Gift of Screws Reviews [Archive]

Michelle Daya

08-19-2008, 05:26 PM

i couldn't help but login and post this:

http://top40-charts.com/news.php?nid=41726

Lindsey Buckingham To Release New Album 'Gift Of Screws' On September 16, 2008

BURBANK, CA. (Top40 Charts/ Reprise Records) - Warner Bros. Records will release the fifth solo album from singer, songwriter, and guitarist Lindsey Buckingham, entitled Gift of Screws, on Reprise Records September 16, 2008.

Gift of Screws unites the broad appeal Buckingham showed as the main musical force behind Fleetwood Mac with the restless spirit of experimentalism he's shown on landmark Mac albums as Rumours and Tusk, and on his own visionary solo albums.
It's the sum of Buckingham's labors of musical love and dedication, with all the joys and struggles that have come along the way.

"I'd say this album distills several periods of time," Buckingham says. "It has false starts to make albums, songs that go back a number of years that took a while to find a home, and brand-new songs. I wanted to bring it all together in one place. As an artist I'm still, for better or worse, clinging to my idealism and to my sense that there is still much to be said. This album is a culmination of that."

Gift of Screws is a rocking complement to Buckingham's previous album, 2006's acoustic guitar-driven Under the Skin, balancing such layered guitar-and-voice contemplations as "Time Precious Time" and "Bel Air Rain" with the seductive rush of the title song and the opener "Great Day." In some ways it's also an extension of his Fleetwood Mac legacy as Mick Fleetwood and John McVie provide the unmistakable foundation on several songs, including the embracing "Wait for You" and the gloriously mad title song. Showcased throughout are Buckingham's noted virtuosity as a guitarist, as well as his expressiveness as both a singer and writer.

Largely written and recorded both at his home studio and in solo hotel room sessions during his Under the Skin tour (an electrifying set of concerts documented on the 2008 DVD/CD package Live at the Bass Performance Hall), Gift of Screws was produced by Buckingham, with the exception of two songs - "Wait For You" and the title track - that were co-produced by Rob Cavallo (Green Day, Jewel, Dave Matthews Band).

Last fall, Buckingham embarked on his first U.S. solo tour in nearly 14 years, which continued through the summer. He will tour the U.S. in support of Gift of Screws through September and October. Please visit Buckingham's website, www.lindseybuckingham.com, for details.

The track-listing for Gift of Screws is as follows:
"Great Day"
"Time Precious Time"
"Did You Miss Me"
"Wait For You"
"Love Runs Deeper"
"Bel Air Rain"
"The Right Place to Fade"
"Gift of Screws"
"Underground"
"Treason"

BTFLCHLD

08-19-2008, 05:44 PM

After a farcical couple of weeks did you have that chance to chat with baby?

vivfox

08-19-2008, 09:31 PM

Lindsey Buckingham at Trump Taj Mahal
Casino City Times - Newton Center,MA,USA
Buckingham played nearly every instrument and it featured guest appearances by Mick Fleetwood and Christine McVie. The album spawned the hit single ...

Lindsey Buckingham at Trump Taj Mahal
19 August 2008

ATLANTIC CITY, New Jersey -- (PRESS RELEASE) -- BRE Presents welcomes singer-songwriter-guitarist Lindsey Buckingham in the Xanadu Theater at Trump Taj Mahal, on Saturday, October 11 at 8:00 p.m.

Lindsey Buckingham is most notable for being a member of the musical group Fleetwood Mac in the early 1970s and 1980s. As a member of Fleetwood Mac, he was inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998. Within Fleetwood Mac, his role as a singer/songwriter/arranger/producer was the key that made the band's music very successful.

As a solo artist, Buckingham has released four albums and one live album. His latest, "Gift Of Screws" is set for release on September 16, 2008 .

His first solo album " Law and Order," was released in 1981. Buckingham played nearly every instrument and it featured guest appearances by Mick Fleetwood and Christine McVie. The album spawned the hit single " Trouble", a slice of Southern California Beach Boys-inspired pop that reached #9 on the US Charts and #1 in Australia. Two years later, he wrote and performed the songs "Holiday Road" and "Dancin' Across the U.S.A." for the film National Lampoon's Vacation. "Holiday Road" was released as a single, but reached only #82 on the Billboard 's Hot 100. In 1984 , he released his second solo album, "Go Insane." The title track was a modest hit, reaching #23 on the Hot 100. The last track of the album, "D.W. Suite," was a tribute to the late Beach Boys drummer Dennis Wilson. He did other soundtrack work, including the song "Time Bomb Town" from Back to the Future in 1985.

Following his split with Fleetwood Mac in 1987, Buckingham spent much of the next five years in the studio, working on his third solo album, " Out of the Cradle ," which was released in 1992 , and received some favorable reviews but did not achieve the sales levels associated with Fleetwood Mac. Buckingham toured throughout 1992-93 for the first time as a solo artist with his band that included an army of seven other guitarists (Buckingham himself calls them "the crazy band" on his Soundstage DVD), each of whom he individually taught the entire two-and-a-half hours of music from the concert (Lindsey Buckingham: Behind the Music documentary for VH-1 , 2001).

"Gift of Screws" was recorded between 1995-2001 and ultimately presented to Warner Brothers/Reprise for release. Executives at the label persuaded Buckingham to hold the CD back take several tracks from the album to re-record them with Fleetwood Mac. Seven songs from "Gift of Screws" appear on the Fleetwood Mac album "Say You Will" in the same form as Buckingham had recorded them for his solo release.

Last fall, Buckingham embarked on his first U.S. solo tour in nearly 14 years, which continued through the summer.

For more on Lindsey Buckingham, log on to Lindseybuckingham.com.

Tickets are priced at $48.50 and $38.50 and can be purchased by calling Ticketmaster at 800-736-1420, online at www.ticketmaster.com or in person at the Taj Mahal Box Office. For box office hours and more information call (609) 449-5150.

http://www.casinocitytimes.com/news/article.cfm?contentID=174727

gypsysoul

08-20-2008, 01:48 AM

did you have that chance to chat with baby?

Sadly not yet BTFLCHLD. The record company say they contact the US branch daily for news on interviews for the British press but have had no joy so far. Will let you know the minute anything happens!

TrueFaith77

08-20-2008, 06:25 AM

After a farcical couple of weeks of getting faulty review copies I've now finally listened to the CD.

I know some people on the forum don't want to hear too much about it beforehand while others do so I'll offer a quick opinion which hopefully will strike a decent balance.
IMO:

It's a definite follow up to UTS rather than any of his other solo work.

Underground has a lovely 'Down on Rodeo' feel to it. Treason has a touch of 'Castaway Dreams' to it. Both these tracks are the most melodious and would sound good on the radio.

Time precious Time has some great guitar work which just made me think of rippling water. It has the hypnotic quality of a Save me a Place.

Gift of Screws has LB doing his manic laugh and generally sounding as if he's having a fantastic time. Personally I think this could be a single. It has a crazy feel to it that I think could really work in mainstream airplay. You can dance to it too! It will be great live.

Wait for you, love runs deeper, The right place to fade and Gift of screws are the rocking tracks.

Vocally, I think, he sounds 'younger' than on UTS. There's very little whispery singing which is a good thing imo.

Thank you for the report. Very intriguing! -John

BTFLCHLD

08-20-2008, 11:59 AM

Will let you know the minute anything happens! well, if it is meant to happen then it will...and you, my dear, will be very well prepared. :D

Betsy

08-20-2008, 10:52 PM

I listen to 99.5 the Mountain.

I have heard "Did You Miss Me" 3 times since August 7th.

vivfox

08-31-2008, 12:38 PM

Lindsey Buckingham is that increasingly rare beast in the pop world; an ageing rocker who still counts. For a man who has made indescribably large amounts of money with Fleetwood Mac, and who is the author of some of the finest soft rock songs of all time, it is refreshing to find him nearing his sixties and still releasing solo albums that stand up against his late '70s peak.
The follow-up to 2006's largely acoustic Under The Skin, a fine album in its own right, Gift Of Screws takes its title (an Emily Dickinson reference) and several tracks from an abortive late '90s session. Other tracks from those sessions cropped up on the Fleetwood Mac reunion album Say You Will, a 2003 release that indicated that Buckingham had relocated the songwriting genie that went temporarily absent during the previous decade.

Gift Of Screws is a thrilling album from the very first track. Great Day positively bursts out of the speakers with its aggressive acoustic guitar and daring vocal lines. Time Precious Time is even better, with rippling guitar arpeggios and a heavy echo treatment on the vocal (a common Buckingham production trick). This is challenging, thought-provoking music that you would expect from a younger artist.

Then again, this is the reclusive studio genius that unleashed the decidedly odd Tusk on the world at the height of Fleetwood Mac's fame. Buckingham is a devil for injecting quirky elements into his glossy soft rock confections, but in such a subtle way that his efforts are routinely overlooked (he opened his previous album with the line "Reading the paper saw a review/Said I was a visionary, but nobody knew").

Buckingham's regular band serves him well throughout the album, although Fleetwood Mac bandmates Mick Fleetwood and John McVie also pop up on several tracks. The duo lends a healthy commercial swagger to Love Runs Deeper and The Right Place To Fade. The latter track is terrific, the stacked harmonies and killer riff sounding like they could have been lifted straight from a Rumours session.

The dependable rhythm section also guest on the title track, a crazed rocker that features Buckingham yelping like a man possessed. It sounds like a companion piece to some of the more outré moments from Tusk, notably Not That Funny and That's Enough For Me.

Although this album is marketed as a return to a more direct rock sound Buckingham is far too smart an operator to sacrifice substance for style. Did You Miss Me is a whip-smart pop single good enough to already have landed on the US charts, and boasts one of the album's most direct lyrical pleas for connection and understanding. The contemplative lyrics of Bel Air Rain and Treason, meanwhile, are given added weight by strong melodies and delicately layered arrangements.

Written and recorded over a lengthy period, Gift Of Screws could have been a mess. Instead, it is a glorious statement of intent from one of pop's most misunderstood characters.

http://www.musicomh.com/albums/lindsey-buckingham_0808.htm

trackaghost

08-31-2008, 12:52 PM

I've had the album for a couple of weeks (I'm sorry, I can't share - it's watermarked) and I think it may be his best yet. It's a cross between UTS and SYW with little nods and references to his other solo albums I think.

Peestie

08-31-2008, 01:09 PM

Best of just his solo albums or best of all the albums he's been involved in?

trackaghost

08-31-2008, 01:14 PM

Peestie

08-31-2008, 01:18 PM

I didn't think it would be better than Tusk but hope springs eternal! I'm really looking forward to hearing this one now. Hopefully it'll have the staying power to remain as his best even further down the line.

vivfox

08-31-2008, 03:04 PM

trackaghost

08-31-2008, 04:03 PM

I would hope that even if you could share, you wouldn't.

Honestly Vivfox was that holier than thou comment really necessary? I simply put that in as a way of saying "please don't ask me".
And given you've often requested free MP3s of commercially released songs on this board don't be a hypocrite about it.

Madness Fades

08-31-2008, 05:13 PM

Time precious could possibly be the worst song I have ever heard, Now ive only heard it about 4 times and its just very hard to listen to. Its only my opinion and I already know loads of you will totally disagree and thats fine. I think i dislike it as much as chiliD dislikes (if thats a strong enough word) Lindseys version of Here Comes The Sun.
I just hope it grows on me over time. Like Not too Late did.

However its on a cd next one of the best songs I've heard in ages and ages.

vivfox

08-31-2008, 10:14 PM

Honestly Vivfox was that holier than thou comment really necessary? I simply put that in as a way of saying "please don't ask me".
And given you've often requested free MP3s of commercially released songs on this board don't be a hypocrite about it.
I wasn't being holier than thou Sharon. You said because of a WATERMARK you could not share the album. So if it wasn't there are you saying you would share it? That would be a big dis-service to Lindsey. All of us should support the artist and actually buy the CD.

vivfox

08-31-2008, 10:20 PM

Nico

08-31-2008, 10:41 PM

Of his solo albums. But I've only had it for a couple of weeks so it may just because it's fresh and new. But I like the balance between the acoustic, electric, oddball and pop/melodic stuff on the album. Plus it's only 10 songs so it's not overlong either, it's all meat and no filler basically.

Um, that's so awesome seriously. Would you mind posting a review of sorts, possibly brief. I am delighted when someone has it early and is generous enough to share details. :)

trackaghost

09-01-2008, 04:22 AM

I wasn't being holier than thou Sharon. You said because of a WATERMARK you could not share the album. So if it wasn't there are you saying you would share it? That would be a big dis-service to Lindsey. All of us should support the artist and actually buy the CD.

I wouldn't share it anyway. You are putting words into my mouth and I don't know why. But I was saying even if I wanted to (which I don't) I couldn't, I was just trying to be nice about it. So quote my post if you like, but even gyspysoul said the same thing and you didn't attack her. For the record, I've never shared stuff I've got for review on the internet and never will.

What irks me about it, is that you are such a huge, huge hypocrite about this mentioning it and yes, getting holier than thou about it. I've never requested songs or albums you can actually buy on this board, yet you've done so many times. You even got the whole Camper Van Beethoven Tusk album off someone on this board, even though I gave you a link to where you could buy it, and there's a great band who could do with some support. You said you liked that album, did you go buy it afterwards? I would hope so anyway.

trackaghost

09-01-2008, 04:23 AM

Um, that's so awesome seriously. Would you mind posting a review of sorts, possibly brief. I am delighted when someone has it early and is generous enough to share details. :)

Thanks Nico, although I wish I hadn't mentioned it now to tell the truth.

LukeA

09-01-2008, 04:40 AM

Oh, whatever. The album will leak on the torrent sites before its official release. In fact, I'm hoping/counting on it, since I'm seeing Lindsey in concert on one of the first shows of the tour.

TrueFaith77

09-01-2008, 08:15 AM

Madness Fades

09-01-2008, 09:02 AM

Meaning. . . "Did You Miss Me"?

Well yeah its great too, but love runs deeper is definately the best song on the CD, it and Right place to fade. Which still sounds like "Twist of fate" to me.

vivfox

09-01-2008, 10:46 AM

I wouldn't share it anyway. You are putting words into my mouth and I don't know why. But I was saying even if I wanted to (which I don't) I couldn't, I was just trying to be nice about it. So quote my post if you like, but even gyspysoul said the same thing and you didn't attack her. For the record, I've never shared stuff I've got for review on the internet and never will.

What irks me about it, is that you are such a huge, huge hypocrite about this mentioning it and yes, getting holier than thou about it. I've never requested songs or albums you can actually buy on this board, yet you've done so many times. You even got the whole Camper Van Beethoven Tusk album off someone on this board, even though I gave you a link to where you could buy it, and there's a great band who could do with some support. You said you liked that album, did you go buy it afterwards? I would hope so anyway.

All this rant of yours prooves to me Sharon is that you have been watching and waiting to try to get even with me because you got banned a few months ago for harassing me. And you did say that you couldn't share GOS because of a watermark and for no other reason. You are a vindictive person. You never even apologized to me for all the harassment you gave me in the past. All you said was don't pm you cause you have me on ignore. Well you should follow that advice and just ignore me now.But you won't. You're looking for a fight.

Madness Fades

09-01-2008, 10:55 AM

Right you two, quit messin around or you will both get chucked off.
If you have nothing nice to say to each other dont say anything at all.

trackaghost

09-01-2008, 11:33 AM

All this rant of yours prooves to me Sharon is that you have been watching and waiting to try to get even with me because you got banned a few months ago for harassing me. And you did say that you couldn't share GOS because of a watermark and for no other reason. You are a vindictive person. You never even apologized to me for all the harassment you gave me in the past. All you said was don't pm you cause you have me on ignore. Well you should follow that advice and just ignore me now.But you won't. You're looking for a fight.

That's not fair. You made the remark and quoted me in the first place!
You're trying to paint me as someone who would rip off Lindsey which isn't true at all. How am I vindictive by responding to an accusation?

trackaghost

09-01-2008, 12:00 PM

Oh, whatever. The album will leak on the torrent sites before its official release. In fact, I'm hoping/counting on it, since I'm seeing Lindsey in concert on one of the first shows of the tour.

I'm sure a lot of people will since the tour starts before the CD is released.

Madness Fades

09-01-2008, 12:20 PM

Well If it comes out early on torrent I will definately download it. However I vision this and being acceptable because I have already Pre-Ordered the CD anyway. Two in fact
I dont think downloading it free off a torrent site is morally wrong either if you have already paid for and pre ordered the official CD. Which i'm sure many of the ledge members will probably do.

Is that okay ???? I'd say so.

I'm hardly gonna stop collecting my Lindsey Buckingham and Fleetwood Mac CD's just because Torrents make them free. NO Way!!!
Sure How much is a CD these days.................... £6-7 ish.

Steviefan49

09-01-2008, 12:27 PM

That's not fair. You made the remark and quoted me in the first place!
You're trying to paint me as someone who would rip off Lindsey which isn't true at all. How am I vindictive by responding to an accusation?

Hey Sharon..

It just sounds like you both just need to sort this out off list, via PM. I know you both have good intentions, and no harm done on either end.. :wavey:

Hugs,

Arlene

vivfox

09-01-2008, 12:35 PM

#1LiddyBuckFan

09-01-2008, 01:07 PM

The ethics "discussion" (and I use that term loosely) going on in this thread needs to end...take it to PM if you have any other comments please. Let's move on.

Thank you.

MacMan

09-01-2008, 10:06 PM

Back to reviews....

Bloomberg.com (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601088&sid=a8gEcbsf1FSI&refer=muse) (of all places)

Lindsey Buckingham

Another musician who defined the sound of West Coast rock is Fleetwood Mac singer and guitarist Lindsey Buckingham.

His latest solo release is beautifully crafted, with just a touch of the experimentation he showed on group efforts such as ``Rumours'' and ``Tusk,'' which he called his first solo LP.

