Gift of Screws Reviews

[michelej1]

Spin Magazine: * * *


http://www.spin.com/reviews/lindsey-...screws-reprise

Three decades after helping steer Fleetwood Mac to platinum glory, Lindsey Buckingham's enthusiasm remains his greatest strength -- and weakness. For all the warm California melodies, his unchecked perfectionism produces an antiseptic sound, with the overdub junkie supplying most of the instruments and all the vocals (though old mates Mick Fleetwood and John McVie make cameos). Gift of Screws boasts a lot of attractive touches, from the lovely acoustic guitar of "Bel Air Rain" to the crashing chorus of "Love Runs Deeper," but less polish would add some soul to the mix.

[trackaghost]

AJ, you just don't understand music that isn't polished to perfection I think.

[trackaghost]

Originally Posted by michelej1

...but less polish would add some soul to the mix.

How funny given what AJ's just said

[John Run]

Originally Posted by michelej1

Spin Magazine: * * *


http://www.spin.com/reviews/lindsey-...screws-reprise

Three decades after helping steer Fleetwood Mac to platinum glory, Lindsey Buckingham's enthusiasm remains his greatest strength -- and weakness. For all the warm California melodies, his unchecked perfectionism produces an antiseptic sound, with the overdub junkie supplying most of the instruments and all the vocals (though old mates Mick Fleetwood and John McVie make cameos). Gift of Screws boasts a lot of attractive touches, from the lovely acoustic guitar of "Bel Air Rain" to the crashing chorus of "Love Runs Deeper," but less polish would add some soul to the mix.

Does anyone find it intersting to see a couple of the critiques complain about too much polish, yet the raging debate here is that album lacks the polish of a professional recording?

[jbrownsjr]

Originally Posted by trackaghost

You guys are cracking me up

did you get your GOS yet?

[michelej1]

Originally Posted by trackaghost

^^ You just don't understand music that isn't polished to perfection I think.

Spin magazine thought it could have used less polish.

Michele

[ajmccarrell]

Originally Posted by trackaghost

AJ, you just don't understand music that isn't polished to perfection I think.

I just don't like music that isn't polished. I understand weird.

[shackin'up]

Originally Posted by ajmccarrell

What I was saying is that you would have had a different perspective if you had made an album and that you apparently didn't understand my perspective, not that mine was superior to yours. I actually do understand your point of view, but I don't agree with it. It doesn't make me stupid, it just means I have a different opinion of things. One guy challenged me and said, "unless you are an accountant and an emerging reording artist..." so I answered him because I thought it was funny because I actually am both of those. Plus, you just plain were pissing me off by making a bunch of wild assumptions and assigning motives to me that didn't exist. I actually said I was a crappy engineer, I wasn't even taking a position of superiority there. Have you heard of humor?! I wasn't being stupid, I just don't appreciate the "homegrown" thing because most "homegrown" musicians try to sound professional, not the other way around. I've had people come in and record on my stuff with phony percussion and strange ideas and me and my friends generally make fun of those people and play their recordings for a good laugh. In fact, there's a band called The Tacomen who devote their music to weirdness. I would just hope that Lindsey was shooting higher than The Tacomen. So, to me it wouldn't make sense why someone would do that on purpose. I hope you go back to your cage now and let it go.

You crack me up dude. How Funny!

[trackaghost]

Originally Posted by jbrownsjr

did you get your GOS yet?

I did! I think it sounds incredible. I actually think Lindsey has struck a nice balance on this one between the polish and the home recorded, sparser sound.

[ajmccarrell]

Originally Posted by trackaghost

How funny given what AJ's just said

I can't say the last time I agreed with a critic! LOL! For example, I actually like Shania Twain and Savage Garden.

[michelej1]

Yahoo Music:

http://new.music.yahoo.com/blogs/new...-takes-his-bow

Lindsey Buckingham: Gift Of Screws (Reprise) I have a confession to make! I'm an enormous fan of former Fleetwood Mac honcho Buckingham, but I haven't had the opportunity to hear this album yet! I just wanted to alert everyone to the fact that it's just been released! Wait--here's an idea: Why don't I pretend I've heard it and write a review anyway? Maybe I can start it with: "One thing's for sure, Stevie Nicks is gonna get a kick out of this album title!" Or how about: "Few suspected that Buckingham's little-known stint in federal prison would--thanks to the generosity of particularly hip prison guards--allow him to record the album of a lifetime!" Or maybe: "Buckingham's fixation on the various characters populating The Wizard Of Oz has taken him to some mighty strange places, but if this is his ode to the Tin Man, I can't wait 'til he gets to Auntie Em!" Nah--that would be stupid!

[trackaghost]

Originally Posted by ajmccarrell

I actually like Shania Twain and Savage Garden.

AJ, are you actually admitting that on a public board?

[michelej1]

Rocky Mountain News, 9-15-08

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/new...a-gift-indeed/

Lindsey Buckingham's latest is a 'Gift' indeed

Gift of Screws has taken years and various U-turns to finally make it into stores today. The album became a bit of a legend among Lindsey Buckingham fans when bits of it were played live with Fleetwood Mac in 1997. Bits of it slipped out around 2000, five years after he'd started it.

