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  #1  
Old 03-21-2006, 09:51 PM
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Default Steve Simels

I thought we'd have a thread dedicated to one of the most individual, most personal rock music critics of all time, a man who for many years wrote extraordinary reviews for Stereo Review magazine, including reviews on several Fleetwood Mac albums & related projects.

Let's salute Steve Simels here by posting any of Simel's reviews of FM albums or solo albums.

God bless you, Steve Simels!
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  #2  
Old 03-22-2006, 07:13 PM
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mylittledemon mylittledemon is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by David
I thought we'd have a thread dedicated to one of the most individual, most personal rock music critics of all time, a man who for many years wrote extraordinary reviews for Stereo Review magazine, including reviews on several Fleetwood Mac albums & related projects.

Let's salute Steve Simels here by posting any of Simel's reviews of FM albums or solo albums.

God bless you, Steve Simels!

I'd salue him if I had ever heard of him, David. I've read a lot of reviews and that name doesn't ring even the tiniest of bells.
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  #3  
Old 03-22-2006, 07:30 PM
madformac madformac is offline
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I bet he does David... I bet he does......
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  #4  
Old 03-23-2006, 04:02 PM
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Originally Posted by mylittledemon
I'd salue him if I had ever heard of him, David. I've read a lot of reviews and that name doesn't ring even the tiniest of bells.
I found one review of his (one is better than none I guess) in our very own Blue Letter Archives:

Stereo Review, February 1982, Volume 47, No. 2

Best of the Month - Stereo Review’s Selection of Recordings of Special Merit

Lindsey Buckingham’s Subversive “Law and Order”
by Steve Simels

Lindsey Buckingham, Fleetwood Mac’s lead guitarist and the man singlehandedly responsible for turning that ineffectual troupe of farm-club English blues musicians into one of the two or three biggest record sellers in the Western world, has done a remarkable thing on his first Asylum album, “Law and Order.” Thumbing his nose at conventional wisdom, Buckingham has committed to vinyl a collection of songs (and fragments of songs) that, in the context of a record business made acutely uncomfortable these days by anything to the left of Kenny Rogers, amount to nothing less than a contemporary version of Walt Whitman’s barbaric yawp (that’s in Leaves of Grass, just in case your undergraduate days are too far behind you). Amazingly, however, because he has such strong pop instincts and because he has such impeccable commercial credentials, Buckingham can have it both ways. He can record music that is far more subversive (and a hell of a lot more fun) than anything the Sex Pistols ever dreamed of and know that it will get played on the radio anyway.

Describing just how Buckingham turns this trick in “Law and Order” is not particularly easy, as you might have guessed. Though it is exceedingly well crafted, it is not slick, it is not designed to spawn a hit single to be sung at weddings, bar mitzvahs, or weenie roasts. It is quirky, occasionally whimsical, often pretty, always original and highly personal – all more or less at the same time. And while it may at first appear as lightweight as any other topical tinsel, there are heavy subtexts lurking beneath the surface glitter. That all this should be the work of a comfortably rich member of the mainstream rock Establishment would be nothing short of astonishing were it not for Fleetwood Mac’s earlier “Tusk,” on which Buckingham was the dominant force. This, in many ways, is the sequel to that much underrated effort, and we should have seen it coming.

What Buckingham has produced in this new album is what Pete Townshend once called “the usual gynormous ego-trip,” which is to say, among other things, that with a couple of minor exceptions he played every single note here. That is not, in itself, any big deal. Lots of people (Townshend, for example) have made very good records that way, and lots of people (Todd Rundgren, anyone?) have made very dull ones. Where Buckingham differs from most of those who have gone the one-man-band route is that he isn’t trying to fool you into thinking you’re listening to five people; this stuff wears its artifice on its sleeve. He wants to make interesting noises, not simulate someone’s idea of a rock band, and that gives the whole thing the subtle – and endearing – cast of crackpottery.

