The SWS Reviews Thread

[Peestie]

I guess the reviews of the album are going to start coming in any day now so we should have a thread for them all together.

Here's a short on from Classic Rock:

Lindsey Buckingham never fails to surprise when it comes to solo albums. His sixth in all, Seeds We Sow (Eagle) strips away all pretence on every level. It’s raw and intense, with the music drawing from early 20th century American folk and blues, in the way that it relies on technique not technology. And lyrically it explores the ramifications of the choices we make in life. Fleetwood Mac fans might be discouraged by the lack of gloss, but if you like music to be challenging yet also enticing, you’ll love this album.

http://www.classicrockmagazine.com/n...s-round-up-57/

Encouraging stuff!

[Peestie]

http://www.calgarysun.com/2011/08/25...top-cd-reviews

Lindsey Buckingham
Seeds We Sow

Buckingham gone to seed? Not a chance. Like its predecessors, the Mac daddy’s superb sixth solo CD is a DIY affair, with LB layering his precise needlepoint fingerpicking and high-whispery vocals atop beatboxes, sparse instrumentation and home-studio sonics. Add some sharp folk-rock cuts about karma and you’ve got the best album Mac didn’t make this year. What up wit dat?

Download: In Our Own Time; That’s the Way Love Goes

RATING: 4 (out of 5)

[WeepingWall]

Originally Posted by Peestie

I guess the reviews of the album are going to start coming in any day now so we should have a thread for them all together.

Here's a short on from Classic Rock:



http://www.classicrockmagazine.com/n...s-round-up-57/

Encouraging stuff!

This one is such a great description of why I love Lindsey Buckingham. Thanks for posting.

[Peestie]

For almost four decades, on and off, Lindsey Buckingham has been the driving force behind one of the world’s biggest bands, Fleetwood Mac.

He is the charismatic architect of Rumours and Tusk, whose songs are familiar to millions, yet it’s often the case that many Mac nuts, particularly outside the US, would be hard-pushed to name one of the guitarist’s five solo albums, let alone pick a highlight from any of them.

That doubtless says more about the fairweather nature of the band’s conservative fanbase, though to his credit, Buckingham, one of the more gifted players of his generation, has never appeared to crave attention even though he’s spent his career in the spotlight. Cast as a maverick when he indulged various eccentric recording methods for 1979’s landmark Tusk, the tag has stuck.

As a solo artist, Buckingham is, at the age of 61, enjoying a fine run of form. Seeds We Sow is his third album in five years, following 2006’s Under The Skin and 2008’s Gift Of Screws, records which the Californian singer-songwriter discovered were welcomed by a new audience who’d been enchanted by Fleetwood Mac’s surprisingly harmonious 2003 reunion and tour after 16 years apart. Their comeback set, Say You Will, from that year, was solid enough, its best song a tumbling, guitar-speckled Buckingham number called “Red Rover”. In concert, too, his solo rendition of “Big Love” illustrated the range of his exquisite fretwork and power of his star-crossed vocal. Comparison with Stevie Nicks’ latest solo effort is unnecessary, so let’s just say Buckingham’s passion for his craft is obvious.

What’s noteworthy is that both Gift Of Screws and Under The Skin stemmed from or before those Mac sessions; Seeds We Sow, a mellower affair, is an entirely new set of songs, and, lush and reflective, it unfolds as such. Buckingham composed, produced and mixed the record in his LA home studio, playing almost every instrument, even overseeing its release via the independent label Eagle. Buckingham and Fleetwood Mac are out of contract with Warners, though you suspect the major would’ve stuck with him if he could guarantee a healthy return. As it is, removed from the pressure of label and band, he’s a free agent who can feed his rebellious streak. Go his own way, so to speak. Couple this with his happy domestic situation – he married in 2000 aged 50 and has three children – and it was always unlikely he’d produce a record as unhinged as 1984’s Go Insane.

