Gift of Screws Reviews

[dontlookdown]

I thought by now there would be a lot more press for the new album.
If anyone comes across any newspaper/mag reviews, post them here.

[vivfox]

I've read about it in a few places but haven't posted cause it's nothing we don't already know. He has been getting press, so you can sleep better tonight my friend.

[dontlookdown]

cool. thanks for that.
but i won't sleep til Obama wins in November.

[ajmccarrell]

considering the polling data, you may have insomnia for quite a while!

[David]

Originally Posted by dontlookdown

I thought by now there would be a lot more press for the new album.
If anyone comes across any newspaper/mag reviews, post them here.

Is this album even out yet?

[michelej1]

Originally Posted by David

Is this album even out yet?

No, but it will be out in about 27 days and people oughta start talking and writing about it NOW!

Michele

[TrueFaith77]

Originally Posted by michelej1

No, but it will be out in about 27 days and people oughta start talking and writing about it NOW!

Michele

I sent in a request for a critic's copy, but didn't hear back from the publicists.

I don't care about hearing it early or having it for free (I already pre-ordered like 7 copies), I just wanted to get the conversation started.

[gypsysoul]

After a farcical couple of weeks of getting faulty review copies I've now finally listened to the CD.

I know some people on the forum don't want to hear too much about it beforehand while others do so I'll offer a quick opinion which hopefully will strike a decent balance.
IMO:

It's a definite follow up to UTS rather than any of his other solo work.

Underground has a lovely 'Down on Rodeo' feel to it. Treason has a touch of 'Castaway Dreams' to it. Both these tracks are the most melodious and would sound good on the radio.

Time precious Time has some great guitar work which just made me think of rippling water. It has the hypnotic quality of a Save me a Place.

Gift of Screws has LB doing his manic laugh and generally sounding as if he's having a fantastic time. Personally I think this could be a single. It has a crazy feel to it that I think could really work in mainstream airplay. You can dance to it too! It will be great live.

Wait for you, love runs deeper, The right place to fade and Gift of screws are the rocking tracks.

Vocally, I think, he sounds 'younger' than on UTS. There's very little whispery singing which is a good thing imo.

[Michelle Daya]

i couldn't help but login and post this:

http://top40-charts.com/news.php?nid=41726

Lindsey Buckingham To Release New Album 'Gift Of Screws' On September 16, 2008

BURBANK, CA. (Top40 Charts/ Reprise Records) - Warner Bros. Records will release the fifth solo album from singer, songwriter, and guitarist Lindsey Buckingham, entitled Gift of Screws, on Reprise Records September 16, 2008.

Gift of Screws unites the broad appeal Buckingham showed as the main musical force behind Fleetwood Mac with the restless spirit of experimentalism he's shown on landmark Mac albums as Rumours and Tusk, and on his own visionary solo albums.
It's the sum of Buckingham's labors of musical love and dedication, with all the joys and struggles that have come along the way.

"I'd say this album distills several periods of time," Buckingham says. "It has false starts to make albums, songs that go back a number of years that took a while to find a home, and brand-new songs. I wanted to bring it all together in one place. As an artist I'm still, for better or worse, clinging to my idealism and to my sense that there is still much to be said. This album is a culmination of that."

Gift of Screws is a rocking complement to Buckingham's previous album, 2006's acoustic guitar-driven Under the Skin, balancing such layered guitar-and-voice contemplations as "Time Precious Time" and "Bel Air Rain" with the seductive rush of the title song and the opener "Great Day." In some ways it's also an extension of his Fleetwood Mac legacy as Mick Fleetwood and John McVie provide the unmistakable foundation on several songs, including the embracing "Wait for You" and the gloriously mad title song. Showcased throughout are Buckingham's noted virtuosity as a guitarist, as well as his expressiveness as both a singer and writer.

Largely written and recorded both at his home studio and in solo hotel room sessions during his Under the Skin tour (an electrifying set of concerts documented on the 2008 DVD/CD package Live at the Bass Performance Hall), Gift of Screws was produced by Buckingham, with the exception of two songs - "Wait For You" and the title track - that were co-produced by Rob Cavallo (Green Day, Jewel, Dave Matthews Band).