The songs, lyrically sketchy and structurally simple, are deliberate means to an end, vehicles for Buckingham’s goal of confounding our expectations of what pop music should sound like. Their creative juices come from the unconventional arrangements and oddball mixing decisions, from the oddly placed drums, from tinkling toy pianos, from the hyper-emotional singing, from the acoustic instruments that pop up where you expected electric ones, and so forth. Some of them are clearly tongue in cheek, and some may be deadly serious – it’s hard to tell. Trouble, for example, is an extremely attractive, wistful little song that, done straight, would not have been out of place on “Rumours.” Here, however, Buckingham’s absurdly breathy vocals and overdubbed chipmunk chorus make it sound strangely paranoid; he’s probably kidding somebody, but it’s an open question whether it’s himself, Fleetwood Mac, or us. The whole album is like that , including, as a bonus, the strangest-ever version of September Song; Walter Huston is turning in his grave.

In rock-absolutist terms, of course, “Law and Order” is a frivolous piece of work: no great issues are addressed, no appeals are made to heart or to conscience, no fabulous new lifestyle vistas are opened. But it’s an important record nonetheless because it challenges the prevailing pop climate in ways rock’s avant-garde is unwilling or unable to: it communicates actual feelings the average listener can relate to. Yes, it demands that you meet it halfway, but it doesn’t assume that you are one of the blessed converted. I think it’s an extremely entertaining record, and a very brave one as well. Would you like to take any bets on how this sublime whoopee cushion of a disc will sell relative to Stevie Nicks' recent vial of vinyl valium?
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  #5  
Old 03-23-2006, 08:27 PM
John Run John Run is offline
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David won't like me for hijacking the thread from Steve, who is a great, eloquent, and thoughtful critic, but Stereo Review had some fantastic reviewers. Ron Givens was a brilliant rock critic. Mark Peel and Alana Nash all offered reviews that were consistently better than most other music magazines.

Below is Ron Givens' review of Out of the Cradle


Stereo Review, Volume 57, Number 8 (08/1992), Sound Recording Reviews: Out of the Cradle
Lesley Thode


Stereo Review, Volume 57, Number 8, August, 1992

Sound Recording Reviews: Out of the Cradle
By Ron Givens
Reviewer's Grade: A

"Out of the Cradle" is the best Fleetwood Mac album in years. Sure, it's attributed to Lindsey Buckingham, but listening to it on a really good sound system not only approaches a religious experience but reveals a larger musical truth: Lindsey Buckingham was the pure-pop genius behind the most successful incarnation of Fleetwood Mac, from the "Fleetwood Mac" album to "Tango in the Night."

Of course, Fleetwood Mac wasn't a one-man band. Stevie Nicks, Christine McVie, Mick Fleetwood, and John McVie all made important contributions to the group's sophisticated musical mix. But Buckingham gave it its gorgeous, ersatz-symphonic sound, particularly as his magical touch became more dominant in the studio. You can hear the ear-popping similarities between the Mac and his solo sound more clearly than ever in this album, Buckingham's third on his own and his first since leaving Fleetwood Mac. Just as Keith Richards's first solo album, "Talk Is Cheap," proved that his scruffy guitar was the heart of the Rolling Stones, "Out of the Cradle" shows how essential Lindsey Buckingham's glossy-but-edgy arrangements were to the Big Mac attack.

"Don't Look Down" begins this audio showcase with a crisp, pseudo-classical, acoustic-guitar intro that collapses into a tumble of notes before the actual song kicks in with a well-oiled, bossa-flavored beat. Buckingham croons along breezily on the verses and is joined on the choruses by a lush, one-man choir (himself, overdubbed). The effect as the voices break the word "down" into a series of punchy, angelic syllables - "dow-ow-ow-ow" - would do Brian Wilson proud. These vocal gymnastics are a production theme, as Buckingham isn't afraid to process his voice for dramatic effect, squeezing it into a neurotic falsetto in "Wrong" and deepening it into a robotic basso in "This Is the Time." That wizardry is tame, however, compared to what he does with string instruments: Acoustic guitars become metallic, electric guitars go molten, and he plucks something to get the sound of harpsi-chords, balalaikas, bouzoukis, and music boxes.

