them", because the album suffers from the fact that Lindsey and Stevie tend to bring out the worst in each other. There are some good songs on SYW, but they are mostly solo songs with a great rhythm section.
On Buckingham/McVie all the elements I missed on SYW are there. That album is testament of what Christine McVie did for FM without ever getting the recognition she deserved. You can hear that Lindsey respects ther, they both value the other one's contributions, you hear the good time they had in the Studio, with Mick and John. That gives the record a calm, friendly feeling, the opposite of the rather aggressive vibe that SVW gave me. It's just a beautifully done coherent album.
I only kinda missed some Stevie background-singing goodies, her voice is so interesting when used to highlight or accentuate the other two's songs. But as a songwriter, Stevie has not moved me for decades, her demo vaults must be totally empty by now. I wasn't expecting anything good from her anyway. I do understand why she didn't want to participate, she knew that both Chris and Lindsey would have crushed her with their talent, their compositions, Stevie couldn't let that happen.
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