should FM release the album without SN's songs?

[elle]

we found out some news yesterday, that seem to push FM album yet another year or 2... or 3... or 5.... how many years has it been thus far for this album?? since 2009 i guess.


so my question is:

since they have 4 out of 5 members on board, and 2 out of 3 songwriters, should they release the album without any SN-penned songs?


another thing to think of - FM has:

• released the album with SN and CM, without LB on it, and
• released the album with LB and SN, without CM songs on it

- so it seems about right to release one with LB and CM songs, without SN's songs, no? full circle!

if SN is on board with an album from all 5 at some later time, they can release another album then. Lindsey's songs he recorded with Mick and John have been waiting since the beginning of 2012. it is now more than 2 years later, and seems that Christine's songs have been added to his. WHAT ARE THEY WAITING FOR??

[vivfox]

Debbie, I am surprised you voted yes.

[Dex]

I don't know about "there's no time to waste", but I did vote "yes". I enjoy Chris and Lindsey as collaborators. Stevie always felt like the "bonus member" of that group, and I'm enjoying her recent and fairly prolific solo work so see no reason to insist upon her inclusion. I'd rather not have her just "phone it in" for the sake of it. *cough*TangointheNight*cough*

However, do I think this would happen in a million years? No.

[BlueDenimLamp]

Should FM put out the record without Stevie??? YES!!! Lets' see how good a record without Stevie is and how well it sells...

[michelej1]

Originally Posted by BlueDenimLamp

Should FM put out the record without Stevie??? YES!!! Lets' see how good a record without Stevie is and how well it sells...

It's not going to sell anyway. That's the point. Whatever fear they had 20 years ago about their lack of popularity without Stevie is a moot point now. They have to give up that fantasy of going gold or platinum, even with Stevie.

They shouldn't be trying for record sales. Will the record get critical attention? Yes and maybe more so when the press plays the band dissension angle. They might study the album more closely to grade it in light of Stevie's absence. This could bring them more criticism as critic after critic talks about what is missing without her (as they did with SYW) or it could bring them surprise praise. We don't know.

But this is not 1987 when they needed Stevie for record sales. Sadly, they won't be getting those with or without her.

Michele

[elle]

Originally Posted by Dex

I don't know about "there's no time to waste", but I did vote "yes". I enjoy Chris and Lindsey as collaborators. Stevie always felt like the "bonus member" of that group, and I'm enjoying her recent and fairly prolific solo work so see no reason to insist upon her inclusion. I'd rather not have her just "phone it in" for the sake of it. *cough*TangointheNight*cough*

However, do I think this would happen in a million years? No.

agree with all you wrote - all very good points!

also unfortunately agree that FM seems to be a bunch of wusses who can't make up their mind and make firm decisions on anything, and that they'll continue to wait and wait and wait for SN and beg her to phone in it. which is a shame, and completely unnecessary.

[Johnny Stew]

I voted to wait for Stevie.

I don't think this news has pushed Fleetwood Mac's album back at all. Christine told more than one journalist that the band was working on material to release "sometime next year"/"sometime after the tour."

Who knows... maybe Stevie's current recording sessions in Nashville had been planned all along, and were the reason Lindsey said she hadn't yet decided on the "how" & "when" of recording with Fleetwood Mac.

[The Catdancer]

Also ~ if she doesn't want to be there and she phones it in what's the use?? If she's unhappy being in the studio we'll get a bunch of crappy songs. Who wants that? I certainly don't.

[elle]

Originally Posted by Johnny Stew

I voted to wait for Stevie.

I don't think this news has pushed Fleetwood Mac's album back at all. Christine told more than one journalist that the band was working on material to release "sometime next year"/"sometime after the tour."

Who knows... maybe Stevie's current recording sessions in Nashville had been planned all along, and were the reason Lindsey said she hadn't yet decided on the "how" & "when" of recording with Fleetwood Mac.

yes my speculation is that Chris and Lindsey have been saying all this stuff lately since they were waiting for SN and were unsure when she'll be on board. that doesn't mean she'll be on board ever for an FM album, but they seem hopeful. Mick's "we're hoping" it will be fast, 2 weeks, tells me they are still waiting for her. and i just don't get that mentality. why wait and beg and try to coerce her for 5 years now, if she doesn't feel like it? let her do what she wants to do, and they can do what they want to, you know?

plus, i just don't get why you think FM should wait? don't you want more stuff out rather than less?

i need this Mac album to come out. we've been waiting since 2012.

(and i need LB solo album. ASAP. )

[Dex]

Unfortunately, if they do release an album without Stevie, they really lose all of the "WE'RE ALL BACK TOGETHER AGAIN YAY" media hype that's been built up around them over the past few months. Commercially it's not a smart move at all. Personally I couldn't care less about commercial success for Fleetwood Mac at this point, but history has shown that they obviously do.

