Tango In The Night

[seekerj]

Originally Posted by greendaze5

In terms of FM’s two 80’s albums, I prefer ‘Mirage’ over ‘Tango’, but ‘Tango’ definitely put FM on the map again after a 5 year absence. It was a big hit internationally and sold really well.

I don’t care for Lindsey’s songs (still scratching my head over ‘Family Man’ which was oddly released as a single), but ‘Big Love’, as the first single, did grab a lot of attention with the so-called ‘love grunts’. I agree with others here that Christine was the one who really shined on ‘Tango’. I love ‘Mystified’ and ‘Everywhere’, and ‘Little Lies’ was a deservedly a hit.

Stevie, sad to say, was lacklustre to say the least. ‘When I See You Again’ sounds like it was written in a klonopin haze (though she wasn’t actually on the stuff yet), and ‘Welcome to the Room… Sara’ was a miss for me. Instrumentally, it’s well produced, but it’s saddled with weak lyrics - a mishmash of pointless ‘Gone With The Wind’ references and recycled words from ‘Blue Lamp’. Stevie could’ve made a profound statement about going through drug abuse and coming out a survivor but you’ll never get that from the way the song was written.
Oh, and about ‘When I See You Again’, Stevie did an interview (in ‘Creem’) where she said the ending originally had her and Lindsey singing the ending together, but she ‘snuck in’ and took out her part so it’s only Lindsey’s voice we hear at the end. It was to make it more ‘intimate’, she said with him singing alone. Anyways, with all due respect, I really have to question Stevie’s side of the story. She was apparently barely there for the recording of ‘Tango’, and I doubt control-freak Lindsey would have let her near the mixing board –

I love ‘Seven Wonders’, but kudos to Sandy Stewart - not Stevie. Sandy saved her butt with that one. We might’ve gotten the awful ‘What Has Rock and Roll Ever Done For You?’ instead. A thought - if ‘Seven Wonders’ wasn’t used, perhaps that b-side track ‘Book of Miracles’ could have been substituted (with words by Stevie that is) instead.

By the way, does any kind, generous, lovable Ledgie have a mp3 of ‘Book of Miracles’ that he/she can post to share? I only have it on vinyl, and on an audiocassette that I can’t find. Thanks!

Wow, I couldn't possibly disagree more!

BTW, Stevie already had lyrics to "Book Of Miracles"; check out the outtake of "Juliet" from the Tango sessions.

[michelej1]

Houston Chronicle, May 10, 1987 by Marty Racine

Tango In The Night Fleetwood Mac Warner Bros.
Behold this tome from Fleetwood Mac, their first studio recording in five years since "Mirage".

What are we to make of this? That the band is back together? That Stevie Nicks may or may not still have a solo career? That Lindsey Buckingham and Christine McVie are talking again? That the principals have finally rediscovered a positive atmosphere in which all their creative urges are allowed to mesh? That it was time to make some money again?

It all reads like a soap opera, and frankly I couldn't care less. Interpreting the fragile egos of superstars through obtuse lyrics is not my cup o' tea. This is high society, like "Dynasty" or "Dallas", which has no bearing on my world. The music therefore just doesn't make a difference one way or the other.

That said, the tunes are nice and pretty enough, excellent "adult contemporary" material. I find that I'm partial to McVie and Buckingham as composers, especially in the tunes "Big Love, Mystified" and "Isn't It Midnight". I find also another reason to dismiss Nicks as a flake.

No, this does not measure up to "Rumours", nor to their live shows, which, thanks to the extraordinary Buckingham, can be exhilarating. The problem is that there is too much democracy going, too much of an effort to accommodate everyone's distinct styles. And yet we're supposed to believe this is true "band". Good grief, the perceptions we are fed. (3 stars)

[michelej1]

Fleetwood Mac Restored

April 12, 1987|STEVE HOCHMANOK,

OK, so the faces we used in Record Rack last week to rate albums were stupid. While we launch a study to come up with a better symbol for rating the records, we'll go with the old standby of 1 to 4 checks. Translation: = "Great Balls of Fire"


"TANGO IN THE NIGHT." Fleetwood Mac. Warner Bros.

How does the definitive group of the late '70s make out a decade later?

Very well, thank you. Combining the experimentalism of 1979's "Tusk" and the crisp pop sense of 1977's multi-multi-million selling "Rumours," "Tango" is as arresting and unique a work in its time as those albums were in theirs.

And though Lindsey Buckingham, Christine McVie and Stevie Nicks each still function pretty much autonomously as songwriters, the group's first album since 1982's uninspired "Mirage" carries the most unified feel of any Fleetwood Mac LP since the ones predating Buckingham and Nicks arrival in 1975.

