Yet another 4-star review for Buckingham McVie - Q Magazine

[elle]

Originally Posted by aleuzzi

Oh, good--I'm not the only one who first saw 4/5 stars. RS changed it to 3.5. Why?

i saw 4 out of 5 too this morning. funny! it really doesn't desrve 5 stars imo but i was happy for them to see 4/5.

and, guardian peeps clearly don't like the album or LB much -

https://www.theguardian.com/music/20...e_b-gdnculture

Lindsey Buckingham and Christine McVie review – divided we stand
2 / 5 stars

(East West Records)
Weary, but moments of brightness shine through … Lindsey Buckingham and Christine McVie.

Thursday 8 June 2017 16.30 EDT Last modified on Thursday 8 June 2017 19.19 EDT

Behold the new Fleetwood Mac album, or at least it was meant to be, before the band tumbled apart after their 2014-2015 reunion gigs (Stevie Nicks floated off diaphanously to tour solo with the Pretenders; Mick Fleetwood and John McVie, however, take part). Oddly, it begins with a 2011 Buckingham album track, Sleeping Around the Corner, him croaking about a girl like he’s reaching for the Benylin, before a cheap synthesiser bass line parps in. Then there’s On With the Show, a spirited ode to late-career music-making: “I am making a sound / I am too proud to drown … There’s no way to go / But on down the road.” This weary mood persists, but some moments shine through: Red Sun and Lay Down for Free have the Mac’s trademark melodic gleam, and McVie sounds great, especially on the wispy, heat-weathered finale, Carnival Begin. The PhotoShopped album cover says it all, though, him glum, her smiling: this sounds like togetherness put on, not poured out.

[button-lip]

I found an 8/10 from UK.

http://thezreview.com/2017/06/08/rev...ristine-mcvie/


Review: Lindsey Buckingham / Christine McVie


By P. C. DETTMANN on June 8, 2017


When we first heard about popular music’s most unlikely collaboration album, it is true that we fell off our chair. But that was months ago. It is actually happening, and is out tomorrow. What we can say is that, after 40 plus years in the business, 4 out of 5 members of the Rumo(u)rs-era Fleetwood Mac have successfully recreated themselves yet again.

The only person not involved, Stevie Nicks, has jabbed a few elbows out in recent interviews. Quotes such as “what’s their, like, narrative?” puzzled us. She has vowed never to do another Mac studio album as there’s “no point spending a year on music that nobody will listen to.”

Well, if you think like that…

Whether anyone listens to this or not, it is not a Fleetwood Mac album at all. Which is what we had assumed they were giving us. Some people even said as much: The Mac Without Nicks was basically what we expected. Nor is this just a Lindsey album plus Christine McVie. No sir.

We were nonplussed by the first single, called, In My World. It seemed a tame offering, and basically a Lindsey song. The rest of the album is far, far, better, and somewhat new in sound. Even though John and Mick can be clearly heard in the background, this is completely new. Strangely, In My World is the track Rolling Stone prefers. We disagree.

The only non-Mac personnel are Mitchell Froom on keys, and long-time Buckingham producer/collaborator Mark Needham. It is a Mac album in staff if not in sound. And true, Sleeping Around The Corner has been seen before on a prior Buckingham album. But everything still feels new and sharp.

It has been pushed as a duet album, and that is accurate. But this is not the model of Fleetwood Mac, which basically has each songwriter singing their own songs with the rest on backing. These are proper duets, in the main. Red Sun and Feel About You stood out particularly to us as being quite poppy and fresh.

The album is unlikely to shift huge numbers, but it is very enjoyable, and essential listening for true fans. The supporting US tour will likely do very well, even if we are not likely to see this material live in the UK any time soon.


8.0/10.0
Enjoyable
The album is unlikely to shift huge numbers, but it is essential listening for true fans

[elle]

https://humanizingthevacuum.wordpres...ristine-mcvie/

Humanizing The Vacuum Alfred Soto's blog about movies, music, books, and politics.

So cool, calm, collected: Lindsey Buckingham and Christine McVie
Posted on June 13, 2017 by humanizingthevacuum
Lindsey Buckingham/Christine McVie – Lindsey Buckingham/Christine McVie


The pair has written songs before: the simmering little jam called “World Turning” on Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks’ first record with Fleetwood Mac in 1975; the opalescent “Mystified” and “Isn’t It Mystified” on Tango in the Night, the latter a fascinating mixture of bemusement and power chord riffage; and two parts of that album’s “You and I,” with the first marooned on a B-side because to my ears its glistening snake-in-the-tall-grass atmosphere upset Tango’s already bestirred surface.