Buckingham, now 58, has gone his own way musically for a long time -- the new CD is titled ``Gift of Screws,'' a recherche reference to an Emily Dickinson poem that shows up in its chorus. At the same time, he has always retained enough of a mainstream sound to keep Fleetwood Mac fans on board.

I had the review copy a month ago: It won't be released until Sept. 16, but give it an early mention for the Wilson comparison. There's a lot of Californian contemplation, echoes of the author's main band and one of the best tracks is called ``Bel Air Rain.''

This is a mid-pace collection, with lots of guitar flourishes and layered vocals. It retains a mellow feel, as if Buckingham went into his home studio after a long meditation and with mature determination to do exactly what he wanted to.

Rating: ** 1/2.

Nico

09-01-2008, 10:24 PM

Rating: ** 1/2.

Uh, is that supposed to be good? Was it out of 3 stars? I never understand when some reviewers go on and on in glowing terms and then gives out meager stars/numerals/dots as if to say "I have the power.":shrug:

Richard B

09-02-2008, 01:47 PM

Uh, is that supposed to be good? Was it out of 3 stars? I never understand when some reviewers go on and on in glowing terms and then gives out meager stars/numerals/dots as if to say "I have the power.":shrug:

If you follow the link, it states this:

What the Stars Mean:
**** Excellent
*** Good
** Average
* Poor
(No stars) Worthless

I think rating stars are super silly anyway, for anything. Feels like Kindergarten.

Peestie

09-08-2008, 02:33 PM

http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/albu...ws_rssfeed

On this album's opener, "Great Day," there's an electric-guitar solo so blowtorch-hot, it seems specifically designed to bitch-slap anyone with the nerve to wonder if Lindsey Buckingham still rocks. Buckingham's 2006 comeback, Under the Skin, was largely a reflective, parlor-room affair, full of self-doubt and dazzling acoustic playing, and here, the mood is still darkly introspective: "Suicide days, suicide, suicide nights/In the wheelchair almost blind," he sings on "Wait for You." But the sound under him is a wild roadhouse blues with the signature groove of old bandmates Mick Fleetwood and John McVie. Fleetwood's drumming also powers "The Right Place to Fade," a classic Mac-style hook barrage with a strummy "Go Your Own Way" gallop and a head-kicking harmony chorus. Elsewhere, things are more subdued: "Time Precious Time" is a spiraling incantation that's nearly psych folk. Old rubberneckers may ponder whether songs like "Did You Miss Me" address Buckingham's former paramour Stevie Nicks. But who cares? What matters here isn't that he used to be in Fleetwood Mac — it's that he can still make music nearly as bright.

It gets 3.5 stars.

Richard B

09-08-2008, 02:43 PM

http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/albu...ws_rssfeed.

Thanks for the tip, Peetsie. Your link didn't seem to work, so here it is for others who may have had the same problem:
RS: Gift of Screws Review (http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/album/22723948/review/22787151/gift_of_screws)

The posting is dated 9/18/08. Damn, I wish I could jump into the future too!

michelej1

09-08-2008, 04:48 PM

On this album's opener, "Great Day," there's an electric-guitar solo so blowtorch-hot, it seems specifically designed to bitch-slap anyone with the nerve to wonder if Lindsey Buckingham still rocks.

Oh, yeah! I want this album in my home, now.

Michele

MacMan

09-08-2008, 06:05 PM

Peestie

09-09-2008, 03:19 PM

http://www.uncut.co.uk/music/fleetwood_mac/reviews/12132

He was, incredibly, the new wave one in Fleetwood Mac, but Lindsey Buckingham’s much-tromboned love of the Gang Of Four, Prag Vec and the Delta Five (or similar) never really seemed to make it into his music. (Certainly very few people who ever heard Love Like Anthrax ever went on to make a double album like Tusk). But he’s always had more of an adventurous spirit than his fellow band members. And this presumably why Mick Fleetwood and the McVies invited Stevie Nicks and him to join their old blues band, effectively bolting a Mustang body onto an old Bentley.

In fact, Buckingham’s extra-curricular creativity has been something of a problem for him, in that he keeps writing a lot of the best songs in his old band, all the while initially intending them for himself. Thus the first incarnation of Gift Of Screws which he worked on between 1995 and 2001, and which was, in a way, his Smile. A double album, it never came out, as Buckingham was persuaded to stripmine seven of its best songs for Fleetwood Mac, who duly recorded them, had big hits, and went away again. Buckingham released instead the perfectly acceptable Under The Skin in 2006, and no more was heard of Gift Of Screws until, as they used to say on Tomorrow’s World, now, that is.

This Gift Of Screws is no sprawling epic. It’s just under 40 minutes long, for a kick off, and it contains no mad experimentation, no Tusky title track or rewrites of “At Home He’s A Tourist”. Instead there is a fair old bit of Buckingham’s trademark fiddly guitar playing (most notably on a song called “Time Precious Time”, which is almost entirely fiddly guitar bits, like a man trying to remember the intro to “Never Going Back Again” for three minutes). Mick Fleetwood and John McVie turn up, as if apologising for nicking all those songs for Say You Will, but Christine McVie and Stevie Nicks are absent, otherwise it would all be unsolo again and Buckingham would be slapping his chiselled forehead and going, “D’oh!”

But despite all that, the most initially striking thing about Gift Of Screws is that, despite its brevity, it’s actually quite varied. The first track, “Great Day”, is both minimal and beefy, like a skeleton that works out. “Time Precious Time”, despite the aforementioned fiddly, is quite peculiar, stopping the album dead just two tracks in, while the title track is purely mental, being the most aggressive thing anyone involved with Fleetwood Mac has ever recorded. What it’s about is hard to tell, largely because it’s quite hard to get near the lyrics with all the clenched-teeth vocals and tornado-faced guitars. If it was a single, some people might die.

And there are a few proper pop classics on here as well. “Wait For You” is the sort of yearning song that The Cars or Cheap Trick would have killed for, but with an added stadium melancholy that only Buckingham can do. “Love Runs Deeper” is like ELO, only great. Best of all, if you’re listening to this album because you liked Rumours (and it would be a bit weird if you weren’t), The Right Place to Fade is a great Rumours song that never was, even down to the skipping beat and “ra-ta-ta-ta” hook. (You can imagine Fleetwood Mac’s managers begging Buckingham to hand it over the band and crying when he doesn’t).

It’s hard to imagine this record being number one all round the universe – Buckingham’s name alone doesn’t shift warehouses – but, even as a listener raised by the new wave police to weed out and destroy punk traitors, I’m astonished by the inventiveness, excitement, and pure bastard vigour of this album. It’s like Keane never happened. It would seem that Lindsey Buckingham is still the cutting edge king of Bel Air.

DAVID QUANTICK

UNCUT Q+A With Lindsey Buckingham

UNCUT: A version Gift Of Screws was originally intended for release over a decade ago. What happened..?

BUCKINGHAM: There was an intention of putting out a solo album in the late Nineties – and then something intervened, which was Fleetwood Mac, and so that got put on the shelf. And then a certain amount of the material from that grouping made its way onto the new studio album, Say You Will. There are maybe three songs that remain from that group of songs on the present Gift Of Screws that were waiting to find a home.

How do you find it as a solo artist instead of working in a group?

I don’t have a problem exposing myself as a solo artist… You can go back to a post-Rumours environment. Rumours was extremely commercially successful. In the wake of that success, you find yourself having freedom. But you also find yourself poised to follow the expectations of those who want you to repeat that success to a certain formula. So Tusk was a line drawn in the sand for me to subvert that. Because Tusk was estimated to be a failure in certain camps, because it didn't sell 16 million albums, a dictum came down to the band that said we should stick a more conservative formula. That was the time I started making solo albums. So the left side of the palette is reserved much for solo work, and the things that are more palatable to the politics of the group as a whole tend to make their way into a Fleetwood Mac context. it’s nice to have both. And it may be a bit schizoid, but it’s a nice luxury to have that. I think you have to let people see the raw side of what’s going on.

INTERVIEW: MICHAEL BONNER

It gets 4 stars.

michelej1

09-09-2008, 03:51 PM

^ I love it!

Instead there is a fair old bit of Buckingham’s trademark fiddly guitar playing (most notably on a song called “Time Precious Time”, which is almost entirely fiddly guitar bits, like a man trying to remember the intro to “Never Going Back Again” for three minutes).

Oh my goodness, this is priceless!

I laughed when he said that people might die if GOS was a single, because I don't really like "rock" music, but I liked GOS. I think the music fits beautifully with the words and love the dichotomy of fury and flowers.

Hey, Fury and Flowers symbolize Fleetwood Mac, in a sense.

So, where was I when Fleetwood Mac took 7 of Lindsey's GOS songs and had "big hits" with them? Honestly, I think I drink sometimes, because I lose time. Lost weekends. Lost years. Michele

squealy

09-09-2008, 06:02 PM

You can go back to a post-Rumours environment. Rumours was extremely commercially successful. In the wake of that success, you find yourself having freedom. But you also find yourself poised to follow the expectations of those who want you to repeat that success to a certain formula. So Tusk was a line drawn in the sand for me to subvert that. Because Tusk was estimated to be a failure in certain camps, because it didn't sell 16 million albums, a dictum came down to the band that said we should stick a more conservative formula.

I think Lindsey has said some variation of this in every interview he has done for the past 25 years.

ajmccarrell

09-09-2008, 06:25 PM

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/musicnightlife/2008160881_cdreviews06.html?syndication=rss

Here's a review!

vivfox

09-11-2008, 09:19 AM

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Phase 2 of the post-Fleetwood Mac Lindsey Buckingham is nearly complete. All that remains is a concert tour, which includes a show at Tahoe Saturday, Sept. 12, in support of his new album, “Gift of Screws.”

Buckingham, Stevie Nicks, Mick Fleetwood and John McVie plan to reunite in January to make a new studio album, then go out on a tour. A fifth member, Christine McVie, does not plan to come back.

Buckingham sounds so content now, however, that it’s baffling that he wants to rejuvenate the band. Fleetwood Mac comebacks thwarted his previous attempts to record on his own over a 14-year period. In that time, Buckingham remarried and had three children, finally setting aside time for himself.

“I chose to put a boundary around a three-year period and say to the band: ‘I want to make two albums and I want to tour behind them. Then, when we’re done, we can talk about what we want to do,’ ” Buckingham said in a conference call with music reporters. “That made the logistical side about it clear and easy to do. The old adage is, ‘Children are deaf to the artist,’ but I have found that to be just the opposite. It feels to me like I’m in the most creative period of my life right now.”

“Gift of Screws,” set for release Sept. 16, is a rock ’n’ roll answer to Buckingham’s acoustic “Under the Skin.”

“I wasn’t necessarily intending to make it so much more rock,” Buckingham said. “I was thinking it might be a step or two up from ‘Under the Skin’ had been, but it seemed to go in a certain direction on its own. That’s one thing you learn: You follow the work and let it lead you.”

The man who wrote “Go Your Own Way,” took that philosophy to heart when in 1979 he produced “Tusk,” Fleetwood Mac’s follow up to “Rumours,” by far the band’s top-selling album. Buckingham’s proclivity for experimentation and creativeness, often during times of Fleetwood Mac’s turmoil and drama, was not always appreciated.
“I realized not everyone was in a band for the same set of reasons,” Buckingham said. “The years after ‘Tusk’ were difficult knowing where to go as a producer and a writer for myself — increasing dysfunction of the band as they were conducting their life personally. It led to me just taking off for my individuality and my sanity. ‘Tusk’ has always been my favorite album. That was the album that defined how I still try to think today. The irony is many members of the band in retrospect look at that as their favorite album as well.”

“Gift of Screws” celebrates Buckingham’s fingerstyle guitar prowess. Buckingham, who was first inspired by music when his brother bought Elvis Presley’s “Heartbreak Hotel,” is a self-taught guitar and bluegrass banjo player who was influenced by folk from the early ’60s, especially the Kingston Trio.

His singing style and experience as a producer further developed a unique sound.
“I enjoy taking anything and trying to convolute it beyond any sense of reality in one form or another,” he said. “I’ve never been one who’s been afraid to wear the artifice on the sleeve. Let’s have some fun. Let’s use the tools, and let the people know you’re using them.”

Buckingham said his public breakup with Nicks during the production of “Rumours” limited his creativity.

“Having to see her every day and do the right thing for her as a producer and not having the space for any closure, it was like someone picking at a wound all the time,” he said. “A way we dealt with it was to close off whole areas of your emotional landscape. I continued to work but the rest of my life was very narrow.”

“Getting a family … was almost like a big iceberg breaking up and melting. It just gave me a whole other basis for being creative and it gave me a support system to make decisions that I didn’t feel quite as enabled to make in years past.”

The stir Sheryl Crow created earlier this year when she announced that she would be replacing Christine McVie in Fleetwood Mac brought Buckingham and Nicks together for serious and productive discussions about the future of the group. Band members considered bringing Crow into Fleetwood Mac but never made an offer, Buckingham said.

Buckingham said reuniting with Fleetwood Mac is like going home.

“It’s comfortable, like seeing your parents, because you know each other so well,” he said. “It doesn’t mean you don’t have issues that can crop up. The agenda is to avoid things we’ve blown out of proportion in the past and to remind ourselves that we do love each other and are great friends.”

http://www.tahoedailytribune.com/article/20080911/ENTERTAINMENT/809109982/1058/SPORTS&parentprofile=-1

TrueFaith77

09-11-2008, 10:33 AM

Buckingham said reuniting with Fleetwood Mac is like going home.

“It’s comfortable, like seeing your parents, because you know each other so well,” he said. “It doesn’t mean you don’t have issues that can crop up. The agenda is to avoid things we’ve blown out of proportion in the past and to remind ourselves that we do love each other and are great friends.”

http://www.tahoedailytribune.com/article/20080911/ENTERTAINMENT/809109982/1058/SPORTS&parentprofile=-1

I knew there would be a part that made me cry :(

michelej1

09-11-2008, 12:03 PM

Stevie has also likened Lindsey to her parents in the past. She says that she's known him so long that the minute you hear that voice on the phone it makes you cry or something. That there's a comfort there, which I thought was sweet because Lindsey and Stevie don't really talk about the moments when they find comfort in each other. We only hear of the other times.

But basically, the thing is that they have known each other for 40 years and they still have a relationship. It may be a lot of things, but it really isn't a tenuous bond at all. It's going to persevere, fights and all. Michele

Lori40

09-11-2008, 12:04 PM

Thursday, September 11, 2008

In that time, Buckingham remarried and had three children, finally setting aside time for himself.

http://www.tahoedailytribune.com/article/20080911/ENTERTAINMENT/809109982/1058/SPORTS&parentprofile=-1

Another journalist who thinks Lindsey was married to Stevie?????????

michelej1

09-11-2008, 02:04 PM

I knew there would be a part that made me cry :(

You can see more of the picture in that link you provided.

http://www.tahoedailytribune.com/article/20080911/ENTERTAINMENT/809109982/1058/&Profile=1017&ParentProfile=1058&parentprofile=-1

See how big his hands are? We talked about this in the context of his forehead. Seeing his hands too and how out of proportion they are it just establishes that this picture is distorted like a fun house mirror.

He is wearing the artifice on his sleeve, as discussed in the article.

Michele

michelej1

09-11-2008, 03:36 PM

London Mirror

http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv-entertainment/music/2008/09/11/album-review-lindsey-buckingham-gift-of-screws-115875-20733045/

Album review: Lindsey Buckingham - Gift Of Screws
4/5 11/09/2008

The major powerhouse and songwriter behind Fleetwood Mac’s golden era, Buckingham’s knack for blending experimentation and killer hooks finds sharp focus on this, his fifth solo album.

With Mac stalwarts Mick Fleetwood and John McVie providing the rhythmic foundation, Buckingham unleashes incendiary guitar licks aplenty, Clash meets Beach Boys-style rocking fun (Underground), and mixes a feel for exotic topicality (Time Precious Time) with seasoned sensitivity and political commitment (Treason).

Nico

09-11-2008, 04:45 PM

You can see more of the picture in that link you provided.

http://www.tahoedailytribune.com/article/20080911/ENTERTAINMENT/809109982/1058/&Profile=1017&ParentProfile=1058&parentprofile=-1

See how big his hands are? We talked about this in the context of his forehead. Seeing his hands too and how out of proportion they are it just establishes that this picture is distorted like a fun house mirror.

He is wearing the artifice on his sleeve, as discussed in the article.

Michele

Ew. He looks orange in that pic. I liked the other version where he had a normal skin tone. He looks peculiar here- and this coming from someone who originally loved the pic.

MacMan

09-11-2008, 05:33 PM

Buckingham's solo work is top priority

The PE.com (http://www.pe.com/music/stories/PE_News_Local_S_buckingham12.4dd867.html)

By VANESSA FRANKO
The Press-Enterprise

Lindsey Buckingham described his career as "fraught with landmines."

From the personal struggles behind the scenes as the guitarist was making classic albums "Rumours" and "Tusk" with Fleetwood Mac and the related aftermath to trying to take off from the band and working on his solo career, there have been pitfalls along the way.

In recent years, however, the landscape hasn't been as treacherous.

"The subtext of all the work that has gone on in the last three years in a way has been much easier. It's been a period where the personal side of my life has been greatly enriched," Buckingham said in a phone interview, talking about his marriage and children.

He also set aside time to put his solo work ahead of Fleetwood Mac, not allowing those songs he was writing as solo material to be picked up by the band, as they had in the past.

"I chose to put a boundary around a three-year period and say to the band, 'I really want to make two albums, I have a very specific goal, I want to tour behind both of them. And then when we're done with that, we can talk about what we want to do,'" he said.

Buckingham is making good on his end of the promise.

He just released the album "Gift of Screws" and will perform at UCLA's Royce Hall on Sunday and at the Grove of Anaheim on Sept. 19.

He gained fame with Fleetwood Mac, one of the biggest selling acts of all time, and which was inducted to the Rock 'N' Roll Hall of Fame in 1998.