Last fall, Buckingham embarked on his first U.S. solo tour in nearly 14 years, which continued through the summer. He will tour the U.S. in support of Gift of Screws through September and October. Please visit Buckingham's website, www.lindseybuckingham.com, for details.

The track-listing for Gift of Screws is as follows:
"Great Day"
"Time Precious Time"
"Did You Miss Me"
"Wait For You"
"Love Runs Deeper"
"Bel Air Rain"
"The Right Place to Fade"
"Gift of Screws"
"Underground"
"Treason"

[BTFLCHLD]

Originally Posted by gypsysoul

After a farcical couple of weeks

did you have that chance to chat with baby?

[TrueFaith77]

Originally Posted by gypsysoul

After a farcical couple of weeks of getting faulty review copies I've now finally listened to the CD.

I know some people on the forum don't want to hear too much about it beforehand while others do so I'll offer a quick opinion which hopefully will strike a decent balance.
IMO:

It's a definite follow up to UTS rather than any of his other solo work.

Underground has a lovely 'Down on Rodeo' feel to it. Treason has a touch of 'Castaway Dreams' to it. Both these tracks are the most melodious and would sound good on the radio.

Time precious Time has some great guitar work which just made me think of rippling water. It has the hypnotic quality of a Save me a Place.

Gift of Screws has LB doing his manic laugh and generally sounding as if he's having a fantastic time. Personally I think this could be a single. It has a crazy feel to it that I think could really work in mainstream airplay. You can dance to it too! It will be great live.

Wait for you, love runs deeper, The right place to fade and Gift of screws are the rocking tracks.

Vocally, I think, he sounds 'younger' than on UTS. There's very little whispery singing which is a good thing imo.

Thank you for the report. Very intriguing! -John

[Brenmaren]

http://backtorockville.typepad.com/b...y-bucking.html

[MacMan]

The Hurst Review

Not many artists deserve comparison to Brian Wilson, but, if ever there was one, surely it’s Lindsey Buckingham. Both mean, after all, as undisputed pop geniuses, channeling their own eccentricities and tortured madness into wonderfully melodic, accessible, and creative music. And, of course, both men eventually succumbed to the pressures of their own demanding muses; Wilson notoriously broke down during the middle of his Smile album, crumbling under the weight of his own creative ambition, while Buckingham, after playing a central role in one of the most wildly popular blockbuster albums of all time, Fleetwood Mac’s Rumors, turned to spearheading one of the most dumbfounding and bizarre albums of all time, the indulgent and drug-addled Tusk, eventually fading away into a solo career that’s been deafeningly quiet and frustratingly sporadic, especially after his proliferation and chart-topping success with the Mac.

But both men, of course, have more or less recovered. Wilson eventually finished the Smile album to rave reviews, and Buckingham’s recent output has been marked by a genuine sense of peace and serenity, as he’s seemingly abandoned the excesses of his rock and roll youth and settled into a life of quite pleasure and simplicity with his family and his art. For all these superficial similarities, however, the standing differences between the two could not be more pronounced than they were in 2008, when Wilson released That Lucky Old Sun, a deliberately nostalgic, backwards-glancing pop album, and Buckingham turned out Gift of Screws, an album that’s very much about the here and the now.

Which doesn’t mean, of course, that it finds the artist charting new territory, but it does find him taking stock of his gifts in a way that makes this easily his most essential and consistent record as a solo artist. Indeed, for the first time, all of Buckingham’s gifts are on display on a single album– the guitar pyrotechnics, the sun-kissed California pop melodies, the strange flourishes of studio wankery, the deeply sentimental lyrics. Even more impressive: He accomplishes all of that in an endearingly short, concise set, as the album clocks in at just ten songs and less than 40 minutes of music.