But the album got derailed twice, first when songs were cannibalized for much of the Fleetwood Mac album Say You Will and again when a few more tracks turned up on Buckingham's solo album Under the Skin.

So, what fans hear now may be far from how this album was conceived all those years ago, but despite coming in dribs and drabs, the finished album is worth the wait.

Out of the Cradle, his third solo album, from 1992, hit the high mark for many Buckingham fans. It kept his quirky nature but mixed in more lush, traditional songwriting in gorgeous tracks like Don't Look Down and You Do or You Don't. His past couple of solo albums have been sparser and more experimental, with Buckingham at times exploring what his fingers could do on the fret board (and how fast they could do it) rather than putting melody first.

That can be fascinating on tracks like the opening Great Day, but the finger-picking style that Buckingham has become partial to over the years can be a bit excessive at times, impressive as it is.

But Gift of Screws comes closer to that Out of the Cradle sound than anything else he's done since. Love Runs Deeper could have found a spot on any Buckingham solo album (and would have sounded great on Say You Will), filled with classic acoustic guitar as well as warm harmonies and sweet, melodic electric leads. Underground could have fit on Rumours or Tusk, a sweet melody with simple voice and guitar.

Gift of Screws gives an explicit idea of where Buckingham's mind is these days. "In my younger days / I was mistaken for a whore / I guess you could say / I lived in chains," Buckingham sings in Bel Air Rain, a slap at the record industry that once championed him but of late has stymied his creativity.

He takes a look at the bigger picture in the title cut, classic off-kilter Buckingham, a rock song pierced with the occasional maniacal laugh and lyrics like "Authority makes us bleed, bleed, bleed ... Authority keeps us down, down, down," and in the equally political closing cut, Treason.

With 10 tight songs and a more focused viewpoint, Gift of Screws ends up being his second-best solo album - very good company to be in.


By Mark Brown

[jbrownsjr]

Originally Posted by trackaghost

I did! I think it sounds incredible. I actually think Lindsey has struck a nice balance on this one between the polish and the home recorded, sparser sound.

I'll get mine this weekend...

[Livia]

http://blog.allmusic.com/2008/09/12/...ift-of-screws/

Two studio albums in three years may not seem to be a breakneck pace for anybody else, but for Lindsey Buckingham it is no less than pure acceleration. Indeed if we include the live album that came out in 2007 between the two, it’s like three outings in as many years — warp speed for an artist like Buckingham who has been known to go more than a decade between his own offerings outside of Fleetwood Mac. On 2006’s Under the Skin, Buckingham issued a soft-spoken songwriter’s disc. It was all acoustic, deeply reflective, poignant, profound, and drenched in beauty. It was also criminally under-noticed. Somewhere he promised he’d release an electric rock record in the future. Gift of Screws (referencing the poetry of Emily Dickinson) may not be all the way there, but more often than not it offers the kind of rocking, heady electric pop he’s known for, as well as some glorious, lyrically sophisticated, acoustic singer/songwriter fare that bears his signature alone. Some of these tracks were written for an aborted session begun in the 1990s. Still others made it onto the Mac’s Say You Will, and still others are brand-spanking new.

The set opens with “Great Day,” a pulsing, urgent, minor-key rocker that blends electric and acoustic guitars, organic and electronic percussion, and some hushed keyboards. It explodes near the end with a scorching, burn-up-the-wire guitar solo he usually only plays live. “Did You Miss Me?,” written with wife Kristen Buckingham and featuring drums by Walfredo Reyes, could have appeared on any of Fleetwood Mac’s blissed-out, bittersweet ’70s recordings. The weave of guitars, layered backing vocals, and drop-dead catchy chorus is pure Buckingham. Mick Fleetwood and John McVie are the rhythm section on the rumbling multi-dimensional blues-winder “Wait for Me,” which also offers more evidence of the guitar slinger emerging form the shadows to take place center stage before giving way to a dense multi-textured chorus that transcends the blues without leaving them for dead. Fleetwood also adds drums to “The Right Place to Fade,” with bassist John Pierce. Acoustic guitars meld enormous power chords and stinging lead fills in a frenetically paced pop song. Along the way, there are hesitant, confessional, acoustically orchestrated songs where the darkness almost swallows the light as in “Bel Air Rain.” The wall of strings fingerpicking style adds to the emotional heft of songs like “Time Precious Time,” especially as the vocal effects give the sound a nearly three-dimensional quality. The title track is a balls-out rocker that places ’60s rave-up garage rock up against ’70s glam in a storm of guitars and clattering drums. The closer, “Treason,” is a dignified near-anthemic pop song with a gospel chorus that is unlike any song Buckingham’s written before and sends the set out in a very elegant, and deeply moving way.

What it all means is simple: that Buckingham is not only still relevant, but he’s also a pioneer in terms of craft, execution, and production, and has plenty to teach the current generation about making excellent records and never resting on your laurels. Gift of Screws is a standout even in his catalog.