He recorded his first solo album, "Law and Order," in 1981 and also recorded "Holiday Road," the song from "National Lampoon's Vacation."

Buckingham's last solo record, 2003's "Under the Skin," was a way for him to take his finger-picking guitar style and develop it as a bare-bones idea, adding production values.

"It was certainly more of a boutique kind of thing," Buckingham said.

But "Gift of Screws" is filled with more rock tracks. He said it wasn't his original intention, but where the music went.

"You follow the work and let it lead you. As soon as I got some of my mates from the road, some of my road band, down into the studio and we started cutting, everything just wanted to rock," he said.

He said that in making the album, he wasn't facing the challenges he usually did. Creatively, his personal life fueled the record.

"We used to use that old adage, 'Children are death to the artist,' but I've found that to be just the opposite. It feels to me that I'm in the most creative time of my life right now," Buckingham said.

michelej1

09-11-2008, 08:40 PM

"You follow the work and let it lead you. As soon as I got some of my mates from the road, some of my road band, down into the studio and we started cutting, everything just wanted to rock," he said.

Did Lindsey really say "mates?"

I won't have it! Christine, John and Mick have corrupted him:distress:.

Michele

michelej1

09-11-2008, 09:02 PM

Ew. He looks orange in that pic.

Well then, at least his skin matches his hair.

Michele

Nico

09-11-2008, 09:20 PM

Well then, at least his skin matches his hair.

Michele

All I need to do is photoshop some green hair and I'll have an Oompa Loompa. One of the older ones.

trackaghost

09-12-2008, 05:34 AM

Oh looky another rave review!

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/sftw/article1677301.ece

LINDSEY BUCKINGHAM – Gift Of Screws

****

“I’M still clinging to my sense that there is still much to be said,” says ex-Fleetwood Mac guitarist Buckingham of this, his fifth venture as a fully fledged solo artist.

The album starts quietly with Great Day, which showcases his unusual method of finger-picking guitar giving what is essentially a rock album undeniably folky undertones.

By the fourth track, a more ragged, rock sound is introduced, culminating in a full-on screeching bridge section. Contributing artists Mick Fleetwood and John McVie add some rhythm sections but Buckingham’s ability to waver between varying tempos and genres makes it enjoyable.

Peestie

09-12-2008, 06:10 AM

If only it wasn't from The Sun :laugh:

I kid, any good review is welcome. To be honest, I wouldn't have expected the Sun to be reviewing it.

TrueFaith77

09-12-2008, 06:31 AM

If only it wasn't from The Sun :laugh:

I kid, any good review is welcome. To be honest, I wouldn't have expected the Sun to be reviewing it.

What a weird time in music. Those reviews did make me curious to hear the Metallica album -- now, THAT'S a rave review! But again, what does this guy know? He says that the new Ne-Yo album is all bout his love of women. . . lol

trackaghost

09-12-2008, 08:11 AM

If only it wasn't from The Sun :laugh:

I kid, any good review is welcome. To be honest, I wouldn't have expected the Sun to be reviewing it.

I know :laugh: But have you ever seen The Sun's weekly music section? It's surprisingly great. I mean this week they have interviews with Joan Baez and Nelly, and in the past they've interviewed everyone from Neko Case and Wilco to Bright Eyes and The Gutter Twins - not artists you'd expect to see in The Sun. I mean they did a big page feature on Dennis Wilson when his album got reissued! It's weird but cool. I learned about artists like Elvis Perkins in The Sun believe it or not, whoever edits their music section has great taste.

Peestie

09-12-2008, 10:40 AM

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/sep/12/rockreview.lindseybuckingham

At the height of Fleetwood Mac's Rumours supernova, guitarist Lindsey Buckingham suddenly started listening to Talking Heads and the Clash. Gift of Screws' harder moments suggest these influences remain, though Buckingham has returned to the ethereal pop-rock songwriting that spawned the band's classic hits. With the trusty Mick Fleetwood-John McVie rhythm section giving lots of sonic wallop, this is more than just a Mac album without the female vocalists: Buckingham seems to be rediscovering some sort of idealism. Time Precious Time addresses life's urgency with virtuoso brilliance. Did You Miss Me, with its uplifting hook and lyrics about dreaming and loss, is the best pop song he has written since Go Your Own Way.

4/5 Stars

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20225097,00.html

As a member of Fleetwood Mac, Lindsey Buckingham is a rock potentate. As a solo artist, he's an avant-garde aesthete, breaking down beguiling melodies into sonic mushroom clouds. Gift of Screws finds him creating an insular world of ghostly vocals and nervous guitars. On ''Time Precious Time,'' a frenetically picked acoustic guitar ticks off the moments before an emotional reckoning, while the jittery title track throws a cherry bomb at Bush's war machine. Buckingham remains the master of type A chamber pop. A-

Grade A-

What does he mean "throws a cherry bomb at Bush's war machine"? I guess he doesn't know it was written before GW Bush was in power.

Peestie

09-12-2008, 10:42 AM

I know :laugh: But have you ever seen The Sun's weekly music section? It's surprisingly great. I mean this week they have interviews with Joan Baez and Nelly, and in the past they've interviewed everyone from Neko Case and Wilco to Bright Eyes and The Gutter Twins - not artists you'd expect to see in The Sun. I mean they did a big page feature on Dennis Wilson when his album got reissued! It's weird but cool. I learned about artists like Elvis Perkins in The Sun believe it or not, whoever edits their music section has great taste.

To be honest the few times I've read any of The Sun I've never made it to any music related stuff. I thought if it was anything like the rest of it it wouldn't be worth reading :o

Peestie

09-12-2008, 10:47 AM

And one more...

http://www.bullz-eye.com/cdreviews/giles/lindsey_buckingham-gift_of_screws.htm

Wait, what’s this – a new Lindsey Buckingham record, just two years after his last one? Is Fleetwood Mac’s on-and-off guitarist finally learning how to make an album without disappearing completely up his own ass or what?

Well, yes, mostly. Although Gift of Screws takes its title from the album Buckingham spent most of the ‘90s working on – and subsequently parted out for Fleetwood Mac’s last album, 2003’s Say You Will, as well as his last solo effort, 2006’s Under the Skin – it consists mostly of new songs and new recordings, and provides a more-or-less full-band complement to Skin’s heavily acoustic song structures. It sounds, in other words, pretty much like a Mac record minus Stevie Nicks’ bleating. This is not a bad thing.

Aside from Skin’s minor detour, Buckingham’s sonic template hasn’t changed much in the last couple of decades, so if you’re familiar with his work, you know what to expect here – namely acres of fingerpicked guitars, towering stacks of vocals, and lyrics that occasionally border on the darkly paranoid, with wiry needlepoint solos draped over the whole thing. It’s a sound that inspires slavish fandom as often as it provokes confusion and/or disgust; for a guy who’s been essentially absent from the Top 40 for the last 20 years, Buckingham remains a surprisingly polarizing figure.

You probably already know which side of the fence you’re on, and have no intention of changing positions. If you’re a Buckingham fan, though, consider Screws another pleasingly Byzantine, solidly entertaining addition to the catalog, with all of Lindsey’s quirks and charms on full display. The album is packed to the gills with guitars – possibly only the vocal overdubs outnumber them – and although Mick Fleetwood and John McVie appear on some songs, Buckingham produced most of the record, so the bottom end is, politely speaking, an afterthought – he’s never met a bass player he couldn’t make disappear in the mix.

Lindsey Buckingham

Lyrically, it’s darker than Under the Skin – where that album found Buckingham in an uncharacteristically warm and domestic mood, Screws is as conflicted as its title. Here, Buckingham seems to be preoccupied with seclusion and distance – the lyrics are rife with references to being underwater, or underground – but the album’s other recurring theme is making your way back, either to someone (as on the single, “Did You Miss Me”) or from a catastrophe (“Treason”). The melodies reflect this dichotomy, balancing between sweet and expansive to dense and angular – or sometimes, as on the title track, swerving between extremes in a single song.

In the context of Buckingham’s frustratingly meager solo work, Gift of Screws falls a notch below 1992’s brilliant Out of the Cradle, and depending on your favorite side of his work, it may not be as satisfying as Under the Skin. Still, it’s apparent that at an age when many of his peers have run out of things to say, Buckingham’s artistic pace shows no signs of slowing – just the opposite, actually. That’s some Gift.

4/5 Stars

trackaghost

09-12-2008, 11:34 AM

To be honest the few times I've read any of The Sun I've never made it to any music related stuff. I thought if it was anything like the rest of it it wouldn't be worth reading :o

Well, the rest of it is a load of rubbish, you're right :laugh: I only discovered the music section by accident. I knew they'd review the new Lindsey. They gave UTS a good review too.

...this is more than just a Mac album without the female vocalists: Buckingham seems to be rediscovering some sort of idealism.

I like this line and I totally agree!

Peestie

09-12-2008, 03:35 PM

http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/release/p4n8/

by Chris Jones
12 September 2008

Lindsey Buckingham, chiselled, unsmiling guitarist with Fleetwood Mac, first began recording Gift Of Screws between 1995 and 2001. In the intervening period nearly half the songs recorded were hijacked for the reunion album by the band, Say You Will, as well as various other projects including his own acoustic album, Under The Skin (2006). Luckily Mr B is a very talented man, and despite what may have seemed the cream of the crop being diverted for the greater good, the remaining ten songs are pure gold dust. This album is a gift indeed.

The title comes from an Emily Dickinson poem. The bulk of the material is self-played and self-produced. (with two songs co-written with wife Kristen and one with brother Will). Oh, and on another three songs some blokes called McVie and Fleetwood turn up to provide the rhythm tracks. It's one of these (The Right Place To Fade) that Buckingham approaches the classic sound of the Mac, but elsewhere he's his own man and the results are revelatory.

Most know the stories of Buckingham's love of new wave bands that seemed at odds with the West Coast fare that his band epitomised. And indeed, Gift Of Screws approaches the avant garde in places. The opener, Great Day is quite some statement of intent. Fuelled by furiously plucked nylon strings it's a fever pitch dash through whispered vocals and an incendiary guitar solo. Next up, Time Precious Time is no less startling. Over massed strings he intones like some alt folk hero a third of his age. From here it's a brief (just over 39 minute) ride through pure Californian pop (Did You Miss Me, Love Runs Deeper) gonzo rock (Gift Of Screws), alien folk (Bel Air Rain) and so much more.

His voice is lithe, his fingers insanely nimble and his songwriting chops simply awesome. Really, anyone from the ages of 15 to 65 would find Gift Of Screws exhilarating. Quiet simply, a masterpiece.

Glowing review from the Beeb. They do have the wrong song list on that page though.

Johnny Stew

09-12-2008, 03:48 PM

Glowing review from the Beeb. They do have the wrong song list on that page though.
Not to mention "brother Will!"

michelej1

09-12-2008, 04:44 PM

b102.7 Sioux Falls Classic Rock

http://www.b1027.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4582&Itemid=74

Buckingham Rocks on New Album

Fans who were confused by the unusual mellow vibe of Lindsey Buckingham's last album are going to be pleasantly surprised with his new album, Gift Of Screws, which features numerous layers of hard driving electric guitar.

Buckingham was asked if he'd ever been jealous of his late '70s colleagues Peter Frampton and Neal Schon, who came to symbolize the guitar heroes of the era, while his own groundbreaking work was buried under the drama of the Fleetwood Mac myth: "To some degree, the way the average person judges guitar is sort of guitar for its own sake. And I guess, I've always tried to make guitar in service of the song, and maybe that makes it a little less obvious to the average listener. Part of what I judge success as being, in terms of good record making is when the guitar work -- or any instrumentation kind of melds to the song and becomes not something that you're aware of, just becomes part and parcel with the whole."

Gift Of Screws comes out on Tuesday (September 16th) and features appearances by Fleetwood Mac bandmates Mick Fleetwood and John McVie.

Lindsey Buckingham performs tonight (September 12th) in Stateline, Nevada at Harrah's Lake Tahoe.

MacMan

09-12-2008, 05:54 PM

Lindsey Buckingham - Gift of Screws
September 12th, 2008 | 5:35 pm est | Thom Jurek

Allmusicblog (http://blog.allmusic.com/2008/09/12/lindsey-buckingham-gift-of-screws/)

Two studio albums in three years may not seem to be a breakneck pace for anybody else, but for Lindsey Buckingham it is no less than pure acceleration. Indeed if we include the live album that came out in 2007 between the two, it’s like three outings in as many years — warp speed for an artist like Buckingham who has been known to go more than a decade between his own offerings outside of Fleetwood Mac. On 2006’s Under the Skin, Buckingham issued a soft-spoken songwriter’s disc. It was all acoustic, deeply reflective, poignant, profound, and drenched in beauty. It was also criminally under-noticed. Somewhere he promised he’d release an electric rock record in the future. Gift of Screws (referencing the poetry of Emily Dickinson) may not be all the way there, but more often than not it offers the kind of rocking, heady electric pop he’s known for, as well as some glorious, lyrically sophisticated, acoustic singer/songwriter fare that bears his signature alone. Some of these tracks were written for an aborted session begun in the 1990s. Still others made it onto the Mac’s Say You Will, and still others are brand-spanking new.

The set opens with “Great Day,” a pulsing, urgent, minor-key rocker that blends electric and acoustic guitars, organic and electronic percussion, and some hushed keyboards. It explodes near the end with a scorching, burn-up-the-wire guitar solo he usually only plays live. “Did You Miss Me?,” written with wife Kristen Buckingham and featuring drums by Walfredo Reyes, could have appeared on any of Fleetwood Mac’s blissed-out, bittersweet ’70s recordings. The weave of guitars, layered backing vocals, and drop-dead catchy chorus is pure Buckingham. Mick Fleetwood and John McVie are the rhythm section on the rumbling multi-dimensional blues-winder “Wait for Me,” which also offers more evidence of the guitar slinger emerging form the shadows to take place center stage before giving way to a dense multi-textured chorus that transcends the blues without leaving them for dead. Fleetwood also adds drums to “The Right Place to Fade,” with bassist John Pierce. Acoustic guitars meld enormous power chords and stinging lead fills in a frenetically paced pop song. Along the way, there are hesitant, confessional, acoustically orchestrated songs where the darkness almost swallows the light as in “Bel Air Rain.” The wall of strings fingerpicking style adds to the emotional heft of songs like “Time Precious Time,” especially as the vocal effects give the sound a nearly three-dimensional quality. The title track is a balls-out rocker that places ’60s rave-up garage rock up against ’70s glam in a storm of guitars and clattering drums. The closer, “Treason,” is a dignified near-anthemic pop song with a gospel chorus that is unlike any song Buckingham’s written before and sends the set out in a very elegant, and deeply moving way.

What it all means is simple: that Buckingham is not only still relevant, but he’s also a pioneer in terms of craft, execution, and production, and has plenty to teach the current generation about making excellent records and never resting on your laurels. Gift of Screws is a standout even in his catalog.

Gazza

09-12-2008, 08:49 PM

while the jittery title track throws a cherry bomb at Bush's war machine.

Eh? Why? It's an Emily Dickinson poem. Maybe a few too many people in the media are conditioned to think of "Bush's War machine" when they hear the word "oil"?

3rd World Man

09-13-2008, 08:31 PM

All I need to do is photoshop some green hair and I'll have an Oompa Loompa. One of the older ones.

Hey Nico, if you send me the picture in question, I'll Photoshop LB into Oompa Loompa for you! It'll be great :p

MacMan

09-13-2008, 08:47 PM

By: Dan Cairns
Sunday Timesonline (http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/cd_reviews/article4734208.ece)
4/5 Stars

Buckingham’s last solo album, 2006’s Under the Skin, was a thing of wonder and beauty, but Gift of Screws finds him on even finer form. Fated for ever to be thought of as the man who reshaped Fleetwood Mac into a world-conquering rock band, the guitarist issues albums that, if they bore the group’s name, would sell by the bucketload; and he’s fated, too, to have his unsung status as one of the great geniuses of American sonic architecture obscured by his talent for undislodgable melody lines and radio-friendly hooks (though the hits invariably contained some deeply eccentric music-making). Here, commercial Lindsey again does battle with his darker, more experimental side. Great Day is pure Tusk-era Mac, its refrain of “It was a great day” shadowed by the characteristically droll riposte “It wasn’t such a great day”. Time Precious Time finds him giddily looping and lapping his extraordinary guitar-playing; Did You Miss Me may be the most beautiful song he has ever written; Love Runs Deeper just needs Ms Nicks on harmonies to scoot up the charts; Underground bemoans an entertainment industry interested only in instant cash prizes (“They heard 15 seconds, and that was enough”); the title track’s yelps and howls are almost sectionable; Treason nails the neocon age of permissible torture and executive malfeasance, to the sweetest of tunes. Sensational.

michelej1

09-13-2008, 10:28 PM

Does "undislodgable" mean you can't get it out of your head? That's a new one for me.

Michele

MacMan

09-14-2008, 08:28 AM

Lindsey Buckingham, "Gift of Screws" (Reprise) 4 stars.
Masslive.com (http://blog.masslive.com/playback/2008/09/all_that_remains_splice_metal.html)

In 2006, when the heart and soul of Fleetwood Mac, Lindsey Buckingham, released his first solo album in 14 years, "Under The Skin," he promised that the follow-up would come relatively soon and would be more rockin'.
He was right on both accounts.

"Gift of Screws," still showcases plenty of Buckingham's mesmerizing acoustic finger-picking but there's also plenty of thump as well, no doubt in part to the guest contributions from his FM mates Mick Fleetwood and John McVie.

The opener, "Great Day," which features a co-writing credit from Buckingham's son Will, boasts a nearly "Tusk" like thump and a frenzied electric guitar solo at the end, "Wait For You," has a dark but unmistakable Fleetwood Mac feel, while the title track - which is based around an Emily Dickinson poem - is flat-out bizarre.

