Tusk always makes me feel like I'm sitting by the fire in a small cabin with a loved one who's showing me photos from an album, sharing the good stories and the bad that go with each photograph. In my minds eye some of the photographs are the ones in the Tusk album sleeves and some contain individual images from the collages. And when it's all over we sit and bask in the glow of the dying embers and decide to take a walk, enjoying a night that we'll never forget.c
There are bands for whom I pretty much only listen to the singles. The Cure and Siouxsie and the Banshees are two of them. They each have one album that I like beginning to end but for the most part I only know the material from the singles collections they've put out. But both Fleetwood Mac and Stevie are opposite for me. While I do love their hits it's often the deep album cuts that I really get into. Sara and Rhiannon are both big favorites but I prefer demos and live versions way more to the studio cuts. However, Tusk is one of those albums that when I'm in the mood I have to play from beginning to end. I have a few songs in my FM playlist on my iPod but when I hear a song from Tusk by itself (even the studio version of Sara) it always sounds like I'm hearing an excerpt of a larger piece. I feel bad it wasn't as big a commercial success for the band but I'm kind of glad there wasn't a string of hits like there was for Rumors because it's helped keep the album as a whole cohesive unit. Just like when I hear the single mix of Another Brick in the Wall or Comfortably Numb on the radio, when the end of each song comes on my ear aches to hear the next part of the album.
Tusk may not be a full on concept album in the way Tommy or The Wall was, but to me it does take the listener through an amazing journey.
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