Let's Show Some Love For... Tango In The Night!

jaycee · #1 12-27-2009, 09:52 PM

Okay, I'm sure most will agree that this album, along with "Mirage", is largely ignored by Fleetwood Mac nowadays, and has somewhat mixed reactions from FM fans. Personally, it's my favourite!.. right after Tusk!

I even bought a cassette of it a few months ago for listening to in mum's car! Interestingly, when I put it on recently, she asked me if it was a greatest hits album!

I told her it wasn't, it was TITN, and she replied...
"Really? Oh... it's just that there's so many good songs on it!"

I love it for the nostalgia it gives me (particularly "Little Lies"), and for its experimental instrumentation - its sound slots into the 80s perfectly!
So, for those who love it, why? And for those who don't... read the thread title!

Fiver · #2 12-27-2009, 10:10 PM

I like almost every song on the album except for Stevie's songs. Well, I guess I must sorta like Seven Wonders since I find myself listening to it instead of skipping it. Standouts for me are Caroline, Big Love, and Everywhere. And I also have a soft spot for You and I Pt. II. I prefer the Mirage sound to TITN but this's probably a more solid album... so yeah, I do think TITN deserves mo' love!

**mylittledemon** · #3 12-27-2009, 10:10 PM

I think "Little Lies" was one of those tunes I remembered in the 80s, growing up. I had long forgotten that track by 1997, and I was sucked back into the Big Mac with THE DANCE... and I rediscovered this tune, not really ever knowing WHO it was that actually sang it! It was a pleasant surprise.

tilthefirefades · #4 12-27-2009, 10:50 PM

i agree that Mirage's sound is better than TITN, but I absolutely love it, from start to finish. The only song on it that I dont like that much is When I See You Again. My favorite is Everywhere, and also Caroline and Tango In The Night.

louielouie2000 · #5 12-27-2009, 11:25 PM

I still remember the first time I heard Tango In The Night... it was in my back yard as a kid in 1993

. I had recently told my best friend and neighbor I'd finally discovered a band I loved... Fleetwood Mac. She was amazed; she had recently discovered them as well, and also loved them! I told her some of my favorite songs (all I had was Rumours and Bella Donna at that point), and she shared some of hers. Neither one of us had heard of each others songs. She brought Tango over (on cassette!

), and played it for me on her boom box. At first I flatly refused to believe it was the same band. After all... put Gold Dust Woman on back to back with Family Man, and you'll see what I mean!

At that time, Tango was everything I hated about pop music... it might as well have been by Paula Abdul or Milli Vanilli. By '93 that kind of music was rendered hopelessly obsolete by the grunge scene. Even as I built up my Mac collection over the years, I avoided buying Tango at all costs. Perhaps because I was introduced to it at the worst possible time: when it was the very antithesis of what was going on in the popular music scene.

I never actually bought Tango... it was given to me as a Christmas gift about 10 years ago by my parents, because they were out of ideas of what to get me. I remember vividly watching The Dance air on MTV in 1997, wondering *WHY* they had to include songs from that album!

Some time in the past 5ish years though, I've done an about face on my opinion of this album. Maybe it was when '80s music and fashion started to trickle back in to current trends. Maybe enough time had passed where I could look at the album totally objectively. All I do know is that one random day, I decided to listen to the album. And suddenly I found it to be pure genius! It was such a departure from everything the band had done before... but at the same time it was an evolution. Whereas I found it cheesy and dated before, I now find it surprisingly adult, sophisticated, and worldly. I can just imagine how crisp and modern it must have sounded back when it was new. For some reason I can just see a sophisticated '80s couple drinking wine coolers in their New York loft listening to this album

.

I don't know... I just really LOVE Tango. It's such a snapshot in time. It's the last great album Fleetwood Mac made. On a song by song basis, and as a pop oriented album... I think it's every bit as good as Rumours. It's an album you can play around anybody: all of the songs are approachable, foot tapping, and fun. It probably has the best sequencing of any Mac album (Mystery To Me might just tie it though). The album just has everything: rocking songs like Isn't It Midnight and the title track, it has bubbly pop songs like Little Lies and Everywhere, and even has more serious songs like When I See You Again. The whole thing is just superbly paced and very high quality. It's everything that it should have been.