Keeping in line with Buckingham's status as one of the most underrated guitarists of his era, there is some exquisite guitar playing throughout this album, especially during the beautiful, rippling "Time Precious Time," the stellar rocker "Love Runs Deeper" and the acoustic-based beauty "Bel Air Rain."

Lindsey Buckingham plays the Calvin Theatre in Northampton on Oct. 14.

MacMan

09-14-2008, 09:38 AM

Lindsey re-gifts
Gift of Screws is a 'cobbled-together bunch of leftovers'
Winnipeg Sun (http://winnipegsun.com/Entertainment/Music/2008/09/14/6759881-sun.html)

LINDSEY BUCKINGHAM
Gift of Screws
Pop-Rock
Sun Rating: 2 1/2 out of 5

Sometimes, you have to look a gift horse in the mouth -- if you don't want to get screwed, that is.

Fleetwood Mac guitarist Lindsey Buckingham's fifth solo CD seems like one of those occasions. As he admits in a press release: "This album is a distillation of a number of periods of time, some false starts to make albums, certainly some songs that go back a number of years, that took a while to find a home here, combined with brand-new songs and a whole other outlook."

Translation: It's a cobbled-together bunch of leftovers, demos and fleshed-out ideas -- some cut at home and on the road in the wake of his 2006 CD Under the Skin, with others dating back perhaps as far as 2001, when the album title Gift of Screws became a rumour in the Lindseysphere.

But even if it's mostly secondhand news, it's not all bad news. Buckingham also claims this disc rocks more than his last one. And it does -- on the cuts that feature Mac bassist John McVie and drummer Mick Fleetwood. The rest of the time, it's all about Lindsey, his spiderwebby vocals and his precise, intricate guitar work.

Sure, it has its moments. But frankly, most of these tracks sound more like technical exercises and home-studio experiments than songs. So unless you want to pay to hear Buckingham dump out his hard drive, you might want to go your own way.

---

Great Day 3:12

Over a bare-bones beatbox that sets a brisk pace, Lindsey layers gently throbbing arpeggios and flamenco flourishes with his acoustic guitar, crowning the affair with echoing vocals.

Time Precious Time 4:25

Buckingham fingerpicks at breakneck speed, stitching together a needlepoint backdrop for another echoing vocal line. This one sounds like Peter Gabriel and Robert Fripp.

Did You Miss Me 3:55

Finally, an actual song -- a slice of breezy, bittersweet California folk-pop complete with a suitably laid-back beat, a chiming guitar line and an actual chorus.

Wait for You 4:58

Fleetwood and McVie boogie on the bottom while Lindsey slings some bluesy juke-joint slide licks and brays like Stevie Nicks. A nice hypnotic groove in search of a bigger hook.

Love Runs Deeper 3:56

It starts out an understated, strummy little pop ditty -- then busts open on the chorus into a big Mac-style acoustic rocker. Not brilliant, but not half bad either.

Bel Air Rain 3:49

The cascading waterfall of glistening tones that flows from Buckingham's flying fingers is superb. The rainstick and soaring vocals, not so much. Enough with the echo, already.

The Right Place to Fade 4:02

Another decent acoustic rocker, with a lilting melody, memorable hooks and (we presume) another visit from McVie and Fleetwood. This one could end up on a Mac album.

Gift of Screws 2:52

A scrappy number that walks the line between British Invasion pop and garage-rock. It's not bad -- until Buckingham begins laughing like a hyena in the chorus.

Underground 2:58

Dreamy and wistful without being too ethereal, this folk-pop number features a throbbing guitar and some quietly popping percussion.

Treason 4:26

After all that frantic fingerpicking, Buckingham finally runs out of steam, lazily strumming his way through this downbeat, Dylanesque folk-rock ballad.

mylittledemon

09-14-2008, 12:33 PM

London Free Press, 9-14-2008
http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/Today/SundayEnt/2008/09/14/6759556-sun.html

Lindsey Re-Gifts

By DARRYL STERDAN, SUN MEDIA

LINDSEY BUCKINGHAM
Gift of Screws
Pop-Rock

Sun Rating: 2 1/2 out of 5

Sometimes, you have to look a gift horse in the mouth -- if you don't want to get screwed, that is. Fleetwood Mac guitarist Lindsey Buckingham's fifth solo CD seems like one of those occasions. As he admits in a press release: "This album is a distillation of a number of periods of time, some false starts to make albums, certainly some songs that go back a number of years, that took a while to find a home here, combined with brand-new songs and a whole other outlook."

Translation: It's a cobbled-together bunch of leftovers, demos and fleshed-out ideas -- some cut at home and on the road in the wake of his 2006 CD Under the Skin, with others dating back perhaps as far as 2001, when the album title Gift of Screws became a rumour in the Lindseysphere.

But even if it's mostly secondhand news, it's not all bad news. Buckingham also claims this disc rocks more than his last one. And it does -- on the cuts that feature Mac bassist John McVie and drummer Mick Fleetwood. The rest of the time, it's all about Lindsey, his spiderwebby vocals and his precise, intricate guitar work.

Sure, it has its moments. But frankly, most of these tracks sound more like technical exercises and home-studio experiments than songs. So unless you want to pay to hear Buckingham dump out his hard drive, you might want to go your own way.

Yeah it IS a cobbled together mess. That's what I thought after hearing the songs. This album isn't working for me. Yes, I'm just as shocked about that as you guys probably are.

shackin'up

09-14-2008, 01:28 PM

strandinthewind

09-14-2008, 01:46 PM

Yeah it IS a cobbled together mess. That's what I thought after hearing the songs. This album isn't working for me. Yes, I'm just as shocked about that as you guys probably are.

I see what you are saying. However, I have never really found LB to be consistent, save perhaps for UTS. So, I do not expect that from him :laugh:

How do you feel about each song on its own. I think on their own, each one I have heard are solid despite the somewhat scattered nature on the ensemble.

On edit - I think this review does not appreciate the quirkier nature of LB :laugh:

shackin'up

09-14-2008, 01:58 PM

I think very few people will say that Law And Order, Go Insane, OOTC and UTS are just an inconsistant pile of different ideas, in retrospect. At the time of release I've ALWAYS read that. (UTS as an exception, but that was a ONE-idea-album, very obvious at first listen) This album has a thread too, perfectly pronounced in that british review:An album "Like Keane never happened". If one can't hear it now, I can't explain it now either. Time will tell.

ajmccarrell

09-14-2008, 02:06 PM

That's just plain nonsense. 7 tracks are brand new and 5 of them are clear and totally normal finished songs. DYMM, LRD, Underground, Treason and Bel Air Rain have a head and tail, all radiofriendly and singable and with a modernfolky production. The only thing is: the album opens with two idiosyncratic songs that represent experiment, the rest is not. What a dumb reasons to bash the whole album. Give it a chance to grow Demon. You do not know what you're saying. On the other hand, you've never even liked the GOS-tracks I've sent you years ago. Three of them are on this album, so maybe it wasn't made for you after all.

I do agree that only a few of them sound finished, but those are the original GOS demos. None of the brand new tracks sound finished, not even DYMM. He's still using very obvious home-studio type effects and they sound like good demos, but not finished tracks. But that's okay.

shackin'up

09-14-2008, 05:45 PM

I do agree that only a few of them sound finished, but those are the original GOS demos. None of the brand new tracks sound finished, not even DYMM. He's still using very obvious home-studio type effects and they sound like good demos, but not finished tracks. But that's okay.

What a total bull****. Nobody seems to understand that his sonic approach is something else than the usual drizzle on the radio. Even Warner Brothers' brings the album out on Vinyl because the masters of this album sounded so spectacular, that they chose to invest even more than neccesary. This album will not sell much. What do you guys think they are trying to achieve with this move? Critical acclaim in the audiofilemarket. So they believe in a crappy hometape? :shrug:

My goodness. The dorkiness on this board seems to go on and on and on.

ajmccarrell

09-14-2008, 05:59 PM

What a total bull****. Nobody seems to understand that his sonic approach is something else than the usual drizzle on the radio. Even Warner Brothers' brings the album out on Vinyl because the masters of this album sounded so spectacular, that they chose to invest even more than neccesary. This album will not sell much. What do you guys think they are trying to achieve with this move? Critical acclaim in the audiofilemarket. So they believe in a crappy hometape? :shrug:

My goodness. The dorkiness on this board seems to go on and on and on.

Naw, it couldn't be that I'm a musician myself and his stuff is still using the metronome effects and the dorky percussion effects off of his portable DAW, could it?! I don't even listen to music radio anymore, so your comment isn't quite on point. There are just certain conventions that dictate a final track and he didn't complete all the normal steps. For one, drum machine and placeholder effects are usually stripped out. Not all of the tracks sound amateurish, but some on both GOS and UTS certainly do. The best examples are "UTS", "Show You How", "IWY", "Great Day" parts of "DYMM" and a few others. They are using digitized metronome effects and weird snaky reverbs that sound like a first-timer at home on his computer trying to record something.

I use those same phony percussion effects when laying a new track down, I just strip them and dub in drums instead, as does 99% of other people. The instrumentation should have been overdubbed over the goofy "tapping on the mic" drum effects, especially because the guy has four drummers that I can think of a phone call away. Tapping on the mic and using bad Commodore 64 effects and fairlights from the mid-80's isn't avante-gard, it sounds just plain amateurish at times, like on "Show You How" and on "Great Day". I know he's doing it on purpose, but I can't for the life of me figure out why he wants something to sound bad on purpose. I just see it as a missed opportunity. I just think of how much more kickass the song would have sounded with a real kit.

strandinthewind

09-14-2008, 06:01 PM

. . . My goodness. The dorkiness on this board seems to go on and on and on.

Just like LB on an insane and inoherent tangent which he then labels as "music"

:p:p:p

LukeA

09-14-2008, 06:02 PM

MacMan

09-14-2008, 06:09 PM

According to Amazon, the Vinyl has been discontinued.

shackin'up

09-14-2008, 06:14 PM

Do you honestly believe that to be the primary reason why WBR is releasing GOS on vinyl? Seriously?

Why do you think they will do that? With a commercially uninteresting product of an artist with no commercial appeal? For frisbeeing? I don't know where I read it but someone from WBR said that they were blown away by the sonic quality of the masters that they chose to bring it out on highquality Vinyl. Because the masters deserved to be released in an uncompressed format. The MP3-generation is not the targetgroup for that product, would you believe?

Come on people, blow out your ears and listen with an open mind, open to unexpected sounds.

shackin'up

09-14-2008, 06:30 PM

Naw, it couldn't be that I'm a musician myself and his stuff is still using the metronome effects and the dorky percussion effects off of his portable DAW, could it?! I don't even listen to music radio anymore, so your comment isn't quite on point. There are just certain conventions that dictate a final track and he didn't complete all the normal steps. For one, drum machine and placeholder effects are usually stripped out. Not all of the tracks sound amateurish, but some on both GOS and UTS certainly do. The best examples are "UTS", "Show You How", "IWY", "Great Day" parts of "DYMM" and a few others. They are using digitized metronome effects and weird snaky reverbs that sound like a first-timer at home on his computer trying to record something.

I use those same phony percussion effects when laying a new track down, I just strip them and dub in drums instead, as does 99% of other people. The instrumentation should have been overdubbed over the goofy "tapping on the mic" drum effects, especially because the guy has four drummers that I can think of a phone call away. Tapping on the mic and using bad Commodore 64 effects and fairlights from the mid-80's isn't avante-gard, it sounds just plain amateurish at times, like on "Show You How" and on "Great Day". I know he's doing it on purpose, but I can't for the life of me figure out why he wants something to sound bad on purpose. I just see it as a missed opportunity. I just think of how much more kickass the song would have sounded with a real kit.

The fact that you're a musician is not interesting at all. You listen with ears of a guy that knows what a finished track is. Let me make one thing clear: a finished track is a track that is finished by the recording artist, and not by the standard of another one. Lindsey's music has always developped sonicly in weird directions. You must hate his Tusksongs too. Back then they were ranked as unfinished demo's. L&O??? Unfinished demo's. Go Insane? Unfinished Fairlightexperiments.OOTC? Unfinished demo's, because of the synthetic drums . UTS? Unfinished Demo's. And now again with GOS? If all musicians had that same mindset as yours, music would not have developped at all..

strandinthewind

09-14-2008, 06:31 PM

. . . Come on people, blow out your ears and listen with an open mind, open to unexpected sounds.

That is the great thing about LB. Like Stephen Sondheim, arguably the best and quirkiest musical writer and producer on Broadway, LB's music delights in placing a beautiful musical flourish in a mostly obscure place, making the listener search for it as opposed to putting it obviously up front :shrug:

TrueFaith77

09-14-2008, 07:53 PM

i find all these "neo-con" / "bush's war" interpretations to be ridiculous.

ajmccarrell

09-14-2008, 09:38 PM

The fact that you're a musician is not interesting at all. You listen with ears of a guy that knows what a finished track is. Let me make one thing clear: a finished track is a track that is finished by the recording artist, and not by the standard of another one. Lindsey's music has always developped sonicly in weird directions. You must hate his Tusksongs too. Back then they were ranked as unfinished demo's. L&O??? Unfinished demo's. Go Insane? Unfinished Fairlightexperiments.OOTC? Unfinished demo's, because of the synthetic drums . UTS? Unfinished Demo's. And now again with GOS? If all musicians had that same mindset as yours, music would not have developped at all..

There is a such thing as associations of recording engineers that set standards for things, so yes there is a such thing as a definition of a finished track. Otherwise, music colleges wouldn't waste their time teaching people how to engineer records, if it was all artistic expression. You're right, I do hate a lot of his songs from Tusk and virtually all of Law & Order. I loved OOTC and Go Insane. Both of those sounded like well developed well played albums. I like GOS very much, I just wouldn't call it finished. The difference between the drums on OOTC and on his last two albums is that the synth drums were supposed to and designed to be finish quality. The stuff he used on UTS and GOS is a metronome and also mic taps. There's a HUGE difference. As far as the last statement, you can't really say that.

Nico

09-14-2008, 10:48 PM

So what's the deal with the vinyl thing? I was so excited to listen to it on the overpriced turntable I've used, like, 4 times at the most.

Guess it was too good to be true...:shrug:

trackaghost

09-15-2008, 04:28 AM

vivfox

09-15-2008, 08:35 AM

-- HOWARD COHEN

• ROCK

LINDSEY BUCKINGHAM

Gift of Screws

Reprise

**

On his 2006 album, Under the Skin, Lindsey Buckingham confessed he cares what people think of his efforts to never repeat the wildly successful formula of Fleetwood Mac's 1977 landmark, Rumours.

``Reading the paper saw a review / Said I was a visionary, but nobody knew / Now that's been a problem.''

OK Lindsey, you're a genius. Now, must you be so self-indulgent in trying to prove it?

Technically, Gift of Screws has some of Buckingham's best-written, catchiest solo songs. That's what makes this album's failings so frustrating.

The hook-filled Love Runs Deeper and The Right Place to Fade could be Fleetwood Mac hits from the Go Your Own Way period. But Buckingham overproduces everything. Where his earliest music had room to breathe, now he stifles it with avalanches of vocal, guitar and percussion overdubs. He sings in a breathy, exaggerated manner. As a result, simple rock songs turn arty and insufferable.

Worse, for an artist for whom repetition is anathema, he seems locked into that finger-picking flamenco style on guitar he employed to such rousing effect on 1997's live renditions of Big Love and Go Insane. Now, on tracks like the spiraling irritant Time Precious Time, the sound has degenerated into pinpricks on the brain. There's a great album here buried under all this fussiness.

Pod Picks:Love Runs Deeper, The Right Place to Fade, Did You Miss Me.

http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/music/story/686490.html

Nicks Fan

09-15-2008, 09:35 AM

From one of local papers in Ottawa Ontario Canada
September 14, 2008

Lindsey re-giftsGift of Screws is a 'cobbled-together bunch of leftovers'

By DARRYL STERDAN, SUN MEDIA

LINDSEY BUCKINGHAM

Gift of Screws

Pop-Rock

Sun Rating: 2 1/2 out of 5

Sometimes, you have to look a gift horse in the mouth -- if you don't want to get screwed, that is.

Fleetwood Mac guitarist Lindsey Buckingham's fifth solo CD seems like one of those occasions. As he admits in a press release: "This album is a distillation of a number of periods of time, some false starts to make albums, certainly some songs that go back a number of years, that took a while to find a home here, combined with brand-new songs and a whole other outlook."

Translation: It's a cobbled-together bunch of leftovers, demos and fleshed-out ideas -- some cut at home and on the road in the wake of his 2006 CD Under the Skin, with others dating back perhaps as far as 2001, when the album title Gift of Screws became a rumour in the Lindseysphere.

But even if it's mostly secondhand news, it's not all bad news. Buckingham also claims this disc rocks more than his last one. And it does -- on the cuts that feature Mac bassist John McVie and drummer Mick Fleetwood. The rest of the time, it's all about Lindsey, his spiderwebby vocals and his precise, intricate guitar work.

Sure, it has its moments. But frankly, most of these tracks sound more like technical exercises and home-studio experiments than songs. So unless you want to pay to hear Buckingham dump out his hard drive, you might want to go your own way.

---

Great Day 3:12

Over a bare-bones beatbox that sets a brisk pace, Lindsey layers gently throbbing arpeggios and flamenco flourishes with his acoustic guitar, crowning the affair with echoing vocals.

Time Precious Time 4:25

Buckingham fingerpicks at breakneck speed, stitching together a needlepoint backdrop for another echoing vocal line. This one sounds like Peter Gabriel and Robert Fripp.

Did You Miss Me 3:55

Finally, an actual song -- a slice of breezy, bittersweet California folk-pop complete with a suitably laid-back beat, a chiming guitar line and an actual chorus.

Wait for You 4:58

Fleetwood and McVie boogie on the bottom while Lindsey slings some bluesy juke-joint slide licks and brays like Stevie Nicks. A nice hypnotic groove in search of a bigger hook.

