Quote:
Originally Posted by louielouie2000
For me, Tusk is the only Rumours era Mac studio album that I never need to put on the shelf for extended periods of time (Live '80 is the only live Mac recording I can't get enough of). The sheer difference in the 3 singer/songwriters, combined with the variety and scope of musical styles on this album have kept my attention and love after all these years. I don't think it was just Stevie who was at her peak on this album... it's arguable every single member of the band was at the top of their perspective mountains on Tusk (and about to plummet off the cliff into burnout territory). Stevie & Chris were recording the most beautiful and introspective songs of their careers... Lindsey was smashing the moulds of his traditional style and was laying the groundwork for his musical direction for the next 3+ decades. Mick and John were making the most entrancing rhythms of their careers (just listen to Brown Eyes!). To me, Tusk was sort of the Rumours incarnation of the Mac's swan song... they pretty much slowly & painfully self destructed over the next decade, and really never recovered. Tusk will always be their masterpiece, though.  |
Maybe it's just me, but I think
Tusk was a bit of a happy accident... borne of extreme burnout and weariness as opposed to some orchestrated masterpiece by musicians who were at the top of their game. I love it because it is deeply flawed and because the songs are as uneven as they are intimate and revealing. Sure, Lindsey has gone on record to say that the sonic template for the record was a response to the new wave/punk sounds of the time, but I can't help but wonder whether the rough edges were there because people just couldn't be bothered to fix them up into something conventionally pretty. I have a feeling that the Stevie of today would demand remixes and removal of all of the random little noises that are scattered throughout the album. But in 1978/79, she was still the forgotten stepchild in the band who was too busy plotting her solo career to take a stand. If the rest of the band truly cared about the direction of
Tusk, wouldn't they have fought to wrest control from Lindsey? In the end they didn't fight him and Lindsey was allowed to run amuck, doing what pleased himself above anything else. Accordingly, the instrumental tracks are relatively loose and meandering- almost as if they couldn't be bothered to play or record with the deliberate precision of
every single note on
Rumours. In fact, in many cases, they didn't even bother to play at all. While evergreen inspiration is often wonderful, the lack of inspiration can also be a thing of tragic beauty as well.
Ultimately I think
Tusk would have failed as a single album- just like
The Lord of the Rings would have failed as a half-hour sitcom. The sheer breadth and length of
Tusk wears you down, and it envelopes you and takes you into their blurry-eyed, hung over, occasionally intense world. The miraculous beauty of
Tusk is a fragile one, and any misstep could have thrown off the balance and rendered it unlistenable.