One reason is the usual solid foundation of Mick Fleetwood's tribal drumming and John McVie's easy-to-overlook bass playing. The main one, though, is Buckingham. As the album's co-producer (with Richard Dashut), arranger and dominant writer/singer, he employs the same distinctively adventurous approach he explored first on "Tusk" and later on his two excellent solo albums.

Buckingham's pop pointillism favors mosaics of small, staccato sounds. But since the elements never quite fit together, the album is characterized by a pervasive, unsettling sense of weirdness.

In Buckingham's hands, a simple, pretty little tune like Christine McVie's "Mystified" becomes an intricately detailed miniature, while on his own songs he combines dozens of whispers into sometimes harrowing screams. Typical is his "Big Love," a sketchy warning to be "looking out for love"--as opposed to looking for love--that builds to a boil over an insistent beat and grunted background vocals. It's as infectious as it is disturbing.

But even such relatively conventional material as McVie's straight rocker, "Isn't It Midnight," and Nicks' dreamy "When I See You Again" benefit from the subtly bizarre undercurrents Buckingham creates.

Predictably, the album's lesser moments come courtesy of Nicks, who on the obtuse "Welcome to the Room . . . Sara" furthers her reputation as the Shirley MacLaine of rock, even calling on the spirit of Scarlett O'Hara. Worse yet, her voice sounds shot.

But that's not enough to drag down this showcase of Buckingham's remarkable talents. The only complaint is that with just three Fleetwood Mac studio albums and Buckingham's two solo efforts since "Rumours," we don't get to hear enough of them.

[michelej1]

April 10, 1987 Boston Globe (MA)


Section: ARTS AND FILM

FLEETWOOD MAC RECAPTURES OLD GRACE

Steve Morse, Globe Staff


There was a time when a new Fleetwood Mac album was accorded the same fanfare a Bruce Springsteen or Michael Jackson album is given today. Just turn the clock back to 1977 when Fleetwood Mac's "Rumours" LP sold 15 million copies -- a feat since surpassed only by the Bee Gees' "Saturday Night Fever" (28 million sales) and Jackson's "Thriller" (35 million).

But Fleetwood's glory days didn't last. After their experimental, mixed-bag followup album, "Tusk," sold only 4 million copies, group members Stevie Nicks, Christine McVie, Lindsey Buckingham, John McVie and Mick Fleetwood turned their attention to outside projects. Nicks became an arena headliner in her own right. Buckingham made three overly precious solo albums. Fleetwood went to Africa to make an ethnic dance record. John McVie toured with John Mayall. And Christine McVie made the underrated pop album, "Got a Hold on Me," in 1984.

Fleetwood Mac's new "Tango in the Night" (Warner Brothers) is only the band's second album of original music in the '80s -- and the first since 1982's dubious "Mirage." It is being shipped without fanfare to stores tomorrow (indeed, many fans didn't even know the group was recording again), but it represents their most alluring work since "Rumours."

The album's recent single, "Big Love," signaled trouble with its breathy creampuff sound, but the rest is much more inviting. The group sounds recommitted, especially in the delicate, ethereally-beautiful vocal harmonies that are its trademark. And the songs are again nicely balanced between the bewitching confessional pop of Nicks, the open-hearted love songs of Christine McVie and the offbeat musings of Buckingham. They complement each other just as they did in their late-'70s zenith, even if some arrangements sound like a recycling from that period.

Arranged and partly recorded in Buckingham's home studio in Los Angeles, the tracks have a warmth missing from the "Mirage" LP, which had been recorded in a castle in Europe. The warmest tunes, not surprisingly, belong to Christine McVie, whose song "Everywhere" is a joyous affirmation of newborn love. She later combines with Buckingham on the New Age pop of "Mystified," another love song of singular beauty.

Nicks checks in with her own gems. "Seven Wonders," a cosmic tale of romance that appears to float out of King Arthur's time, has an angelically upbeat vocal. She's equally disarming on "When I See You Again," about meeting a lover for the last time. The mood is enhanced by soft acoustic guitar and a final verse sung by Buckingham, who, not coincidentally, had been her lover during the '70s.

Buckingham's contributions are more checkered, but also more adventurous. His "Big Love," the album's aforementioned single, lays a big egg, but his other songs mostly glisten. His Al DiMeola-like Spanish guitar is a highlight on "Family Man," which concerns owning up to the responsibilities of fatherhood.

Elsewhere, Buckingham experiments with Moroccan and Caribbean textures, then opens throttle on the title track, "Tango in the Night," which describes a romantic moonlight dream and has a guitar solo that screeches into the stratosphere. For that matter, his guitar playing is a focal point throughout the album. He is a master of filigree melodic lines, tremolo touches and the occasional bent-note wail that makes his playing all the more versatile and energizing.