Love Runs Deeper 3:56

It starts out an understated, strummy little pop ditty -- then busts open on the chorus into a big Mac-style acoustic rocker. Not brilliant, but not half bad either.

Bel Air Rain 3:49

The cascading waterfall of glistening tones that flows from Buckingham's flying fingers is superb. The rainstick and soaring vocals, not so much. Enough with the echo, already.

The Right Place to Fade 4:02

Another decent acoustic rocker, with a lilting melody, memorable hooks and (we presume) another visit from McVie and Fleetwood. This one could end up on a Mac album.

Gift of Screws 2:52

A scrappy number that walks the line between British Invasion pop and garage-rock. It's not bad -- until Buckingham begins laughing like a hyena in the chorus.

Underground 2:58

Dreamy and wistful without being too ethereal, this folk-pop number features a throbbing guitar and some quietly popping percussion.

Treason 4:26

After all that frantic fingerpicking, Buckingham finally runs out of steam, lazily strumming his way through this downbeat, Dylanesque folk-rock ballad.

Matt

Tango

09-15-2008, 09:41 AM

The reviews don't matter. I'll be picking it up in person tomorrow! In three years he's gotten out two albums and two DVDS. Not bad, Lindsey. And "I Am Waiting!" :)

JamieSPC

09-15-2008, 10:32 AM

There is a such thing as associations of recording engieers that set standards for things, so yes there is a such thing as a definition of a finished track. You're right, I do hate a lot of his songs from Tusk and virtually all of Law & Order. I loved OOTC and Go Insane. Both of those sounded like well developed well played albums. I like GOS very much, I just wouldn't call it finished. The difference between the drums on OOTC and on his last two albums is that the synth drums were supposed to and designed to be finish quality. The stuff he used on UTS and GOS is a metronome and also mic taps. There's a HUGE difference. As far as the last statement, you can't really say that.

As much as I love FM and Lindsey, and am glad to have new material, this is dead-on.

My question is: Is anyone making a "mastering pass" at Lindsey's home-made recordings? Because that's where you would clean up a lot of the chintzy stuff that has made SOME of LB's recordings of the last few years sound like the Casio Kid. LB himself may not want this step, but take it from someone who has done a lot of demo work (amateur and professional): MANY of his recordings on UTS were demos, nothing more, and there were some glaring mastering errors that don't reflect artistic choice or musicality. And even the best musicians need some mastering work.

Tusk was very loose and organic, and I appreciate that. The easy availability of electronic drums and click tracks wasn't as prevalent back then.

I expect it to hear many of these same issues on GOS, since much of it is "home-made" as well. Biggest question in my mind has always been how the metronome ended up on some of the SYW tracks since they went through mixdown? I found that embarrassing for the band, actually. A lot of my engineer friends made tremendous fun of that record, and wondered if since it was analog to start with that the click got on the tapes somehow and couldn't be wiped out.

With all that said: Musicality is indeed in "the ear of the beholder." If it doesn't bother you, it doesn't bother you. No big whoop. :) As a pop craftsman and player, I agree LB's a genius and I expect to love these songs. I just think he's overrated in the studio and should put more stock in equally gifted mixers.

~Jamie

MacMan

09-15-2008, 10:33 AM

From one of local papers in Ottawa Ontario Canada
September 14, 2008

Lindsey re-giftsGift of Screws is a 'cobbled-together bunch of leftovers'

By DARRYL STERDAN, SUN MEDIA

The thing that pisses me off about this review, is not the fact that it tends to be on the negative side, but the fact that it's running in pretty much every Sun newspaper in every major Canadian city... So far it's appeared in Wpg, Edmonton and now Ottawa! And I'm sure it'll run in others too.

shackin'up

09-15-2008, 12:10 PM

ajmccarrell

09-15-2008, 12:28 PM

As much as I love FM and Lindsey, and am glad to have new material, this is dead-on.

My question is: Is anyone making a "mastering pass" at Lindsey's home-made recordings? Because that's where you would clean up a lot of the chintzy stuff that has made SOME of LB's recordings of the last few years sound like the Casio Kid. LB himself may not want this step, but take it from someone who has done a lot of demo work (amateur and professional): MANY of his recordings on UTS were demos, nothing more, and there were some glaring mastering errors that don't reflect artistic choice or musicality. And even the best musicians need some mastering work.

Tusk was very loose and organic, and I appreciate that. The easy availability of electronic drums and click tracks wasn't as prevalent back then.

I expect it to hear many of these same issues on GOS, since much of it is "home-made" as well. Biggest question in my mind has always been how the metronome ended up on some of the SYW tracks since they went through mixdown? I found that embarrassing for the band, actually. A lot of my engineer friends made tremendous fun of that record, and wondered if since it was analog to start with that the click got on the tapes somehow and couldn't be wiped out.

With all that said: Musicality is indeed in "the ear of the beholder." If it doesn't bother you, it doesn't bother you. No big whoop. :) As a pop craftsman and player, I agree LB's a genius and I expect to love these songs. I just think he's overrated in the studio and should put more stock in equally gifted mixers.

~Jamie

Yay! Someone who agrees with me! :blob2::laugh:

He should have Moncrieff do the mixing and mastering, he's vastly better at it than Mark Needham. Plus, Moncrieff got on my case if I had printed compression, even though it was needed to keep Alex's voice from distorting with all the gear turned down (that girl has some lungs!!!). He said he'd kill my pets if I blended my rhythm and leads again. There's no way he'd let Lindsey get away with this metronome crap. I'm really surprised that he is doing some of this stuff. I mean, the guy really needs to learn how to use his DAW. Real men read instructions.

ajmccarrell

09-15-2008, 12:30 PM

Come on people, If I remember correctly, UTS was under the top 50 records of the year in 2006 in the states (was that Rolling Stone?), even nr 13 in the yearlist off UK's Uncut Magazine. The arrogance of bashing his work as unfinished demo's just says alot about your narrow views. Pathetic.

Critics are not engineers. Period. How many of these guys spent countless hours at a board trying to make things sound good. Zero. :nod:

John Run

09-15-2008, 12:59 PM

I have written quite a few times about the engineering choices that Lindsey has made on SYW, UTS, and now GOS. These are choices that Lindsey is making. I can't say I agree with them, but they are his choices on his album. It happens to work for me on GOS. On UTS it did not. SYW which contains some great songs, lost a lot of its impact for me because of the engineering choices he and Mark Needham made. A co-producer to work with Lindsey who is an engineer, I think would be a benefit, but lets face it, Lindsey is the artist and if this is his creative vision then no co-producer or engineer is going to alter that.

MacMan

09-15-2008, 02:08 PM

Lindsey Buckingham's 'Gift' is a keeper

Kansas City Star (http://backtorockville.typepad.com/back_to_rockville/2008/09/lindsey-bucking.html)

The story behind his new album is all about Lindsey Buckingham’s loyalty to Fleetwood Mac. He wrote enough material for a solo album he intended to release as “Gift of Screws” early this decade. Instead, all but three of those songs ended up on “Say You Will,” a Fleetwood Mac album released in 2003.

Five years and one solo album later – the rather sedate “Under the Skin” – Buckingham has released an updated version of “Screws” (due in stores today), and it sounds like the time and remodeling could have been a stroke of good fortune: This is arguably his best solo album yet.

Over the course of 10 songs (40 minutes) he delivers all the techniques, traits and impulses that have made him respected and admired by fans who think he's so under-respected: the rampant alt-punk moments in “Tusk”; the bright-glossy pop sounds of “Law and Order”; his undying fondness for the Beach Boys and the Wilson brothers; and the avant-pop/rock moments in the epic and deranged “Go Insane.” If there was ever the slightest debate over who had the biggest creative engine in the Mac, this ought to settle it once and for all.

Buckingham is as much a guitar virtuoso as he is a songwriter and rock star, and “Screws” is a loaded with memorable and diverse guitar moments. The opener, “Great Day,” ends with one of those: a lead that sounds like it’s trying to uncage itself to save its life. From there, he glides into “Tim Precious Time,” which rides a long, easy wave of acoustic guitar arpeggios. Then comes “Did You Miss Me,” a nuts-and-bolts California pop song that would have been a great summer radio hit (it resembles “Trouble” from “Law and Order”). Unlike “Skin,” which never really shifted from its low-key, sepia-tone mood, “Screws” never stands still.

“I Wanna Wait For You” has the kind of blues vibe we heard way back in “World Turning” or “The Chain.” "Treason" is a lovely, ambient hymn, in the vein of "That's All for Everyone," from "Tusk."

Any Fleetwood Mac resemblances aren’t necessarily accidental: Mick Fleetwood and John McVie stand in as the rhythm section on a couple of songs, including “Love Runs Deeper,” a big, percussive and melodic rock anthem, like“Go Your Own Way.”

The big swerve comes late, in the incendiary title track, where Buckingham taps into his punk fetish and goes a little insane. The song is a hurricane of drums, guitars, jackhammer rhythms, manic vocals and strident lyrics, adapted from the poetry of Emily Dickinson: “Way down here / Everybody needs / Authority makes us bleed, bleed, bleed,” he screams and then cackles maniacally. And it feels so refreshing to hear him sound so visceral and unhinged again.

Timothy Finn, The Star

JamieSPC

09-15-2008, 02:32 PM

Critics are not engineers. Period. How many of these guys spent countless hours at a board trying to make things sound good. Zero. :nod:

Ding! Ding! Ding!

Honestly, I've always wondered if Needham had no choice. I know I've had tracks where I've accidently let the click bleed. Then like I'm stuck with an organ pad or some track with some cool organic licks I could never do again if I tried a million times that has a click. :( On analog that would be even harder if not impossible to fix, right?

Anyway, maybe it is LB's "artistic choice." Everybody's a critic, so I'll be one, too: It's a bad choice.

It's an opinion. :rolleyes:

~Jamie

ajmccarrell

09-15-2008, 02:42 PM

Ding! Ding! Ding!

Honestly, I've always wondered if Needham had no choice. I know I've had tracks where I've accidently let the click bleed. Then like I'm stuck with an organ pad or some track with some cool organic licks I could never do again if I tried a million times that has a click. :( On analog that would be even harder if not impossible to fix, right?

Anyway, maybe it is LB's "artistic choice." Everybody's a critic, so I'll be one, too: It's a bad choice.

It's an opinion. :rolleyes:

~Jamie

I've done that too. On my tune "Only One" the steel guitar is blended with the lead by accident. I tried redoing the lead, but I could never get the same energy again, so I left it.

Betsy

09-15-2008, 03:04 PM

As much as I love FM and Lindsey, and am glad to have new material, this is dead-on.

...Biggest question in my mind has always been how the metronome ended up on some of the SYW tracks since they went through mixdown? I found that embarrassing for the band, actually. A lot of my engineer friends made tremendous fun of that record, and wondered if since it was analog to start with that the click got on the tapes somehow and couldn't be wiped out.
~Jamie

I have found the topics you've been discussing very intriguing. Since I am a novice, could you tell me what songs to listen to on SWY that have the metronome on them?

stefan

09-15-2008, 03:26 PM

Critics are not engineers. Period. How many of these guys spent countless hours at a board trying to make things sound good. Zero. :nod:

You don't have to be a cow to know how a steak tastes.

I did not think there were still people left who think only actors can understand films and only goalgetters can perceive a good game and only novelists know how to interprete a book.

jbrownsjr

09-15-2008, 03:27 PM

Yay! Someone who agrees with me! :blob2::laugh:

He should have Moncrieff do the mixing and mastering, he's vastly better at it than Mark Needham. Plus, Moncrieff got on my case if I had printed compression, even though it was needed to keep Alex's voice from distorting with all the gear turned down (that girl has some lungs!!!). He said he'd kill my pets if I blended my rhythm and leads again. There's no way he'd let Lindsey get away with this metronome crap. I'm really surprised that he is doing some of this stuff. I mean, the guy really needs to learn how to use his DAW. Real men read instructions.

I agree with you as far as UTS.... The recording tactics he uses are cheap and sort of embarrassing. It's almost like he buys a Yamaha Motif or some other workstation and uses the pre-set rhythms that come with it and just leaves them on there. I have not heard the new album yet, but I did hear the single on his websight and thought it was rather nice and at least had some melody. My problem with Lindsey is that he doesn't really give me anything that I haven't already heard from him. Whisper vocals, tapping on equipment, layers of double tracking... It's not really avant-garde if we've heard it already. It's not master pop, it's low budget... And to my ears it doesn't sound like artisitic choice, it sounds like bad taste. I hope the new album (which I'm trying to avoid until it's released), doesn't have these whispers and tapping etc.... I do love when he laughs like a hyena!! I loved it on Law and Order... And for the record, I think Law and Order is solid, and I think Go Insane is a beautiful album. OOTC is a little less cohesive, but still in my book a great record.

shackin'up

09-15-2008, 03:51 PM

Critics are not engineers. Period. How many of these guys spent countless hours at a board trying to make things sound good. Zero. :nod:

Engineers are not musiclovers, they are one-track-mind technicians. (same logic as yours here). Lindsey Buckingham is an artist that is very much known as a soundconstructor. On his last two solo-albums he's aiming for a hifi lofi sound. 90 percent of the engineers iron music flat. He won't let that happen on his solo-outings. Yes, he's breaking new grounds again and your remarks are proof of that: your opinions proof that you have a conservative taste. Nothing wrong with that, but don't read LB's music with the same mindset. He's trying to make a point for almost 30 years and you still don't get it.

You're constantly asking us to limewire the new album so that the whole world can get it for free: you embraced the modern age when it comes to the industry: we are the home-distributors of today. Now there's a mainsteam artist who adds that democratic view in his sound: hometape qualities. He even tried to express his sympathy for this worldwide movement in his selfshot documentary on his Basshall DVD. Are you deaf and blind, dude, or don´t you WANT to hear it, because you´re waiting for Rumours II for 31 years.

Well who am I to keep you down....

shackin'up

09-15-2008, 03:53 PM

gypsysoul

09-15-2008, 04:01 PM

He's had quite a few reviews in British newspapers, all of the ones I've seen are positive.
Here's one:

'You may not have heard of Lindsey Buckingham but you'll be familiar with his work. He's the man behind Fleetwood Mac's Rumours album as well as the follow up Tusk, a sprawling experimental record that could not have been more different to its predecessor.
Buckingham's obscurity is a shame as his solo albums have consistently welded the pop nous of Rumours to the restless nature of Tusk.
Nearing 60 now he has made one of the albums of his life. Love runs deeper is a surging rush of guitar pop that benefits from a big chorus and a thrilling avalanche of massed accoustic guitars, an approach that also works on The right place to fade. Well worth investigating.'

A second one:
The major powerhouse and songwriter behind FM's golden era, Buckingham's knack for blending experimentation and killer hooks finds sharp focus on his fifth solo album.
Buckingham unleashes incendiary guitar licks aplenty. Clash meets Beach Boys style rocking fun and mixes a feel for exotic topicality with seasoned sensitivity and political committment.'

jbrownsjr

09-15-2008, 04:08 PM

Hooray. A poster with a brain.

shackin up is all you wanna do ;)

shackin'up

09-15-2008, 04:23 PM

shackin up is all you wanna do ;)

How can I when you won't take it from me?

jbrownsjr

09-15-2008, 04:30 PM

How can I when you won't take it from me?

metronomes are all you wanna do

ajmccarrell

09-15-2008, 04:32 PM

Engineers are not musiclovers, they are one-track-mind technicians. (same logic as yours here). Lindsey Buckingham is an artist that is very much known as a soundconstructor. On his last two solo-albums he's aiming for a hifi lofi sound. 90 percent of the engineers iron music flat. He won't let that happen on his solo-outings. Yes, he's breaking new grounds again and your remarks are proof of that: your opinions proof that you have a conservative taste. Nothing wrong with that, but don't read LB's music with the same mindset. He's trying to make a point for almost 30 years and you still don't get it.

You're constantly asking us to limewire the new album so that the whole world can get it for free: you embraced the modern age when it comes to the industry: we are the home-distributors of today. Now there's a mainsteam artist who adds that democratic view in his sound: hometape qualities. He even tried to express his sympathy for this worldwide movement in his selfshot documentary on his Basshall DVD. Are you deaf and blind, dude, or don´t you WANT to hear it, because you´re waiting for Rumours II for 31 years.

Well who am I to keep you down....
Your comments are mostly a bunch of assumptions. Try putting an album together and see what you think then. I don't think it's artistic if a guy wants to use a PC mic on his desktop, there's a such thing as artistic and there's a such thing as just plain unprofessional. I can't speak for the other guy, but I started engineering because I'm a musician first a foremost. I'm a rotten engineer, just ask Tom Moncrieff. However, even I know not to do some of the crap Lindsey is doing. I mean, come on, from the cardboard inserts, the metronome noises, the tapping on mics, selling his house, etc... it's clear the guy has run out of money. I'm only 26 and I wan't that fond of Rumours, I thought it sounded tinny, so I couldn't have been waiting for it for 31 years. I'm frankly sick of Rumours. I'm a fan because of Go Insane, OOTC, and anything Tango on. I was more hoping for OOTC part II, which this clearly isn't. Law and Order was an almost unlistenable mess, as far as I'm concerned. Your opinion is WAY too hostile for my simply expressing a series of very valid criticisms. You wanted to talk about hometape qualities, well I can't think of a single demo I've heard from any amateur musician I've tried to record that would have used the built in metronome sounds.... and I've recorded some seriously unprofessional and bizarre stuff.

ajmccarrell

09-15-2008, 04:33 PM

Hooray. A poster with a brain.

Even a cow could spot bad recording technique. I just think some people will defend mediocre effort no matter what.

ajmccarrell

09-15-2008, 04:35 PM

You don't have to be a cow to know how a steak tastes.

I did not think there were still people left who think only actors can understand films and only goalgetters can perceive a good game and only novelists know how to interprete a book.