On this, their first official collaboration, Buckingham and Christine McVie sound like survivors of a civil war, the fighting of which consumed years of blood and treasure. If the album is often so mild that it dissolves, give the credit to its makers, whose bones can barely support what’s left of their skins. But they still have nerves. Intimations of a life spent in pursuit of passion, of being subject and object, distinguish “Carnival Begin.” When McVie sings, “I want it all!” in the chorus, it’s startling to hear a woman over seventy making putative pop music sharing her needs. On the collaboration “Feel About You,” the playful-Muppet backup vocals with which 1987’s “Everywhere” ended complement a Buckingham guitar line that’s the aural equivalent of what McVie calls “honey in my tea” (he plays a similar beaut on “On With the Show,” where his instrument rings like a dinner bell). Their band’s rhythm section plays on most of the tracks. Was there ever a more aptly named drummer? Fleet, solid as wood. “Red Sun” could be a latter-day Mac track had Stevie Nicks contributed her emulsifying harmonies.

A habitual donor of tracks intended for mysterious solo albums, Buckingham’s best is “Love Is Here to Stay,” another triumph for his endless supply of finger-picked arpeggios; if “Carnival Begin” showed a McVie still committed to the carnal, “Love Is Here to Stay” is Buckingham pledging his troth. He’s not walking thin lines or yelling about big big love anymore, and if he’s going his own way it’s home. A Buckingham celebrating domestic tranquility is disturbing in its own way.

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[jbrownsjr]

What a honest and well-written review.

[button-lip]

Originally Posted by elle

A habitual donor of tracks intended for mysterious solo albums, Buckingham’s best is “Love Is Here to Stay,” another triumph for his endless supply of finger-picked arpeggios; if “Carnival Begin” showed a McVie still committed to the carnal, “Love Is Here to Stay” is Buckingham pledging his troth. He’s not walking thin lines or yelling about big big love anymore, and if he’s going his own way it’s home. A Buckingham celebrating domestic tranquility is disturbing in its own way.

No doubt about it. A better title should have been "Love is Here to Stay... whether you like it or not"

[lbfan]

Originally Posted by elle

The pair has written songs before . . . the opalescent “Mystified” and “Isn’t It Mystified” on Tango in the Night, the latter a fascinating mixture of bemusement and power chord

I assume this is a typographical error and the author meant "Isn't It Midnight"

[jbrownsjr]

Originally Posted by lbfan

I assume this is a typographical error and the author meant "Isn't It Midnight"

Yes, and I can't believe this wasn't proofed out. That's a big mistake for such a great review. I like the review because it's honest. It doesn't flatter.

[lennonfan]

here's a great review from Spin magazine:

http://www.spin.com/2017/06/lindsey-...-album-review/

[FuzzyPlum]

Originally Posted by jbrownsjr

Yes, and I can't believe this wasn't proofed out.

To be fair it seems to be from a blog rather than a publication.

[ViscountViktor]

I wouldn't hold Mystified up as an example of what they can achieve when collaborating together

[jbrownsjr]

Originally Posted by FuzzyPlum

To be fair it seems to be from a blog rather than a publication.

Ahhhh, makes sense now!

[wondergirl9847]

Originally Posted by button-lip

The only person not involved, Stevie Nicks, has jabbed a few elbows out in recent interviews. Quotes such as “what’s their, like, narrative?” puzzled us. She has vowed never to do another Mac studio album as there’s “no point spending a year on music that nobody will listen to.”

What the heck is that quote from Stevie taken from "what's their, like, narrative?" What the frig does that even MEAN?

Yep, nobody listening over and over and over and over to this Buckingham McVie album, least of all....ME.

I just don't get her...like....narrative.

[John Run]

https://www.theguardian.com/music/20...bserver-review

The Guardian seems to have doubled their like for the project to 4 stars.

[elle]

Originally Posted by John Run

https://www.theguardian.com/music/20...bserver-review

The Guardian seems to have doubled their like for the project to 4 stars.

haha, they can't decide. here's the whole article:

Lindsey Buckingham and Christine McVie: Lindsey Buckingham/Christine McVie review – strange and beautiful
4 / 5 stars

(East West)
Reunited: Lindsey Buckingham and Christine McVie.

Damien Morris
Sunday 11 June 2017 03.00 EDT
Fleetwood Mac’s last masterpiece, Tango in the Night, relied heavily on Buckingham/McVie compositions, with the group’s third great songwriter, Stevie Nicks, generally absent. Now that McVie and Buckingham are back together in the touring Mac band for the first time since 1997, they’ve reunited in the studio for this succinct collection of gentle pop-rockers, familiar yet far more strange and beautiful than 2013’s brittle Fleetwood Mac EP. Buckingham’s spidery guitar shivers through Love Is Here to Stay and slays the solo on Carnival Begin, while McVie’s undimmed gift for melody illuminates every song.

[button-lip]

Originally Posted by wondergirl9847

What the heck is that quote from Stevie taken from "what's their, like, narrative?" What the frig does that even MEAN?

Yep, nobody listening over and over and over and over to this Buckingham McVie album, least of all....ME.

I just don't get her...like....narrative.

I think so far, since the album release last Friday, she was proved wrong. People still buy albums.

Maybe that's why she chose to try with a new song today.