This review was tucked into the BTM CD booklet.
I believe it was from the magazine Stereo Review.
The initials P.P. were credited. So this is how it was
looked at back in 1990...
Fleetwood Mac: Behind The Mask.
Performance: Solid but cautious
Recording: Airy, well-ballanced
The professionalism with which "Behind The Mask" was
produced is sufficient evidence that Fleetwood Mac has
landed on it's feet after losing it's creative mainstay, Lindsey
Buckingham. It is at least as much of a group effort as anything
the notoriously unstable Mac has turned out to date. Behind The
Mask, however, some essential spark is missing. New guitarist Rick
Vito and Billy Burnette add fluid solos and lively chording, respectively,
but they're reined in by spotless, homogenized arrangements that leave
precious little room for expression. Even Stevie Nicks out-there personality
has been sanded down and subsumed into a conservative, democratic mix.
After many years of willful experimentation from Buckingham, the suddenly
rudderless band has played it safe and paddled closer to shore. The air of
caution is compounded by an aura of melancholy that invades nearly every
song, Christine McVie's "Skies The Limit", the opening cut, being a notable
exception. It's as invigorating as a spring breeze, featuring gorgeous, billowy
group vocals and some lovely guitar work from Vito. But this exuberant
outburst quickly yields to songs of an autumnal cast-all of them attractive,
to be sure, if somewhat muted in temperment. McVie, singing of unfulfilled
desire and wary attraction, provides the most memorable songs (Do You
Know and Save Me) and seems to have the surest handle on a consistent
direction for the band. By no means a bad album, "Behind The Mask" is
instead a tentative and probably transitional one: smooth on the outside,
uncertain on the inside.
P.P.
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