No, but another novelist can certainly add perspective, as could a filmmaker. He could point out the errors you may not have noticed otherwise. I mean, even Casablanca had really bad filmmaking technique in parts, as Bogart is wet in the first part of the rain scene and is bone dry in the next 2 seconds.

trackaghost

09-15-2008, 04:43 PM

You don't have to be a cow to know how a steak tastes.

omg :laugh:

Law and Order was an almost unlistenable mess, as far as I'm concerned.

A Tusk AND a L&O hater? Wow. I'm so glad Lindsey made this album for me and not for you :laugh:

shackin'up

09-15-2008, 04:55 PM

No, but another novelist can certainly add perspective, as could a filmmaker. He could point out the errors you may not have noticed otherwise. I mean, even Casablanca had really bad filmmaking technique in parts, as Bogart is wet in the first part of the rain scene and is bone dry in the next 2 seconds.

Wow, and it kept you bonedry for the rest of your life?

So that's an unfinished movie. Cool. Who cares? It's brilliant! There's a truckload of continuity-failures in Back To The Future. So that's an unfinished movie too. Interesting. Stop consuming art as a surgeon man, you are not hearing what it is about. At all.

ajmccarrell

09-15-2008, 04:59 PM

Wow, and it kept you bonedry for the rest of your life?

So that's an unfinished movie. Cool. Who cares? It's brilliant! There's a truckload of continuity-failures in Back To The Future. So that's an unfinished movie too. Interesting. Stop consuming art as a surgeon man, you are not hearing what it is about. At all.

Okay, I tell you what, I have a "Great Day" parody going through my head and I'll lay it down in the next few days and post it here and see how you like the same stuff coming from some other guy who isn't Lindsey. I'll bet it'll lose the charm. :)

ajmccarrell

09-15-2008, 05:00 PM

trackaghost

09-15-2008, 05:05 PM

Okay, I tell you what, I have a "Great Day" parody going through my head and I'll lay it down in the next few days and post it here and see how you like the same stuff coming from some other guy who isn't Lindsey. I'll bet it'll lose the charm. :)

I don't think you realise that this is the music that we like. I listen to a lot of lo-fi, experimental music, this isn't so far removed from that. You parodying something you don't like is not the same as somebody recording something and keeping the unpolished sound because they like the feel and passion. Sometimes a drawing can be just as good, if not better, than a painting. Just my opinion of course.

John Run

09-15-2008, 05:05 PM

I mean, come on, from the cardboard inserts, the metronome noises, the tapping on mics, selling his house, etc... it's clear the guy has run out of money. I'm only 26 and I wan't that fond of Rumours, I thought it sounded tinny, so I couldn't have been waiting for it for 31 years. I'm frankly sick of Rumours.

Now that is just a plain stupid assumption without basis in any fact. How do you know Lindsey's financial situation? Having been coming here since the 90's I am happy to have new and younger posters. Especially ones like you offer consistently challenging and engaging posts. However, just throwing things up like Lindsey has run out of money, unfortunately shows your youth. Unless you double as an accountant/emerging recording artist, I highly doubt you have any valuable insight into Lindsey's financial situation.

Stick to the music, man.

shackin'up

09-15-2008, 05:07 PM

Stick to the music, man.

he can't. he's looking for failures in music, not letting it in for joy. and he's pissed that such a crappy artist made it and he didn't.

shackin'up

09-15-2008, 05:08 PM

I'm not dry. Buy one of my albums and you'll see that's the case. :laugh:

LIMEWIRE!!!!!

ajmccarrell

09-15-2008, 05:13 PM

Unless you double as an accountant/emerging recording artist, I highly doubt you have any valuable insight into Lindsey's financial situation.
LOL! Funny you should say this.. That's exactly what I am!!! :thumbsup: I have a Bachelor's in accounting and I released an album a few months ago. I've also done a lot of post graduate work and am 5 classes shy of an MBA. I've been an accountant for 10 years, since I was 16.

ajmccarrell

09-15-2008, 05:14 PM

he can't. he's looking for failures in music, not letting it in for joy. and he's pissed that such a crappy artist made it and he didn't.

No, I just wanted OOTC part II and didn't get it. You are making a wild assumption. I like GOS, I just don't get the amateur thing. I think the songs are great, it's the production style I don't care for much. I can live with it, but you're being a jerk about it. Why can't I think it's an okay album and not the greatest thing ever written? You've decided a bunch of stuff and are having wild emotional outbursts because I dared to say something negative. Overall, I like the album. I don't love it. Keep on foaming at the mouth, why dontcha?! LOL!

ajmccarrell

09-15-2008, 05:15 PM

LIMEWIRE!!!!!

By all means, share my stuff on limewire. I did the album to spread it around, not for the money per se. I do just fine with my day job.

trackaghost

09-15-2008, 05:24 PM

LOL! Funny you should say this.. That's exactly what I am!!! :thumbsup: I have a Bachelor's in accounting and I released an album a few months ago. I've also done a lot of post graduate work and am 5 classes shy of an MBA. I've been an accountant for 10 years, since I was 16.

That's all nice and everything but it doesn't mean you know what's going on with Lindsey's accounts to be fair.

ajmccarrell

09-15-2008, 05:25 PM

That's all nice and everything but it doesn't mean you know what's going on with Lindsey's accounts to be fair.

True! But you have to admit it paints a clear picture.

jbrownsjr

09-15-2008, 05:26 PM

True! But you have to admit it paints a clear picture.

I disagree, I just think some of his choices are in poor taste... He's got money...

trackaghost

09-15-2008, 05:29 PM

True! But you have to admit it paints a clear picture.

No, I don't think it does personally. I love Lindsey's sound at the moment and obviously he's into a more, maybe, DIY feel too. I love it. I was never into the polished sound of OOTC. It says nothing about him or his finances at all just his taste for something more real sounding imo. If the guy was so strapped for cash I doubt he'd be going on the road for the third time in two years travelling by private plane.

jbrownsjr

09-15-2008, 05:30 PM

No, I don't think it does personally. I love Lindsey's sound at the moment and obviously he's into a more, maybe, DIY feel too. I love it. I was never into the polished sound of OOTC. It says nothing about him or his finances at all just his taste for something more real sounding imo. If the guy was so strapped for cash I doubt he'd be going on the road for the third time in two years travelling by private plane.

agreed .

trackaghost

09-15-2008, 05:34 PM

I disagree, I just think some of his choices are in poor taste... He's got money...

I'm really curious what you will think of the album, jbrownjr. I think you'll definitely like it more than UTS.

jbrownsjr

09-15-2008, 05:37 PM

I'm really curious what you will think of the album, jbrownjr. I think you'll definitely like it more than UTS.

I'm trying to stay away from reviews and such... I want a virgin listen... I went to the websight and didn't know it was gonna play a tune... so I listened to one tune...

shackin'up

09-15-2008, 05:38 PM

shackin'up

09-15-2008, 05:39 PM

I'm trying to stay away from reviews and such... I want a virgin listen... I went to the websight and didn't know it was gonna play a tune... so I listened to one tune...

You will LOVE Underground......

strandinthewind

09-15-2008, 05:41 PM

As for the recording sounds that sound unprofessional - LB is a perfectionist. So, it is unlikely those sounds are there by accident. Who knows, maybe he thought they were cool :shrug: I also think he wanted to do this record mostly on his own, which explains the home studio, which he likely took with him from the last house.

jbrownsjr

09-15-2008, 05:43 PM

Yes, he was so poor that he recorded Tusk in his bathroom, taped mics on the floor, and tapped the mikes cause he couldn't afford a mick. Your remarks are so dumb and prooving that you don't understand Lindsey's experiments, that I almost feel sorry for him that you don't hate his new album. I stop the discussion here, AJ. I can handle criticism and difference of taste, but I simply can't handle stupidity.

I love Tusk shack... and I love the vocals in the bathroom... Love Law and Order.. go Insane... Love him breaking glass and recording it....

I just don't want another UTS... I want more melodies... more structure.. more of his wonderful vocals (untainted)... warm harmonies... and some groove.... he's missing some groove most of all...

now i'm hopeful cos I heard a tune on his websight and quite liked the warmness of it.... we'll see...

BTFLCHLD

09-15-2008, 05:48 PM

GOS is my favorite Lindsey album.

ajmccarrell

09-15-2008, 05:49 PM

I can handle criticism and difference of taste, but I simply can't handle stupidity.
Well, it's a good thing you've stopped talking then. :D

shackin'up

09-15-2008, 05:51 PM

I love Tusk shack... and I love the vocals in the bathroom... Love Law and Order.. go Insane... Love him breaking glass and recording it....

I just don't want another UTS... I want more melodies... more structure.. more of his wonderful vocals (untainted)... warm harmonies... and some groove.... he's missing some groove most of all...

now i'm hopeful cos I heard a tune on his websight and quite liked the warmness of it.... we'll see...

I understand EVERYONE who don't like UTS. I love it, but that's mainly because of the incredible unity and atmosphere of that album and the fact it is not a typical songcollection, but an album where every single song needs the one before and after to shine. And that's an incredible achievement.

I hope you like this one more, but I don't know if you'll find what you're looking for.

jbrownsjr

09-15-2008, 05:55 PM

I understand EVERYONE who don't like UTS. I love it, but that's mainly because of the incredible unity and atmosphere of that album and the fact it is not a typical songcollection, but an album where every single song needs the one before and after to shine. And that's an incredible achievement.

I hope you like this one more, but I don't know if you'll find what you're looking for.

what i want and what i get are two different things.....

even if don't like it on the first listen.. .don't worry.. i usually listen about 10 times... it's how i came to like radiohead lol

trackaghost

09-15-2008, 05:57 PM

trackaghost

09-15-2008, 05:59 PM

what i want and what i get are two different things.....

even if don't like it on the first listen.. .don't worry.. i usually listen about 10 times... it's how i came to like radiohead lol

There's a couple of typically weird Lindsey tracks on there but overall it's a pretty melodic album, honestly, I have a good feeling you'll like it. And Gerald is right, you'll love Underground for sure.

jbrownsjr

09-15-2008, 06:02 PM

There's a couple of typically weird Lindsey tracks on there but overall it's a pretty melodic album, honestly, I have a good feeling you'll like it. And Gerald is right, you'll love Underground for sure.

see i don't mind a few weird tracks....

like Bwana opening Law and Order was incredible... then go to Trouble... then Mary Lee Jones...

I still think the most cohesive album he's done is Go Insane... it's about one concept... and it all ties together....

jbrownsjr

09-15-2008, 06:06 PM

haha i got two new pages in a row....

strandinthewind

09-15-2008, 06:07 PM

Didn't he do a lot of UTS on the road too? Some of the new album may have been recorded that way as well.

I think he did. In the end, FM has always had little sniglets of stuff left on tape a la the voices at the beginning of The Chain, the song Tusk, Save Me a Place, etc.

jbrownsjr

09-15-2008, 06:12 PM

I think he did. In the end, FM has always had little sniglets of stuff left on tape a la the voices at the beginning of The Chain, the song Tusk, Save Me a Place, etc.

sniglets.... haha... old term from NNTNews...

justcrazylove

09-15-2008, 06:27 PM

LukeA

09-15-2008, 06:38 PM

ajmccarrell

09-15-2008, 06:58 PM

AJ your just loving blowing your own horn!, no one cares about your "friend" Tom and your record and your accounting degree, i saw you at the Seattle show and lets be honest there is an obvious reason why your who are and Lindsey is the man who is currentley on a national tour under his own name! you might not like the production work, but by no means can you sit there and make outlandish statements regarding his vision and musical direction....YOUR A NOBODY!

First off, learn to spell and punctuate, according to you, I own "nobody" because you used "your" in a posessive context.

How would you know it was me? I wasn't playing anything, I came by myself and mostly just stood around waiting for the concert, I never said who I was and never really talked to anyone except the nice lady who held my camera for my Lindsey pics and to Lindsey himself, so what exactly makes me anything or nothing? Besides, who the hell are you? I can't recall seeing you. I think you're just lying about stuff. If you're so emotionally stunted that you can't take hearing minor criticisms of Lindsey's mixes, go to www.iworshiplindsey.com. I think you're just jealous, frankly.

Yep, Lindsey's a great showman and I'm not. I'm a songwriter and that's why I hired someone to be the frontwoman of my band. I understand I'm not a dynamic guy, I'm quite boring in person. The national tour I did have over ten years ago was as a classical guitarist with a group of other musicians and artists, which is probably very boring to you. I did not headline anything, but was a guy they brought along simply because the director of the tour was dating a friend of mine. They were all tuxedo affairs and dinners where politicians gave speeches for the 1998 elections. I haven't done anything like that since and have no interest in doing it again. I like doing music on the internet and have had over 80,000 myspace hits thank you. It's a hobby and I have no interest in putting out angst filled albums about how the labels have screwed me. I do soft pop and am unlikely to ever chart beyond the AAA charts. I did chart at #2 locally behind Brandi Carlile. I have no pretentions of anything beyond that, but it doesn't mean I shouldn't try.

As far as people not caring about Tom, I guess that's why this board just devoted a Q & A to him. LOL!

I was expressing an opinion here on an album, the same as anyone else has been and said that based on my limited experience in actually putting albums together, I don't get why he did certain things, but I overall like the album. You can't listen to anyone criticize your god-like hero, go cry in your corner! He's just a musician, same as anyone else..... And yes, he can do wrong sometimes.

Yes, I have an ego. So friggin' what?! I joined the board essentially to advertise at first and I like to join the discussions and plug my projects, and also it's nice to talk to other LB/FM fans. So, boo friggity hoo! You have a problem, put me on ignore and shut up. :) :laugh:

ajmccarrell

09-15-2008, 07:00 PM

Yep, that pretty much sums it all up.

Same to you, if you don't like me. You have the option of ignoring me. :wavey: BTW I am allowed to not like certain directions Lindsey decides to go in. I am free to express my opinion and make suggestions, if you don't like them, you don't have to listen. I suggested Tom because they've worked together and he's a professional mixer. So, what's your point?

LukeA

09-15-2008, 07:24 PM

Same to you, if you don't like me. You have the option of ignoring me. :wavey: BTW I am allowed to not like certain directions Lindsey decides to go in. I am free to express my opinion and make suggestions, if you don't like them, you don't have to listen. I suggested Tom because they've worked together and he's a professional mixer. So, what's your point?

AJ, it's all well and good that you're an accountant and also play music on the side in a band with a couple of guys who knew Lindsey 35 years ago. Really.

However, using those "credentials" to suggest the notion that Lindsey's choice of production values/methods is directly related to his supposed dire financial situation isn't as much of an educated opinion as it is uninformed bluster.

mgikallaroundme

09-15-2008, 07:30 PM

Same to you, if you don't like me. You have the option of ignoring me. :wavey: BTW I am allowed to not like certain directions Lindsey decides to go in. I am free to express my opinion and make suggestions, if you don't like them, you don't have to listen. I suggested Tom because they've worked together and he's a professional mixer. So, what's your point?

Too funny! My grandmother is a professional mixer. You and Tom have superior taste and know more about recording than the most accomplisehd individual in the history of recorded music? Shame on LB not taking direction from one of his ex flunkees and a kid who doesn't know his own music producer. :laugh:

ajmccarrell

09-15-2008, 07:30 PM

AJ, it's all well and good that you're an accountant and also play music on the side in a band with a couple of guys who knew Lindsey 35 years ago. Really.

However, using those "credentials" to suggest the notion that Lindsey's choice of production values/methods is directly related to his supposed dire financial situation isn't as much of an educated opinion as it is uninformed bluster.

I think you misunderstood me, or I didn't elaborate. When looking at CD jackets for my own CD, the cheapest were what GOS is packaged in. Also, using very cheap and or free stuff, IE the goofy percussion, that comes with standard DAW systems, as well as downscaling his house, etc. It all sounds like he's counting his pennies. I could be wrong too. I didn't use my "credentials" to suggest that.

Tom actually still knows and occasionally talks to Lindsey. I brought him up because I thought he might be a better mixer than Mark Needham and LB already knows him. Simple as that.

ajmccarrell

09-15-2008, 07:33 PM

Too funny! My grandmother is a professional mixer. You and Tom have superior taste and know more about recording than the most accomplisehd individual in the history of recorded music? Shame on LB not taking direction from one of his ex flunkees and a kid who doesn't know his own music producer. :laugh:

I actually do know Charlie and have been to his house a few times, so what are you talking about? Tom has a platinum record and a gold record. Charlie has a great deal more than Lindsey does and a couple more Hall of Fame awards. Besides, LB actually copied Charlie's horn concept for "SGCYM", he said he used the Memphis horn sounds, which Charlie originated. I cannot speak for Tom, he would speak for himself.

What exactly are your grandmother's credentials? :laugh:

I was trying to express an opinion, not get into a pissing contest.

MacMan

09-15-2008, 07:55 PM

Lindsey Buckingham's latest is a 'Gift' indeed

By Mark Brown, Rocky Mountain News (http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/sep/15/lindsey-buckinghams-latest-is-a-gift-indeed/)
Monday, September 15, 2008

Gift of Screws has taken years and various U-turns to finally make it into stores today. The album became a bit of a legend among Lindsey Buckingham fans when bits of it were played live with Fleetwood Mac in 1997. Bits of it slipped out around 2000, five years after he'd started it.

But the album got derailed twice, first when songs were cannibalized for much of the Fleetwood Mac album Say You Will and again when a few more tracks turned up on Buckingham's solo album Under the Skin.

So, what fans hear now may be far from how this album was conceived all those years ago, but despite coming in dribs and drabs, the finished album is worth the wait.

Out of the Cradle, his third solo album, from 1992, hit the high mark for many Buckingham fans. It kept his quirky nature but mixed in more lush, traditional songwriting in gorgeous tracks like Don't Look Down and You Do or You Don't. His past couple of solo albums have been sparser and more experimental, with Buckingham at times exploring what his fingers could do on the fret board (and how fast they could do it) rather than putting melody first.

That can be fascinating on tracks like the opening Great Day, but the finger-picking style that Buckingham has become partial to over the years can be a bit excessive at times, impressive as it is.