Do I have negative things to say about it? Yes. Do I have anything I'd change about it? Yes. Mainly, I'd replace You And I Pt 2 with You And I Pt 1. I probably would have found a way to work in Joan Of Arc, possibly displacing When I See You Again. Though I really would have a hard time getting rid of that song. It may not be pleasant to the ears for the most part, but it's without a doubt one of the most raw, emotive songs Stevie (or the band for that matter) has ever recorded. The whole shared verse with Lindsey at the end is enough to save that song for me... Lindsey's contribution is achingly gorgeous.

And these are some of my non-abridged thoughts on Tango!

HomerMcvie · #6 12-27-2009, 11:43 PM

While I love all of the non-Stevie songs on Tango, I feel, the album as a whole, doesn't hold up very well(worse than Mirage). The whole thing just sounds so...........computerized! It doesn't sound like a BAND. It sounds like someone, tinkering with every note, in a digital format, until perfection is achieved...... There are no warts on Tango.

Well, except Stevie's songs!

louielouie2000 · #7 12-28-2009, 12:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HomerMcvie

While I love all of the non-Stevie songs on Tango, I feel, the album as a whole, doesn't hold up very well(worse than Mirage). The whole thing just sounds so...........computerized! It doesn't sound like a BAND. It sounds like someone, tinkering with every note, in a digital format, until perfection is achieved...... There are no warts on Tango.

Well, except Stevie's songs!

The interesting thing is, I used to think Stevie's songs were the warts on Tango too. And as you well know, I'm a big Stevie fan. I think in time, I realized her very flawed presence on the album is perhaps one of the things that does make Tango so great. Stevie had just gone to hell and back when this album was being written and recorded. She hadn't just gone through rehab for her legendary cocaine addiction: she was committed forcibly! You can absolutely hear that turmoil, pain, and struggling on her songs. Her contributions on the album are the black eye that gives the blindingly polished Tango some character.

Even though it's not pretty to listen to, When I See You Again is probably one of the most revealing, raw songs lyrically that has ever been on a Mac album. Stevie's once beautiful, buttery voice had been reduced to a raspy, coughing sigh. Contrast that with how gorgeous Lindsey's verse sounds, and you see what rock and roll and love can do to one person... but not to the person right next to them. Again, while admittedly not pretty to listen to, I think the song is perhaps more artistically adventurous than most anything Lindsey did on Tusk. I think the song is genius.

aleuzzi · #8 12-28-2009, 01:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HomerMcvie

While I love all of the non-Stevie songs on Tango, I feel, the album as a whole, doesn't hold up very well(worse than Mirage). The whole thing just sounds so...........computerized! It doesn't sound like a BAND. It sounds like someone, tinkering with every note, in a digital format, until perfection is achieved...... There are no warts on Tango.

Well, except Stevie's songs!

I'm inclined to agree. The songs (minus Stevie's) are very strong, as are the performances, but the production is too dated, too...Synthetic. The demo of Everywhere, for example, is infinitely more moving than the final song primarily because there the sentiment of the song rings true. By the time they put all the polish on it, the effect seems dulled. Little Lies might be the exception for me: that song and its arrangement is pretty much perfect. Isn't It Midnight boasts a killer instrumental track but Christine's voice has been speeded up and tampered with in such a way as to mask the passion she delivers in a live performance of the same song.

jaycee · #9 12-28-2009, 04:49 AM

It's funny how one person's trash is another's treasure! Not that FM have ever produced trash...
Roxy Music's album "Avalon" is my all time favourite - so, if you know how that album sounds, you'll probably understand why I like TITN so much. Suffice to say, the reasons why some people don't like TITN as much (e.g. probably FM themselves) are the same reasons why I like it!