[Johnny Stew]

Originally Posted by elle

yes my speculation is that Chris and Lindsey have been saying all this stuff lately since they were waiting for SN and were unsure when she'll be on board. that doesn't mean she'll be on board ever for an FM album, but they seem hopeful. Mick's "we're hoping" it will be fast, 2 weeks, tells me they are still waiting for her. and i just don't get that mentality. why wait and beg and try to coerce her for 5 years now, if she doesn't feel like it? let her do what she wants to do, and they can do what they want to, you know?

I get what you're saying -- but we don't even know that they're still having to beg or coerce her, or that she doesn't want to record with them. Sure, that was true of the very recent past -- but the past is still the past. Stevie's changed her mind before. When she left the band in 1991, she said she didn't foresee herself ever working with Fleetwood Mac again. Ultimately she did, saying that she "woke up one morning and realized I wasn't mad at anyone anymore." Things change.

Also, and I can't stress this enough, the prospect of recording an album last year, meant that it would be just her, Lindsey, Mick & John. Christine's return is a total game-changer.

So Stevie not wanting to record an album last year, doesn't automatically mean that she doesn't want to now. Neither does the fact that she hadn't yet committed to a "how" or "when."

I said weeks ago, that Stevie may have been waiting for Dave Stewart to be available, before she could commit to a time-frame with Fleetwood Mac (if Dave was to be the one producing her tracks). With this latest information, it's very possible that a new solo album had been on the cards for a while now -- and that it's the reason she couldn't definitively tell Fleetwood Mac, "I'll be available from this date to this date," because she didn't yet know.

Maybe Mick is "hoping" that she'll actually be done in two weeks, because they intend to go into the studio with her the minute she's back in LA.

Originally Posted by elle

plus, i just don't get why you think FM should wait? don't you want more stuff out rather than less?

Well, for one thing, I highly doubt they have anything to release yet. Was a month & a half at the Village Recorders (if they were even there that long) enough time for Christine to record keyboards and vocals for Lindsey's five remaining Froom tracks, and for the band to completely record five or six of Christine's songs (some that, by her own admission, were in such raw demo form that Lindsey had to fashion them together)?

Seems like a tall order.

On top of that, they were working with limited involvement from John, due to his health issues. I would hope they'd be mindful to not over-tax him physically just to rush out a new album.

Originally Posted by elle

i need this Mac album to come out. we've been waiting since 2012.

(and i need LB solo album. ASAP. )

Us "old dogs" waited ten years between 'Tango' and 'The Dance,' for this lineup to work together again. And another sixteen years after that. (We also waited fourteen years between Lindsey's solo albums, and ten years between Stevie's.)

I find the prospect of waiting one more year to be a cake-walk after all that.

I do understand how you feel, though, Elle. And I can't say that I was always this patient waiting for the band members to release material.

[welcomechris]

What is this? We get a member to lose a member? Stevie needs to be there.

This is a little bit Like Then Play On. One Member Doesn't Have Any Songs But Works On A Solo Album.

[The Catdancer]

Originally Posted by vivfox

Debbie, I am surprised you voted yes.

My take on it is that she doesn't want to record with FM anymore (and that probably means Lindsey). She keeps putting it off and now she's in Nashville recording solo tracks. I don't understand why she won't just give them a few demos and let them work on it. Lindsey keeps saying he needs her to bring something to the table and she hasn't so far. Instead she's working on a new solo album. I feel like she doesn't want to be there. And as Elle pointed out they released music without Lindsey and without Chris so why not without Stevie? It'll be something totally different and the Stevie fans will get new music from her anyway (assuming she hasn't opened the vault for the millionth time).

[Johnny Stew]

Originally Posted by The Catdancer

I don't understand why she won't just give them a few demos and let them work on it. Lindsey keeps saying he needs her to bring something to the table and she hasn't so far. Instead she's working on a new solo album.

When she recorded 'Trouble In Shangri-La,' she pulled "Thrown Down" because she thought it would make a great Fleetwood Mac song. She also saved "Not Make Believe" for them, from her 'TISL' demo sessions.

There's always the possibility she intends to do that again, and save a few songs from these sessions for Fleetwood Mac to record. Lindsey suggested more than once last year, that Stevie didn't yet have any new material to bring to the table. So this time spent in Nashville could easily be a "kill two birds with one stone" situation.

Just a thought.

[The Catdancer]

Originally Posted by Johnny Stew

When she recorded 'Trouble In Shangri-La,' she pulled "Thrown Down" because she thought it would make a great Fleetwood Mac song. She also saved "Not Make Believe" for them, from her 'TISL' demo sessions.

There's always the possibility she intends to do that again, and save a few songs from these sessions for Fleetwood Mac to record. Lindsey suggested more than once last year, that Stevie didn't yet have any new material to bring to the table. So this time spent in Nashville could easily be a "kill two birds with one stone" situation.

Just a thought.

You could be totally right and maybe she does kill 2 birds with one stone. Let's hope so but I don't think they should wait for her to come around. I'm with Elle: you have an album, release it with or without her.