That’s not to say Buckingham is set in his ways. On the contrary, though he specialises in two types of song, the fluid acoustic flourish and the rockier stomp, he explores variations of these with the youthful vigour of a person one third his age. There’s a “Tusk”-like shuffle to “One Take” which he decorates with an outrageous Yngwie Malmsteen shred, while the distinctive shimmering harmony of “In Our Own Time” and simple interlocking riffs of “Rock Away Blind” can really only be called Buckinghamesque; no-one else plays with such elegance. If there’s one track that will draw newcomers to Seeds We Sow, it’s “Stars Are Crazy”, one of the loveliest songs Buckingham has ever written. Over tantalising fingerwork he pines for a lover before howling at the moon as the chorus erupts, sending shivers of delight through the listener. A closing tiptoe through the Stones’ “She Smiled Sweetly” could be Buckingham paying his dues to Jagger and Richards, but the distinction here is that, though his songbook, like theirs, is already abundant, Seeds We Sow suggests that there’s plenty more to come.
Piers Martin

http://www.uncut.co.uk/music

[michelej1]

^That is a glorious review.

I laughed at the Calgary Sun singling out Lindsey's "high whispery vocal." Ummm, I'd rather he not become known for that.
Michele

[Spikey]

I laughed at the Calgary Sun singling out Lindsey's "high whispery vocal." Ummm, I'd rather he not become known for that.

How about, "lush sweeping overtone"?


Thanks for these reviews. They've made me even more excited. I just wish Linds would care a little about singles and the success of the album. I mean, it's great he just wants it to be out there, but as a major fan, I want it to succeed with some promotion.

[elle]

Originally Posted by michelej1

^That is a glorious review.

second that - so nice to read that review, and adding to anticipation!

[Peestie]

http://somethingelsereviews.com/2011...s-we-sow-2011/

Rock music, uncategorized — August 29, 2011 9:39 am
Lindsey Buckingham – Seeds We Sow (2011)
Posted by Nick DeRiso

You keep waiting for Lindsey Buckingham, the old rebel, to soften into middle-aged acceptance, to conform. This isn’t that record. Credit Buckingham for never trading true emotion for sentiment. Seeds We Sow is as hard eyed as it is musically ambitious — beginning with its abruptly confessional album-opening title track.

“In Our Own Time” follows, as Buckingham reminisces about a lost love amidst an almost mathematical cascade. “This time I think she’s gone for good,” Buckingham says, then adds: “But I never really know.” Then all of the implications, all of those hurt feelings, all of the still-burning confusion, are echoed in his frenetic, contradictory chording. It’s a triumphal marrying of words and music, and not the last one.

“Illumination,” with a smack-you-around rhythm and smart lyricism, becomes the first echo of his familiar Fleetwood Mac-era mixture of angular pop musicality and the angry admonition. That makes the initially prosaic, old-timey texture of “That’s The Way Love Goes” all the more devastatingly effective. Just when Buckingham has lulled you into a sense of safe melancholy, however, he rips off a series of brick-loosening riffs. Love can be like that too, all soft and safe, then heart-splashingly, completely over.

Buckingham, awake in the middle of the night chasing regrets, drags us across a desolate dreamscape on the echo-laden, pulsing “Stars Are Crazy.” It’s a song of hollow majesty. Then “When She Comes Down” bursts out, powered by a sky-high multi-tracked vocal that runs completely counter to its crepuscule subject matter. Back in their prime, this track probably would have been swiped for a new Fleetwood Mac album. Just like that, though, Buckingham begins banjoing through “Rock Away Blind,” a staggering lament. Those days, he seems to be saying, are gone.

And maybe that’s a good thing. After all, his old band might have struggled with the complexity of “One Take” – a tune that seems to set up as a moment of repentance, with somebody answering for whatever missteps happened along the way. Not in Buckingham’s hands. Looping a half dozen singing Lindseys over a torrent of strangely metallic blues licks, he doesn’t sound sorry — not at all — on this brutally frank rocker.

So, yeah, Seeds We Sow, due on Sept. 6, certainly has its dark moments, culminating with “She Smiled Sweetly.” Sung in an after-midnight whisper, the track doesn’t even try to sort out the mysteries of life, much less of women. Yet, there is a lasting transformative quality to tracks like “Gone Too Far,” this clanking piece of pop confection; and “End of Time,” a surprisingly upbeat moment of ambivalence that again belies its title. Taken together, they end up imbuing this project with a pleasing thematic rhythm, as Buckingham ultimately finds purchase somewhere between striving for community and feeling his oats.