All of this imagination is harnessed to richly melodic pop tunes that effortlessly unspool with soaring clarity and vivid atmosphere. "Street of Dreams" and "Surrender the Rain," consecutive songs in the middle of the album, are so vividly evocative that they almost become cinematic; no videos needed here, you can make them up in your mind. Buckingham's musical talents are so strong and varied that you almost don't notice that occasionally his lyrics are somewhat lacking - a little platitudinous here, a little new-agey there. But on the subject of basic human feeling - love, heartbreak, loneliness, contentment - his thoughts and sounds merge masterfully. The album's title refers to the Walt Whitman poem "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking." If we're very lucky, Lindsey Buckingham, now out of the Fleetwood Mac cradle, will rock endlessly - and just this well.


Thanks to Les for posting this to the Ledge and to Anusha for formatting and sending it to us.
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  #6  
Old 03-24-2006, 12:56 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by John Run
David won't like me for hijacking the thread from Steve, who is a great, eloquent, and thoughtful critic, but Stereo Review had some fantastic reviewers.
I'll always love you! There was another good critic at Stereo Review named Noel Coppage. He reviewed "Tusk" for the magazine (he said it wasn't a great work because it didn't explore in enough depth a specific number of themes & it wasn't referential in the classic sense, but he said it was a "fascinating parade of sounds" & all in all his summation was that it was an invigorating, interesting album).

Simels himself also reviewed "Bella Donna" -- again, not so favorably. Like a lot of serious music critics, he didn't consider Stevie Nicks an aesthetic force to be reckoned with (except as a vocalist), although I guess he was always willing to give her the benefit of the doubt when listening to new work of hers.

If you read the rock press while you're infatuated with these artists, it definitely colors your views -- even in ways which you hardly recognize at the time. It's only years later that you see that you had no sense of balance or proportion, & that you had no frame of reference, no contextuality, & that these writers were in fact offering these very things. So young fans today look at me & get frustrated that I don't sort of just ... effuse the way they feel. My words don't match their inchoate feelings. Their only option, in order to make any sense of my position, is to label me a "non-fan," which of course is absolutely idiotic & ridiculous.

I also remember Simels himself saying something about "Tusk" -- all I recall is that he thought "Sara" was sonic wallpaper in the good sense: you could get lost in its blandness & meanderingness, & get a great buzz from it.

Plus, I remember his saying that GYOW was about the only track worth hearing twice on "Rumours," but I think his attitude about Mac's recorded works at this point changed through the years. By the time he reviewed "Law & Order," he owned up that "Tusk" was underrated (although curiously he doesn't mention his own initial response).
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Old 03-24-2006, 05:17 PM
Richard B Richard B is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by David
By the time he reviewed "Law & Order," he owned up that "Tusk" was underrated (although curiously he doesn't mention his own initial response).
They never do. Why would a critic admit to their written idiocy.

I leave you with this:
Pay no attention to what the critics say... Remember, a statue has never been set up in honor of a critic!
-Jean Sibelius
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  #8  
Old 03-24-2006, 06:05 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Richard B
They never do. Why would a critic admit to their written idiocy.
Well, there's error in judgment & then there's idiocy.
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I leave you with this:
Pay no attention to what the critics say... Remember, a statue has never been set up in honor of a critic!
-Jean Sibelius
Hey, I just saw the birthday salute to Sibelius on one of the discs of the Leonard Bernstein's Young People's Concerts!

As for what Sibelius is recommending, I understand but can't follow. There's almost always antagonism between artists & critics. But I read critics for the same reason I read this board: to hear opinions & to hear those opinions discussed.
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