Some critics will surely find Fleetwood Mac an anachronism in 1987. But this album not only restores the grace of their glory days, it proves the band still has some creativity to spare. There is no word yet as to whether they will tour, but they've at least survived the studio with respect intact. MORSE ;

[michelej1]

New York Times (NY), May 13, 1987


Section: C

THE POP LIFE; EDGY WISTFULNESS FROM FLEETWOOD MACStephen Holden


FLEETWOOD MAC'S exquisitely produced new album, "Tango in the Night" (Warner Brothers) is filled with ghostly voices and delicate folk-rock instrumentation all interwoven into the pop musical equivalent of a moody Gothic romance.

"Looking out for love
In the night so still
Oh I'll build you a kingdom
In that house on the hill


Thus begins Lindsey Buckingham's song, "Big Love." The album's opening cut and first single (currently No. 7 on Billboard's Hot 100), "Big Love" establishes a mood of edgy, sophisticated wistfulness that runs through all 12 of the album's cuts.

Song after song expresses a mixture of longing and remembrance, as Mr. Buckingham's shimmering arrangements for the quintet's three principal singers - himself, Christine McVie and Stevie Nicks - evoke the members of the group calling to one another from mist-shrouded turrets, across vast distances. In the album's two most beautiful productions, "Mystified" and "Little Lies," Ms. McVie's mournful, smoky folk alto winds through lush jungles of whispering voices strung with delicate acoustic instrumentation. The album's one sour note is an inferior Stevie Nicks song, "Welcome to the Room . . . Sara," in which the singer's voice rings harsh and flat.

Mr. Buckingham, the group's 37-year-old lead guitarist and co-producer, has long been the principal architect of the Fleetwood Mac sound, but on "Tango in the Night," the group's first studio album since "Mirage" (1982), he assumed near-total control. Mr. Buckingham, who co-wrote seven songs on the album, is a master of aural detail, and the music's gossamer textures - woven with Irish lap guitar, zither, ukulele and other electronically enhanced folk instruments, surpass in refinement even those of the group's 1977 blockbuster album, "Rumours."

" 'Tango in the Night' took about 18 months to record," Mr. Buckingham recalled the other day. "The bulk of it was cut in the home studio that used to be my garage in the Hollywood hills. Most of the vocal parts were recorded track by track. The voices used in the textured vocal choirs were mostly mine. I used a Fairlight machine that samples real sounds and blends them orchestrally. Constructing such elaborate layering is a lot like painting a canvas and is best done in solitude."

According to Mr. Buckingham, "Tango in the Night" resolves - both personally and esthetically - many of the problems that plagued Fleetwood Mac after the success of "Rumours."

" 'Tusk,' the album that followed 'Rumours,' was a brazen act of rebellion for which I took a lot of flak," he said. "Because of that, the 'Mirage' album, was, in my mind, a reactionary piece of work that tried to reprise 'Rumours' and had very little vision. When the group left the road after the 'Mirage' tour, there were many issues left unresolved. This album is as much about healing our relationships as 'Rumours' was about dissension and pain within the group. The songs look back over a period of time that in retrospect seems almost dreamlike."

[michelej1]

Newsday, April 12, 1987 by Stephen Williams

* * * Sara's back, with her pals.

Sara is also known as Stevie Nicks, that consummate witchy woman, and her pals are Fleetwood Mac. "Tango in the Night" is the name of the new Warner Bros. album, and it is mostly stunning.

If there was a Super Bowl for rock groups so far this year, Fleetwood Mac would win on sheer team effort. Stevie Nicks haunts the background of a Christine McVie song; Lindsey Buckingham punctuates a Stevie Nicks song; Mick Fleetwood is the offensive line, drumbeatting not only behind the songs but through them.

"Tango in the Night," the group's first record since 1982's "Mirage," is not a departure, but a consolidation. Under Buckingham's firm production hand - he is the star and the center of "Tango" - the layers of music still swell, but with more of an edge than in the past. Buckingham's guitar has a dirtier feel, but it's never sour; McVie's vocals are under control on this record, yet full of air and sweetness.

Only Nicks gets away; perhaps the band is giving her enough rope. Her attitude - and her songs are mainly attitude - is more haughty than ethereal, and her melodies, especially "Welcome to the Room . . . Sara" and "When I See You Again," are disturbingly vapid. There is no "Sara" or "Rhiannon" here. And yet her contribution to the record, especially her breathy "uggggghh" on "Big Love" and her soft, kinetic harmonies on "Everywhere," is major.

"Big Love," the first single, opens the record, and on one hearing it's clear that "Tango," like "Rumours" (which was No. 1 for 31 weeks), is loaded with commercial possibilities.

But the string of three songs, starting with "Everywhere," is the record.

"Everywhere" opens with a tinkly keyboard, a very sober McVie and very simple lyric, but with soaring togetherness in front of the rich line of the synthesizers. There is an exquisite tension in the song, and Nicks' harmonies are gorgeous because they are so unaffected.