Of course, most of that can also be said of his 2006 album, Under the Skin, a quietly introspective, inwardly focused disc of acoustic singer/songwriter fare. Gift of Screws has been heralded as his turn away from introspection and back toward all-out rock, which is partially true but also a bit misleading. For one thing, Buckingham proves here that pop and rock can be just as introspective as acoustic folk, as these songs form a very personal and intimately-detailed reflection on the cost of celebrity and the rewards of love and family. And while it’s true that the album occasionally erupts into the kind of white-hot electric guitar solos he generally reserves for his live shows, to call this his rock album is simply an oversimplification, as it’s really a pop album that happens to rock from time to time, but also covers a lot of other ground. Indeed, it encompasses everything he’s ever done, and seems to point toward the future even as it takes stock of the past.

It’s a bravura performance, one in which Buckingham revels in all of his many skills. Those who love him for his studio wizardry will get a kick out of the wicked-cool opening track, “Great Day,” a seamless blending of muffled percussion, kitschy keyboards, spry acoustic fingerpicking, distorted vocals, and a pair of raging electric guitar solos; he’s practically a one-man symphony. Those who are still under the spell of Under the Skin will appreciate the nimble acoustic guitar work of “Time Precious Time,” while those still holding out for a Fleetwood Mac reunion won’t want to miss “Did You Miss Me,” a ridiculously catchy pop track that would have been a standout even on Rumors. But of course, there practically are a couple of Fleetwood Mac reunions here, as Mick Fleetwood and John McVie stop by to provide the rhythm tracks to a few songs, even bringing a blues touch to the winding “Wait for You”– a road down which Buckingham proves more than happy to go with his swaggering electric guitar licks. The rest of the album offers variations on this sound, from the artsy studio craft on “Love Runs Deeper” to the slamming rock of the title cut. It all culminates in a wonderfully gospel-drenched closing number, “Treason,” a song that’s about as hooky and addictive as anything he’s ever written.

Buckingham sounds like he’s having a blast here, which is half the fun; it’s a joy to hear an artist of his stature so contented, so pleased just to be making music. He sings about his love for his family and the quiet life here– sometimes with joy for the present, elsewhere with regret over past mistakes– and it’s hard not to think of this as the sound of lessons learned, wisdom gained. And indeed, Buckingham sounds like he’s in a good place right now; while many of his peers, like Peter Gabriel or Phil Collins, either grow increasingly insular and indulgent or keep hashing out the same old tripe, Buckingham is a rare artist who continues to push himself without ever turning his music into pure vanity. Gift of Screws may be a very personal project, but it’s almost as fun to listen to as it must have been to make, and that, as much as anything, is what makes it a standout in a career that’s been full of them.

[MacMan]

Lindsey Buckingham Goes In For A Mug Shot, Gets Screwed

I think it's fair to say that Lindsey Buckingham* probably got screwed a lot during his Fleetwood Mac heyday. Hell, he probably got screwed a lot after that, too. And there was assuredly some screwing before, from Stevie Nicks and possibly others. The point is the man did some screwing. Whilst listening to "Secondhand News," I've had innumerable women make some offhanded remark to me about laying down in the tall grass and letting Lindsey do his stuff to them. Maybe it was the hair. Also, I hang out with a lot of women who like Fleetwood Mac.

Apparently, the gift of so many screws is ending up blurry, haggard, and gaunt. This cover is an almost complete repudiation of the "sex" portion of the rock and roll lifestyle. It's like Lindsey is saying, "This is where all the screws got me! Now I look no different than the mug shot of the local wino who wears a bathrobe outside and smells like liquid smoke and vinegar!** This was the Gift of Screws!"***

* It must be noted that I think Lindsey Buckingham is a genius, and that I would probably lay down in the tall grass and let him do his stuff to me.

** This is a reference to an actual person. I used to work at a liquor store.

*** Speaking of gifts from screws, this post gives me an excuse to post this kinda rad version of "Here Comes The Sun", which is the perfect answer to the question "What would it sound like if Lindsey Buckingham covered 'Here Comes The Sun'?"

[michelej1]

Originally Posted by MacMan

[B][SIZE="5"] It's like Lindsey is saying, "This is where all the screws got me! Now I look no different than the mug shot of the local wino who wears a bathrobe outside and smells like liquid smoke and vinegar!** This was the Gift of Screws!"***

Oh, that's hilarious. And all you Beatles fans are just jealous 'cause you wish George did it that way.

Michele