But Gift of Screws comes closer to that Out of the Cradle sound than anything else he's done since. Love Runs Deeper could have found a spot on any Buckingham solo album (and would have sounded great on Say You Will), filled with classic acoustic guitar as well as warm harmonies and sweet, melodic electric leads. Underground could have fit on Rumours or Tusk, a sweet melody with simple voice and guitar.

Gift of Screws gives an explicit idea of where Buckingham's mind is these days. "In my younger days / I was mistaken for a whore / I guess you could say / I lived in chains," Buckingham sings in Bel Air Rain, a slap at the record industry that once championed him but of late has stymied his creativity.

He takes a look at the bigger picture in the title cut, classic off-kilter Buckingham, a rock song pierced with the occasional maniacal laugh and lyrics like "Authority makes us bleed, bleed, bleed ... Authority keeps us down, down, down," and in the equally political closing cut, Treason.

With 10 tight songs and a more focused viewpoint, Gift of Screws ends up being his second-best solo album - very good company to be in.

Lindsey Buckingham
Gift of Screws
Reprise Records
Grade: B

To hear an excerpt of Love Runs Deeper from Lindsey Buckingham's Gift of Screws, go to RockyMountainNews.com/extras.

MacMan

09-15-2008, 08:10 PM

LISTENING STATION: Lindsey Buckingham's 'Gift'
Lindsey Buckingham
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Washington Times (http://washingtontimes.com/news/2008/sep/16/lindsey-buckinghams-gift/)

Lindsey Buckingham
Gift of Screws
Reprise/Waner

At every turn, "Gift of Screws" reminds the listener of Lindsey Buckingham's eclectic brand of pop songwriting.

Some of the 10 songs on this new album have been in progress for the better part of a decade. Some reprise themes of songs from the 2003 Fleetwood Mac reunion album, "Say You Will." Rather than sounding like retreads, however, the recordings feel vibrant and contemporary for the most part while retaining the familiar sounds of Mr. Buckingham's virtuosic guitar playing. It's all the more familiar because the Fleetwood Mac rhythm section (Mick Fleetwood on drums, John McVie on bass) joins in on a few tracks.

"Time Precious Time" is an acoustic ballad that opens with a frenzy of finger picking and a soaring vocal line. There is a muddled intensity to it, like a prelude struggling to transform into a theme. The rapid-fire arpeggios race harplike up and down the fret board as the singer repeatedly intones the title.

"Love Runs Deep" opens with an acoustic guitar and quick bass line - and until the electric guitar picks up, it could pass for a semisweet Coldplay song. Then the Fleetwood Mac vibe quickly intrudes in the form of harmonized vocals and a gritty guitar solo.

At 58, Mr. Buckingham seems eager to assert that he hasn't lost a step as a guitarist. He turns in another blisteringly fast acoustic picking effort with "Bel Air Rain," a speedy but downcast minor-key lament. More upbeat is "The Right Place to Fade," which opens with a cheerful cross of acoustic strumming and an electric solo.

The album's title track originally was scheduled for inclusion on "Say You Will." It's a weird, alluring mix of new-wave pop and garage rock with a peculiar squealing chorus that sounds as if it could be a B-52s outtake. It's also oddly out of step with the rest of the album, if only for its punkish bass line and shouted vocals.

"Did You Miss Me" is the most memorable track on "Gift of Screws."With its distinctively Coldplay-like intro, it's a sweet and rueful pop song with honeyed accents concealing a bitter core. (Indeed, the resemblance at times is so pronounced that it might be worth inspecting Chris Martin.) On the chorus, plucked guitar notes play over the rhythm guitar like a bell sounding over an orchestra. Mr. Buckingham sings, "Did you miss me/ In the evening/ When everyone is bound to dream?"

Fans probably didn't miss Mr. Buckingham all that much. He weighed in just two years ago with the impressive acoustic album "Under the Skin." If anything, "Gift of Screws" is a more impressive outing. It's typical of older rockers to return to the spirit of their glory days on late-career albums. It's impressive, then, that Mr. Buckingham has produced a recording that looks forward as much as it looks back.

vivfox

09-15-2008, 08:16 PM

Nico

09-15-2008, 10:02 PM

GOS is my favorite Lindsey album.

Wow. Already? I still hold OotC on the highest possible pinnacle, just because I think it is one of the most beautiful things I have heard in my life, from start to finish. Plus, it basically made me a Lindsey fan- aside from watching the man perform on the "Live in Boston" show. But this album is really special. Like Great Day...it's such a weird song, but it's catchy to me and I'm really, really digging it at the moment. And RPTF is one of the best things he has ever done, probably outshining many of his "Cradle" songs...

And then there's the case of Under the Skin. It's such a mature album, and one of my close friends who wouldn't normally listen to Lindsey absolutely adores that album. I do as well. I love the quietness of it, and the production has never really bothered me. Yes I could do without Not Too Late, but beggars can't be choosers- and I was waiting a LONG time for Lindsey Buckingham to release an album. And now it's like a plethora. :laugh:

JamieSPC

09-15-2008, 10:31 PM

I have found the topics you've been discussing very intriguing. Since I am a novice, could you tell me what songs to listen to on SWY that have the metrodome on them?

Wow. This thread got crazy.

Goodbye Baby and Smile At You both have clicks left on them.

~Jamie

MacMan

09-15-2008, 11:45 PM

Lindsey screws around (brilliantly)

Lindsey Buckingham, Gift of Screws: * * * * — Brilliant construction
USAToday.com (http://blogs.usatoday.com/listenup/2008/09/this-weeks-re-2.html)

Few rock musicians can make a guitar sing as sweetly as Buckingham. On this album, his finest since 1992’s Out of the Cradle, the troubadour veers from gorgeously lyrical soundscapes such as Time Precious Time and Bel Air Rain to songs that evoke the pulsing melodic savvy of his best work both as a solo artist and with Fleetwood Mac. From the crackling-good opener Great Day to the poignant closing tune, Treason, this Gift keeps on giving. — Elysa Gardner

>>Download: previously mentioned tracks, Did You Miss Me, Love Runs Deeper >>Skip: nothing

BTFLCHLD

09-16-2008, 01:43 AM

And RPTF is one of the best things he has ever done, probably outshining many of his "Cradle" songs... yea I dig that song too...needs to be in the set. :angel:

shackin'up

09-16-2008, 02:55 AM

This was all very mean.
Speaking of not being very smart--see what I highlighted? If he can't afford a Mick maybe he can afford a John or a Stevie.:laugh:

That mike-mick thing was an intended pun. So it was my joke, thanks for explaining it to the rest of the board. It was AJ who made the remark of lindsey being poor and that was the reason of his lowfi production. So I was joking about how poor he was after tusk, he just sold 16 million records and chose for lowfi production. The guy just don't understand that Lindsey is doing that for almost 30 years now.

Have you ever heard of humour?

trackaghost

09-16-2008, 04:19 AM

This was all very mean.
Speaking of not being very smart--see what I highlighted? If he can't afford a Mick maybe he can afford a John or a Stevie.:laugh:

He said he "tapped the mikes cause he couldn't afford a mick" meaning Lindsey made his own percussion because he couldn't afford someone like Mick ie a drummer, a Mick Fleetwood.
It wasn't a mistake.

Edit: Gerald has said the same thing.

trackaghost

09-16-2008, 04:24 AM

I was trying to express an opinion, not get into a pissing contest.

Are you sure? It seems like you bring up this stuff regularly as a way of saying you're better qualified to judge music than the rest of us ("I'm a musician, I'm an engineer, I know people Lindsey used to work with" even "I'm an accountant!"). That's what pisses people off, not the criticism.
Just my opinion of course...

TrueFaith77

09-16-2008, 04:29 AM

Wow. This thread got crazy.

Goodbye Baby and Smile At You both have clicks left on them.

~Jamie

But that was intentional. I like the effect.

shackin'up

09-16-2008, 06:08 AM

But that was intentional. I like the effect.

all the clicks on his recordings are intentional, one may not like it, but rank it as amateurism is like saying the same thing about John Bonham playing drums on a chair. Or Buckingham himself on a Kleenexbox.

spacejunky

09-16-2008, 06:57 AM

hi guys...long time reader first time poster:blob2:...i live in sunny adelaide , south australia...love the mac...have seen them 5 or 6 times down here...absolutely obsessed with lindsey.:]..anyway..not sure when the album will pop up down here, so i downloaded it for now...i WILL prurchase a copy as soon as it lands..:nod:
I love it...i could write a whole load of other stuff...but " i love it" sums it up pretty nicely!

CADreaming

09-16-2008, 07:22 AM

But that was intentional. I like the effect.

Yeah, me too.

vivfox

09-16-2008, 09:42 AM

Buckingham's new solo album

Tuesday September 16, 2008

Get ready for a Mac attack - Fleetwood Mac guitarist Lindsey Buckingham is going to bring back the sounds of the famous rock group in his fifth solo album.

Buckingham has in the past has given up many of his own individual songs for the group to perform and produce.

But this time around he put his foot down and made the band fully aware of his intentions to release another album on his own.

'Gift of Screws' has 10 songs - some new and some written years ago - and includes playing by John McVie and Mick Fleetwood.

Buckingham is currently on tour in support of the new release.

http://www.skynews.com.au/showbiz/article.aspx?id=267723

vivfox

09-16-2008, 09:49 AM

A ‘Gift’ from Lindsey Buckingham

The story behind his new album is all about Lindsey Buckingham’s loyalty to Fleetwood Mac. He wrote enough material for a solo album he intended to release as “Gift of Screws” early this decade. Instead all but three of those songs ended up on “Say You Will,” a Fleetwood Mac release in 2003.

Five years and one solo album later — the rather sedate “Under the Skin” — Buckingham has released an updated version of “Screws” (due in stores today), and it sounds like the time and remodeling could have been a stroke of good fortune: This is arguably his best solo album yet.

Over the course of 10 songs (40 minutes), he delivers all the techniques, traits and impulses that have made him respected and admired by fans who think he’s underrespected: the rampant alt-punk moments in “Tusk”; the bright-glossy pop sounds of “Law and Order”; his undying fondness for the Beach Boys and the Wilson brothers; and the avant-pop/rock moments in the epic and deranged “Go Insane.” If there was ever the slightest debate over who had the biggest creative engine in the Mac, this ought to settle it once and for all.

Buckingham is as much a guitar virtuoso as he is a songwriter and rock star, and “Screws” is a loaded with memorable and diverse guitar moments. The opener, “Great Day,” ends with one of those: a lead that sounds like it’s trying to uncage itself to save its life.

From there he glides into “Time Precious Time,” which rides a long, easy wave of acoustic guitar arpeggios. Then comes “Did You Miss Me,” a nuts-and-bolts California pop song that would have been a great summer radio hit (it resembles “Trouble” from “Law and Order”). Unlike “Skin,” which never really shifted from its low-key, sepia-tone mood, “Screws” never stands still.

“I Wanna Wait for You” has the kind of blues vibe we heard way back in “World Turning” or “The Chain.” “Treason” is a lovely, ambient hymn, in the vein of “That’s All for Everyone,” from “Tusk.”

Any Fleetwood Mac resemblances aren’t necessarily accidental: Mick Fleetwood and John McVie stand in as the rhythm section on a couple of songs, including “Love Runs Deeper,” a big, percussive and melodic rock anthem, like “Go Your Own Way.”

The big swerve comes late, in the incendiary title track, where Buckingham taps into his punk fetish and goes a little insane. The song is a hurricane of drums, guitars, jackhammer rhythms, manic vocals and strident lyrics, adapted from the poetry of Emily Dickinson: “Way down here/Everybody needs/Authority makes us bleed, bleed, bleed,” he screams and then cackles maniacally. And it feels so refreshing to hear him sound so visceral and unhinged again.

LINDSEY BUCKINGHAM
‘Gift of Screws’ (Reprise)

★★★ 1/2

http://www.kansascity.com/238/story/796020.html

shackin'up

09-16-2008, 10:13 AM

Are you sure? It seems like you bring up this stuff regularly as a way of saying you're better qualified to judge music than the rest of us ("I'm a musician, I'm an engineer, I know people Lindsey used to work with" even "I'm an accountant!"). That's what pisses people off, not the criticism.
Just my opinion of course...

Not only that, Tracky, this time the criticism wasn't critisism or a matter of taste-which is perfectly understandable and OK, but it was the assumption of amateurism and the lack of wealth, which was- for anyone who followed his career and understood his artistry for even just 10 percent clear and utter respectless stupidity. Plus the arrogance and belittling of anyone with an opinion who doesn't make music himself that you refer to. All that got me out of my cage.

strandinthewind

09-16-2008, 10:32 AM

. . . All that got me out of my cage.

How about this one - it would been a whole lot better with La Nicks' harmonies :angel::angel::angel:

shackin'up

09-16-2008, 10:38 AM

How about this one - it would been a whole lot better with La Nicks' harmonies :angel::angel::angel:

you can do better than that, Strand. BTW there are topnotch Nicks harmonies on some songs. Only sung by the man himself. He doesn't need her.

jbrownsjr

09-16-2008, 10:53 AM

all the clicks on his recordings are intentional, one may not like it, but rank it as amateurism is like saying the same thing about John Bonham playing drums on a chair. Or Buckingham himself on a Kleenexbox.

Christine plays a chair on 2nd hand news.

strandinthewind

09-16-2008, 11:03 AM

. . . He doesn't need her.

Only for sales :wavey:

shackin'up

09-16-2008, 11:47 AM

Christine plays a chair on 2nd hand news.

I Know...How amateurish....:rolleyes:

shackin'up

09-16-2008, 11:50 AM

Only for sales :wavey:

I think that is more your fixation than his.... and definately not mine. I couldn't care less. He even couldn't be more convincing during his last interview when he talked about downloading. That my dear, was so honest that whatever theory you put up, I'm not gonna bite...

strandinthewind

09-16-2008, 11:55 AM

. . . I'm not gonna bite...

Then, I want my $50 back :o :mad:

jbrownsjr

09-16-2008, 12:20 PM

I Know...How amateurish....:rolleyes:

she didn't have any money for aux percussion

jbrownsjr

09-16-2008, 12:21 PM

Only for sales :wavey:

hahahaha you just can't help yourself... i love you strand...

shackin'up

09-16-2008, 12:22 PM

Then, I want my $50 back :o :mad:

deal. :xoxo:

jbrownsjr

09-16-2008, 12:23 PM

I also have first hand knowledge that LB did GOS in his bare feet again cos he couldn't afford shoes...

How do I know this... I saw the picture of him in the studio in bare feet.....:nod:

shackin'up

09-16-2008, 12:27 PM

I also have first hand knowledge that LB did GOS in his bare feet again cos he couldn't afford shoes...

How do I know this... I saw the picture of him in the studio in bare feet.....:nod:

Yeah, he's eating second hand wheat thins too. Out of garbagecans...I heard...

strandinthewind

09-16-2008, 12:27 PM

Yeah, he's eating second hand wheat thins too. Out of garbagecans...I heard...

and, the lack of money has caused K to go back to her natural color - bald :cool:

Maybe La Nicks will loan her a wig.

shackin'up

09-16-2008, 12:31 PM

and, the lack of money has caused K to go back to her natural color - bald :cool:

Maybe La Nicks will loan her a wig.

:laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: that's a classical Strandie. So gay and so funny. Thanks dude. :laugh: :laugh:

jbrownsjr

09-16-2008, 12:41 PM

Yeah, he's eating second hand wheat thins too. Out of garbagecans...I heard...

He walks a thin line....

trackaghost

09-16-2008, 12:56 PM

You guys are cracking me up :laugh:

ajmccarrell

09-16-2008, 12:59 PM

Not only that, Tracky, this time the criticism wasn't critisism or a matter of taste-which is perfectly understandable and OK, but it was the assumption of amateurism and the lack of wealth, which was- for anyone who followed his career and understood his artistry for even just 10 percent clear and utter respectless stupidity. Plus the arrogance and belittling of anyone with an opinion who doesn't make music himself that you refer to. All that got me out of my cage.

What I was saying is that you would have had a different perspective if you had made an album and that you apparently didn't understand my perspective, not that mine was superior to yours. I actually do understand your point of view, but I don't agree with it. It doesn't make me stupid, it just means I have a different opinion of things. One guy challenged me and said, "unless you are an accountant and an emerging reording artist..." so I answered him because I thought it was funny because I actually am both of those. Plus, you just plain were pissing me off by making a bunch of wild assumptions and assigning motives to me that didn't exist. I actually said I was a crappy engineer, I wasn't even taking a position of superiority there. Have you heard of humor?! I wasn't being stupid, I just don't appreciate the "homegrown" thing because most "homegrown" musicians try to sound professional, not the other way around. I've had people come in and record on my stuff with phony percussion and strange ideas and me and my friends generally make fun of those people and play their recordings for a good laugh. In fact, there's a band called The Tacomen who devote their music to weirdness. I would just hope that Lindsey was shooting higher than The Tacomen. So, to me it wouldn't make sense why someone would do that on purpose. I hope you go back to your cage now and let it go. :laugh:

michelej1

09-16-2008, 01:04 PM

Spin Magazine: * * *

http://www.spin.com/reviews/lindsey-buckingham-gift-screws-reprise

Three decades after helping steer Fleetwood Mac to platinum glory, Lindsey Buckingham's enthusiasm remains his greatest strength -- and weakness. For all the warm California melodies, his unchecked perfectionism produces an antiseptic sound, with the overdub junkie supplying most of the instruments and all the vocals (though old mates Mick Fleetwood and John McVie make cameos). Gift of Screws boasts a lot of attractive touches, from the lovely acoustic guitar of "Bel Air Rain" to the crashing chorus of "Love Runs Deeper," but less polish would add some soul to the mix.

trackaghost

09-16-2008, 01:05 PM

AJ, you just don't understand music that isn't polished to perfection I think. :shrug:

trackaghost

09-16-2008, 01:06 PM

...but less polish would add some soul to the mix.