Buckingham, who wet a toe in the twilight zone of rock with an album called "Go Insane," is the anchor. His "Caroline" has an Eastern sway and deliberate lyrics: "She's so cagey/She's so stagey/So attractive/So reactive." Mick Fleetwood's tom-tom beat plays against a percussive tinkle, and deep underneath is John McVie's bass. Buckingham also wrote the title track, a primal tone poem with a ringing solo.

Side two is weaker. "Little Lies," by Christine McVie and Eddy Quintela, is an updated "You Make Loving Fun," while "You and I, Part II" is a perky song - it sounds like Christmas, if you can imagine that - but thin.

Nicks, from whom many will expect the most, recycles herself. "Welcome to the World . . . Sara" is a lush act with "Gone with the Wind" overtones - references to Tara and Scarlett - but it's never more than a private melodrama. Her "When I See You Again" is milky love song, with the singer shifting vocal textures and ragging syllables. Vapid.

McVie lifts side two with "Isn't It Midnight," with help from Buckingham on guitar and harmonies. It's a natural single, rushing with energy from start to finish in the best tradition of "Go Your Own Way."

"Tango in the Night" is a blend of accessible techno-pop and collective heart. It is not a single vision, but, like "Rumours," a collage. Not particularly courageous, but the folks in Fleetwood Mac save their indulgences for their solo work. This is the Fleetwood Mac of old, of 1977, of "Rumours," and in 1987, that's the best that could happen to this band.

[tabruns]

Originally Posted by Ripley

First Impression.

I'm a fairly young FM fan (24) and although I've loved Rumours, S/T and Bella Donna for a decade I've actually never listened to Tusk, Mirage and TITN in their entirety before. Of course I'm familiar with most of the singles from these albums and the ones performed on The Dance though. So, I've decided to rectify this glaring omission and I've begun with Tango.

I'm sort of surprised that Christine McVie's contributions are the stand out of the entire album. Mainly because her 80's solo record is mostly unremarkable. On Tango, however, she gets in the best songs with Everywhere and Little Lies. Isn't It Midnight is a great jam and a very typical McVie song. Mystified is a bit odd with it's almost "Let's Get It On" mood and You and I, Part II is fun.

Stevie's songs lack the urgency that her material from S/T & Rumours have. Seven Wonders feels very much like a solo track and Welcome to the Room Sara is largely forgettable. When I See You Again is fantastic but far from a masterwork.

And Lindsey... *sigh*, I find his tracks on this album insufferable. I've always found Big Love to be a bit pretentious and jarring to listen to and Family Man has to be one of his worst songs. Caroline and the title track are both fairly boring. I like Lindsey but his work in the 80's is indulgent to a fault.

Overall it's a good album. I almost wish it was a follow up to McVie's self titled record because she seemed to be on quite a roll during this period. Unfortunately Nicks offers very little and Buckingham is still on a mission to prove how clever he can be.

B-

I hope I haven't made any enemies with my thoughts and welcome some observations from more seasoned fans of the band.

Hi Ripley,

Thanks for the observations. I've been a Mac fan since Rumours came out, and I bought every album of theirs since then (clarification: every album of theirs that had Stevie on it).

I have to say that I think your assessment of Tango in the Night is very similar to mine.

To me, all three songwriters were at the top of their form for 'Fleetwood Mac' and 'Rumours'. On the following three albums, one of the writers was "off":

Tusk - Lindsey and Stevie both turn in very creative, great songs. Christine's are very mediocre when compared to her output on the previous two Mac albums. "Think About Me" and "Over & Over" are decent album tracks. "Brown Eyes" is saved by masterful production. "Honey Hi", "Never Make Me Cry" and "Never Forget" are all kind of forgettable, IMO.

Mirage - Stevie and Christine turn in the best tracks here. Lindsey fumbles, frankly I think because of reacting to the blow-back he got from Tusk: "Oh Diane" is somewhat cute, "Empire State" has that rolling bass line to save it, but "Can't Go Back", "Eyes of the World", and "Book of Love" all lack any kind of gravity at all.

Tango In The Night - Here Lindsey rebounds, Christine shines, and Stevie is the culprit. The only decent Stevie song, "Seven Wonders", wasn't even written by her. Some fans find "Welcome to the Room...Sara" to be touching because its personal. I find it to be a meandering mess of a song. "When I See You Again" might have been salvageable except for the constant repetition of "whatsa matter baby" that Stevie thinks she has to sing a different way everytime.

The only album that they've all done together since then is The Dance, and on that one they all turned in solid songs. I always found it amusing what they wrote about:
Lindsey writes "My Little Demon" about himself and "Bleed to Love Her" about Stevie.
Stevie writes "Sweet Girl" about herself.
Christine writes "Temporary One" about the band.