And I think Stevie's songs are gems! "Seven Wonders" was one of the songs that lead me to buy TVBOFM, which, of course, lead me to buy all five from the Rumours line up. "Welcome To The Room... Sara" is excellent imho, even if I can't really justify my liking it. As for "When I See You Again"... well, it oscillates up and down my list of FM song preferences. At the moment it's on an up, but even if it were down I'd still like it, as I do all FM songs!.. except for some of the post-Rumours material...

Sanne2 · #10 12-28-2009, 05:53 AM

I love this album! It was the first FM album that was released in my lifetime and my parents owned the CD, I remember I was mesmerized by the coverart.
I like all the songs (even Stevie's) except for that big, shiny turd that is Family Man.

WarmSir3 · #11 12-28-2009, 07:43 AM

I love Tango! Only thing that lets it down in my opinion is the mixing (and When I See You Again/You And I Part 2). If only Lindsey's guitar was higher in the mix! The Little Lies demo is amazing. And I also love the extended remix of Big Love on the 12" single!

holidayroad · #12 12-28-2009, 08:49 AM

Tango in the Night was my first Fleetwood Mac album. I bought it in Oct. of 1987. I was 12 and I hadn't known (as odd as it may sound) that Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks were ever in a band together. I only knew their solo works. I guess Tango does seem a little 'plastic' and overdone 80s style, but it is a product of its time. It's a great album to me. I still listen to it a lot, never really stopped listening to it. It is mostly a Lindsey product which probably explains my fondness for it. I thought Christine and Lindsey's songs were wonderful. Stevie's......well, they are good, but not great. As some others have said in this thread, 'When I See You Again' is an emotional, raw song. The ending vocal by Lindsey makes it even better. I can listen to Tango much more readily nowadays than I could from 87-96. For too many years, my enjoyment of the album was overshadowed by the fact that it so reminded me that Lindsey had left Fleetwood Mac!!

MichaelE · #13 12-28-2009, 09:07 AM

This was the last album I bought on vinyl. For it's time, I thought it was a bit overproduced and busy. I still enjoyed the album, but this was the first album I'd heard that I didn't enjoy listening to Stevie's voice...except on Seven Wonders.

I knew about the drug and alcohol abuse, The Betty Ford Clinic, etc., and figured this is why she sounded the way she did. Broke my heart really.

Still an enjoyable listen from time to time. Top cuts for me are 'Isn't it Midnight', 'Everywhere', 'Big Love', 'Family Man', and 'Seven Wonders'.

TrueFaith77 · #14 12-28-2009, 09:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jaycee

It's funny how one person's trash is another's treasure! Not that FM have ever produced trash...
Roxy Music's album "Avalon" is my all time favourite - so, if you know how that album sounds, you'll probably understand why I like TITN so much.

I probably should have posted this on the MacNuggets thread but I was too lazy. In More Than This: The Story of Roxy Music one of the Roxy bandmates says that Avalon was their biggest hit States-side because it could play on the radio next to Fleetwood Mac and The Eagles. I feel this connects to my theory that "Straight Back" sounds like a Flesh & Blood-era Roxy track. Also, I have to say that I used to TOTALLY NOT UNDERSTAND how anyone could prefer Avalon to Siren!!! Stranded!! Country Life! but after being forced to listen to Avalon for a day (my iPod got stuck on one album in continuous play until it ran out of batteries), while it hasn't risen necessarily in my Roxy esteem, I can now appreciate that if that is your sort of thing--there really isn't anything more beautiful.

GypsySorcerer · #15 12-28-2009, 09:39 AM

I love Tango overall. I think it's a perfect 80s time capsule. I also really enjoy the "McBuck" vibe on the album. My favorite songs on the album are "Tango," "Isn't it Midnight," and..... "Caroline."

"Seven Wonders" is okay, but Stevie's songs, unfortunately, don't do it for me. I will even concede Louie's point about WISYA adding a raw vulnerability to the album. But to me, WISYA and WTTR...S are just rambling psychobabble.