Makes sense. Buckingham, for all of the things he rejects, for all of the things that piss him off and make him play the guitar in a bloody-fingered rage, was never about nothingness. Buckingham’s music, in a move that belied his era, didn’t settle for cheap thrills, quick answers — or something so obvious and easy as nihilism.

And, lucky for us, it still doesn’t.


-------------


I really liked that review! They've all been good so far!

[michelej1]

^That's a spectacular review, which captures Lindsey's explosiveness.

Originally Posted by Peestie

Then all of the implications, all of those hurt feelings, all of the still-burning confusion, are echoed in his frenetic, contradictory chording. It’s a triumphal marrying of words and music, and not the last one.

And that's what so great about Lindsey's music. Sometimes, his lyrics have to be bare and simple, because he marries them to complex sound which translate them for us. When you are playing with such emotion, too many words can only distract from it. For instance, the way he plays Go Insane, you don't really want him to say more than "I scream your name. She's a lot like you." The feeling is there. It's primal and instinctive. You don't need more words to bring it out and right into our hearts.

This reviewer has captured the way Lindsey's guitar finishes his sentences.

Hurt is only anger and love blended. Anger is only love and hurt. This reviewer hears Lindsey breaking down those components and stringing them back together.

Michele

[Nico]

I love that many of these reviewers seem to "get" what Lindsey is about. He seems to be reaching into that part in a lot of people- where passion, complexity, emotion, beauty and a little of the anal-retentive 'quirk' seems to be stored. He's got all of it at once.

[wondergirl9847]

I think it's hilarious how when we (the general public, not we on this board) read reviews from critics who love what we love, we are happy with them and say they know what they are talking about. Then, when they hate what we love, it's "Stupid critics, they don't know what the h*ll they are talking about!"

It's just funny to me, dat's all.

GREAT reviews, but I think most music critics love LB. It's the general public that's always going "WTH is this?" Heh.

[Peestie]

Originally Posted by wondergirl9847

I think it's hilarious how when we (the general public, not we on this board) read reviews from critics who love what we love, we are happy with them and say they know what they are talking about. Then, when they hate what we love, it's "Stupid critics, they don't know what the h*ll they are talking about!"

It's just funny to me, dat's all.

GREAT reviews, but I think most music critics love LB. It's the general public that's always going "WTH is this?" Heh.

I tend to agree with the reviewers more often than not anyway. But the ones who I disagree with are clearly wrong and don't know what they're talking about.

[jellyman10]

Originally Posted by michelej1

Hurt is only anger and love blended. Anger is only love and hurt. This reviewer hears Lindsey breaking down those components and stringing them back together.

Michele

I like that a lot.

[BombaySapphire3]

By Steve Morse
Globe Correspondent / September 5, 2011

Whenever Lindsey Buckingham is apart from Fleetwood Mac, you worry that he’s going to drift into the ether. Buckingham needs the tension of Fleetwood Mac to bring out his best work. He can get too quirkily self-indulgent on his own, but this new solo album, “Seeds We Sow,’’ has moments of considerable beauty. His fingerpicked acoustic guitar once again shines, leading the way on the hypnotic title track and on such layered gems as the Nick Drake-influenced “Stars Are Crazy’’ and the edgy “End of Time.’’ His vocals throughout are often processed in a heavily reverbed manner. A few songs don’t work - “In Our Own Time’’ has some guitar fills resembling a buzzing gnat - but Buckingham’s sheer gift for melody wins out. The ballad “When She Comes Down’’ is a stately coup, while “One Take’’ is a political insight into this country’s dwindling middle class. Buckingham has made a hobbyist record to please himself, and he ends with a lovely, folk-flavored remake of the Rolling Stones’ “She Smiled Sweetly.’’ It’s almost a lullaby in his hands. (Out tomorrow)

[michelej1]

Originally Posted by BombaySapphire3

“In Our Own Time’’ has some guitar fills resembling a buzzing gnat - but Buckingham’s sheer gift for melody wins out.

Ha, I like this description. But I think I like the buzzing gnat quality. You know how they go away and you think/hope that you've gotten rid of them, but then you return? That's how the song is. The verses are relatively calm and then this angry gnat comes in, "it wouldn't make any difference. We crossed the line" and the gnat kind of shakes things up and changes the mood. Lindsey's voice and his guitar, pairing like two people, coming back to make demands.

Michele