How funny given what AJ's just said :laugh:

John Run

09-16-2008, 01:07 PM

jbrownsjr

09-16-2008, 01:07 PM

You guys are cracking me up :laugh:

did you get your GOS yet?

michelej1

09-16-2008, 01:07 PM

^^ You just don't understand music that isn't polished to perfection I think. :shrug:

Spin magazine thought it could have used less polish.

Michele

ajmccarrell

09-16-2008, 01:09 PM

AJ, you just don't understand music that isn't polished to perfection I think. :shrug:

I just don't like music that isn't polished. I understand weird.

shackin'up

09-16-2008, 01:09 PM

What I was saying is that you would have had a different perspective if you had made an album and that you apparently didn't understand my perspective, not that mine was superior to yours. I actually do understand your point of view, but I don't agree with it. It doesn't make me stupid, it just means I have a different opinion of things. One guy challenged me and said, "unless you are an accountant and an emerging reording artist..." so I answered him because I thought it was funny because I actually am both of those. Plus, you just plain were pissing me off by making a bunch of wild assumptions and assigning motives to me that didn't exist. I actually said I was a crappy engineer, I wasn't even taking a position of superiority there. Have you heard of humor?! I wasn't being stupid, I just don't appreciate the "homegrown" thing because most "homegrown" musicians try to sound professional, not the other way around. I've had people come in and record on my stuff with phony percussion and strange ideas and me and my friends generally make fun of those people and play their recordings for a good laugh. In fact, there's a band called The Tacomen who devote their music to weirdness. I would just hope that Lindsey was shooting higher than The Tacomen. So, to me it wouldn't make sense why someone would do that on purpose. I hope you go back to your cage now and let it go. :laugh:

:laugh: You crack me up dude. :laugh: How Funny! :lol:

trackaghost

09-16-2008, 01:10 PM

did you get your GOS yet?

I did! I think it sounds incredible. I actually think Lindsey has struck a nice balance on this one between the polish and the home recorded, sparser sound.

ajmccarrell

09-16-2008, 01:10 PM

How funny given what AJ's just said :laugh:

I can't say the last time I agreed with a critic! LOL! For example, I actually like Shania Twain and Savage Garden. :laugh:

michelej1

09-16-2008, 01:15 PM

Yahoo Music:

http://new.music.yahoo.com/blogs/newthisweek/4608/nelly-takes-his-bow

Lindsey Buckingham: Gift Of Screws (Reprise) I have a confession to make! I'm an enormous fan of former Fleetwood Mac honcho Buckingham, but I haven't had the opportunity to hear this album yet! I just wanted to alert everyone to the fact that it's just been released! Wait--here's an idea: Why don't I pretend I've heard it and write a review anyway? Maybe I can start it with: "One thing's for sure, Stevie Nicks is gonna get a kick out of this album title!" Or how about: "Few suspected that Buckingham's little-known stint in federal prison would--thanks to the generosity of particularly hip prison guards--allow him to record the album of a lifetime!" Or maybe: "Buckingham's fixation on the various characters populating The Wizard Of Oz has taken him to some mighty strange places, but if this is his ode to the Tin Man, I can't wait 'til he gets to Auntie Em!" Nah--that would be stupid!

trackaghost

09-16-2008, 01:19 PM

I actually like Shania Twain and Savage Garden. :laugh:

AJ, are you actually admitting that on a public board? :laugh:

michelej1

09-16-2008, 01:23 PM

Rocky Mountain News, 9-15-08

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/sep/15/lindsey-buckinghams-latest-is-a-gift-indeed/

Lindsey Buckingham's latest is a 'Gift' indeed

Gift of Screws has taken years and various U-turns to finally make it into stores today. The album became a bit of a legend among Lindsey Buckingham fans when bits of it were played live with Fleetwood Mac in 1997. Bits of it slipped out around 2000, five years after he'd started it.

But the album got derailed twice, first when songs were cannibalized for much of the Fleetwood Mac album Say You Will and again when a few more tracks turned up on Buckingham's solo album Under the Skin.

So, what fans hear now may be far from how this album was conceived all those years ago, but despite coming in dribs and drabs, the finished album is worth the wait.

Out of the Cradle, his third solo album, from 1992, hit the high mark for many Buckingham fans. It kept his quirky nature but mixed in more lush, traditional songwriting in gorgeous tracks like Don't Look Down and You Do or You Don't. His past couple of solo albums have been sparser and more experimental, with Buckingham at times exploring what his fingers could do on the fret board (and how fast they could do it) rather than putting melody first.

That can be fascinating on tracks like the opening Great Day, but the finger-picking style that Buckingham has become partial to over the years can be a bit excessive at times, impressive as it is.

But Gift of Screws comes closer to that Out of the Cradle sound than anything else he's done since. Love Runs Deeper could have found a spot on any Buckingham solo album (and would have sounded great on Say You Will), filled with classic acoustic guitar as well as warm harmonies and sweet, melodic electric leads. Underground could have fit on Rumours or Tusk, a sweet melody with simple voice and guitar.

Gift of Screws gives an explicit idea of where Buckingham's mind is these days. "In my younger days / I was mistaken for a whore / I guess you could say / I lived in chains," Buckingham sings in Bel Air Rain, a slap at the record industry that once championed him but of late has stymied his creativity.

He takes a look at the bigger picture in the title cut, classic off-kilter Buckingham, a rock song pierced with the occasional maniacal laugh and lyrics like "Authority makes us bleed, bleed, bleed ... Authority keeps us down, down, down," and in the equally political closing cut, Treason.

With 10 tight songs and a more focused viewpoint, Gift of Screws ends up being his second-best solo album - very good company to be in.

By Mark Brown

jbrownsjr

09-16-2008, 01:29 PM

I did! I think it sounds incredible. I actually think Lindsey has struck a nice balance on this one between the polish and the home recorded, sparser sound.

I'll get mine this weekend...

Livia

09-16-2008, 04:07 PM

http://blog.allmusic.com/2008/09/12/lindsey-buckingham-gift-of-screws/

Two studio albums in three years may not seem to be a breakneck pace for anybody else, but for Lindsey Buckingham it is no less than pure acceleration. Indeed if we include the live album that came out in 2007 between the two, it’s like three outings in as many years — warp speed for an artist like Buckingham who has been known to go more than a decade between his own offerings outside of Fleetwood Mac. On 2006’s Under the Skin, Buckingham issued a soft-spoken songwriter’s disc. It was all acoustic, deeply reflective, poignant, profound, and drenched in beauty. It was also criminally under-noticed. Somewhere he promised he’d release an electric rock record in the future. Gift of Screws (referencing the poetry of Emily Dickinson) may not be all the way there, but more often than not it offers the kind of rocking, heady electric pop he’s known for, as well as some glorious, lyrically sophisticated, acoustic singer/songwriter fare that bears his signature alone. Some of these tracks were written for an aborted session begun in the 1990s. Still others made it onto the Mac’s Say You Will, and still others are brand-spanking new.

The set opens with “Great Day,” a pulsing, urgent, minor-key rocker that blends electric and acoustic guitars, organic and electronic percussion, and some hushed keyboards. It explodes near the end with a scorching, burn-up-the-wire guitar solo he usually only plays live. “Did You Miss Me?,” written with wife Kristen Buckingham and featuring drums by Walfredo Reyes, could have appeared on any of Fleetwood Mac’s blissed-out, bittersweet ’70s recordings. The weave of guitars, layered backing vocals, and drop-dead catchy chorus is pure Buckingham. Mick Fleetwood and John McVie are the rhythm section on the rumbling multi-dimensional blues-winder “Wait for Me,” which also offers more evidence of the guitar slinger emerging form the shadows to take place center stage before giving way to a dense multi-textured chorus that transcends the blues without leaving them for dead. Fleetwood also adds drums to “The Right Place to Fade,” with bassist John Pierce. Acoustic guitars meld enormous power chords and stinging lead fills in a frenetically paced pop song. Along the way, there are hesitant, confessional, acoustically orchestrated songs where the darkness almost swallows the light as in “Bel Air Rain.” The wall of strings fingerpicking style adds to the emotional heft of songs like “Time Precious Time,” especially as the vocal effects give the sound a nearly three-dimensional quality. The title track is a balls-out rocker that places ’60s rave-up garage rock up against ’70s glam in a storm of guitars and clattering drums. The closer, “Treason,” is a dignified near-anthemic pop song with a gospel chorus that is unlike any song Buckingham’s written before and sends the set out in a very elegant, and deeply moving way.

What it all means is simple: that Buckingham is not only still relevant, but he’s also a pioneer in terms of craft, execution, and production, and has plenty to teach the current generation about making excellent records and never resting on your laurels. Gift of Screws is a standout even in his catalog.

mylittledemon

09-16-2008, 04:29 PM

Ok, so I gave the album only one listen. I actually like Bel Air Rain, Did You Miss Me, Underground, and Treason. The rest of it just doesn't really work for me. The latter two tracks seem more like "Lindsey's found his niche" over the last couple of years. They almost sound like they are from UTS. Maybe after a few listens, it will grow on me some more. I still prefer UTS as an album.

justcrazylove

09-16-2008, 06:42 PM

The Album is flawless... end of story!

TrueFaith77

09-16-2008, 07:03 PM

The Album is flawless... end of story!

I think it might be his best solo album!

MacMan

09-16-2008, 07:21 PM

Lindsey Buckingham: Still Weird and Beautiful, but Tedious, Too
By Alfred Soto
Tuesday, September 16th 2008
VillageVoice (http://www.villagevoice.com/2008-09-17/music/lindsey-buckingham-still-weird-and-beautiful-but-tedious-too/)

Lindsey Buckingham's contrarianism runs so deep that it subverts his much-vaunted aesthetic impulses, not to mention his common sense. The consummate weirdo who (quietly) sighs in interviews whenever he must forgo solo recordings for the sake of a certain supergroup that's grateful, commercially and artistically, for the sacrifice, the singer/guitarist/producer of Fleetwood Mac records albums whose melodic smarts can't compete with an asceticism so severe that it verges on apostasy. The results can be beautiful, sure: When he flexes his craft, he corrals multi-tracked vocals of himself that coast over static guitar arpeggios, like a priest who prefers to clack his rosary beads in his bedroom rather than pray aloud in a chapel with his peers. If there's a Lord, he's grateful for the devotion, but for eavesdroppers, it does get tedious—especially when we note how adeptly Buckingham's talents unfold in a Top 40 context as famished for his haywire formalist submersions as his erstwhile bandmates.

In the fastest turnaround of his career, Gift of Screws comes two years after Under the Skin, and for the first couple of tracks, we want to stamp it "return to sender." "Great Day" boasts guitar ripples we first heard on his disembowelment of "Big Love" from Fleetwood Mac's live set The Dance, coupled with lyrics best described as verbal tags rather than coherent statements. A couple of songs exist as mere instrumentals: "Bel Air Rain" is Ottmar Liebert on Vivarin. "Did You Miss Me" comes closest to unearthing the romantic wanderlust that's been Buckingham's trademark since 1975's "Monday Morning," but as indelible as the chorus melody is, he could be directing his plaint to a mirror—or, heartbreakingly, to Stevie Nicks and Christine McVie, whose harmonies would've reminded him (and us) of what he's missing. The feisty title track, replete with look-at-me-now axmanship and oddball vocal effects, feels anchored to a recognizable eccentricity; it's no surprise that Mick Fleetwood and John McVie constitute its rhythm section.

Alas, "Trouble" and the National Lampoon's Vacation one-off "Holiday Road" excepted, not a single track in Buckingham's solo period rivals "Go Your Own Way" for precision; he's a human being with conflicts, lusts, and such only when he's allowed to express them around and to other people. Here, "Underground" acknowledges the dilemma: "Say what you mean, but please don't mean a thing" is not just a curt description of the Buckingham Problem, but a beautifully sung line from an artist capable of transcending limitations, yet content to bask in lapidary gestures. When he goes his own way, he wants it both ways—and goes nowhere at all.

Lindsey Buckingham plays the Nokia Theatre October 19

MacMan

09-16-2008, 07:27 PM

By: Dennis Cook
Jambase (http://www.jambase.com/Articles/Story.aspx?storyID=15075)

If he'd done nothing else outside of Fleetwood Mac people would know the name Lindsey Buckingham. As guitarist, singer and songwriter with that band since the mid '70s, he's been responsible for a good deal of their world wide success, including contributing heavily to the era defining, 30 million-plus selling Rumours, where he wrote three of the most recognizable pop hits of all-time – "Second Hand News," "Never Going Back Again" and "Go Your Own Way." But Buckingham is actually an artist, and like most of the best ones he's kept refining his skills, finding new facets to focus his intense mind upon and working constantly, especially in recent years, to carve out an identity for himself outside the relatively safe folds of his multi-platinum band.

Which brings us to Gift of Screws (released September 16 on Warner Bros.), his fourth studio album as a solo artist, which ranges from road dust coated rockers like "Wait For You" to the positively meditative "Great Day," which rings with steel strings and quiet heart. It's a snapshot of a talented industry lifer still discovering fresh avenues for exploration within himself, and a positive sign for Fleetwood Mac's recently announced reunion plans in 2009. But, to look at the ragged cover photo on Screws you'd never know that a pretty happy man awaits you inside.

"In the context of the road I've been down, and even in the context of Fleetwood Mac if you want to go back, the title takes on significantly more irony, and it's meant to. It was meant to be a bit confrontational. I don't know if the photo was meant to be that confrontational but it just worked out that way. Warner Brothers said it looked like a mug shot, but hey, what're you gonna do?" chuckles Buckingham. "The title and the whole lyric of the chorus is actually lifted from an Emily Dickinson poem. I'm not a scholar of hers by any means but we're always looking to see what we can rip, especially things that are public domain. Oh, I hope that's public domain [laughs]. It's actually a positive thing, even though it's got an assaultive tone. She's talking about making a fragrance or perfume and how you can't really expect to get that from just the sun coming down and growing the flower. You actually have to have a vision and a certain amount of love, and apply that to the gifts that are given you, to turn the screws and press the petals and get the oil out. So, anything worthwhile, to some degree, is going to be some sort of synthesis of the raw materials you're given and the vision and effort you apply."

The notion that one has to put their shoulder into it to see results speaks to Buckingham's legendary work ethic, which has often found him doing take after take, fine tuning elements that others simply gloss over. While possibly a touch obsessive, there is a degree of craftsmanship and master class musicianship at play in both his solo recordings and work with Fleetwood Mac. Albums like Gift of Screws or Rumours don't just happen. His studio efforts have the clean lines and etched features of a skilled sculptor, where the play of light and shadow, the implied and boldly stated, are all consciously put forth.

"Besides that [first] interpretation of 'screws,' you could add in the wisdom and strength you get from the things that have happened to you that haven't been so great, as in 'getting screwed.' It's not as if I wasn't aware of that as on overlay, or even the sexual innuendo, though I suppose that would be the least intentional. My sister-in-law got upset because she thought I was only speaking of sex," offers Buckingham, whose songwriting has often had a distinctly earthy backdrop, though more in a what-men-do-to-each-other way than anything carnal. "It's true. In some ways, to get back to the early days with Fleetwood Mac, there was a lot of stuff going on. That was part of the attraction – a people driving by to look at the accident mentality. It's been part of the story for sure."

Buckingham's personal history, especially the niggling details of his romantic entanglement with Stevie Nicks in the '70s, has been put under the celebrity spotlight for decades. It's a position most of us will be fortunate to never find ourselves in but one wonders if the gawking and prying get to him sometimes. He has kept a much more guarded existence since Fleetwood Mac became a once-in-a-while affair rather than a day-to-day circus, where he often threw himself into the Mac's music to the exclusion of everything else.

"It was almost a defense mechanism for the whole run of the band up till '87, when I took leave for a while, which was all based on the need to survive, the need to reclaim my individuality and sanity. But for a significant period of time before and after that the only way to deal with it was to put up some walls and kind of live a fairly narrow existence that was pretty much the life of a monk, in a way, but not in a healthy way necessarily – focusing very narrowly on the music. Maybe a lot of things that were left kinda unresolved from those days took a long time to tear all those walls down," says Buckingham, who has experienced a creative and personal flowering in recent years. "There's several reasons for that. One is after seeing many people around me – parents, husbands, wives or whatever – not be there for their families because we were all doing what we thought we had to do back then, well, that was something I didn't want to do. So, when I finally did meet my wife - which happened relatively late [in life] - it was a real gift. And then having children changes your life. It helps pick away at old patterns and it broadens your life out and sets a whole new standard for what your priorities are. You realize there's so much of a biological imperative going on. Obviously, with that as a foundation for the last 11 or 12 years, it's been profound in making a certain turn in my life."

Besides that, there were earlier periods of time when there was an intention to put out solo work and it was, for lack of a better term, intervened upon by Fleetwood Mac. If you call yourself a band member you want to be responsive to the needs of everyone, and more than once that happened. On the last occasion when we put out an album in 2003 [Say You Will], pretty much a whole solo album got folded over into that," continues Buckingham. "And perhaps the most significant reason [for the recent creative surge] is three-plus-years ago I said to the band I was putting a boundary around a period of time, which I'd never done before. I said, 'So, please don't come knocking, I have a very clear intention to put out two CD's in a relatively short period of time, for me, and tour behind them. Please allow me to do that.' So, we got Under The Skin [2006] out and we even got a concert CD/DVD out [2008's Live at the Bass Performance Hall] between and now we have [Gift of Screws]. It all happened because I put that hold on this time."

Both Skin and Screws feel incredibly personal, a truer glimpse into the man than we've seen in some time. As he points out, the walls do seem to be crumbling and some green grass peeking through the holes in the mortar. Screws, in particular, merges different facets of his past, from the hyper pop-ish-ness of Rumours to the undisguised experimentation of Tusk, but filtered through his current, compassionate sensibilities.

"There's certainly some reference points that go back to things that were done earlier. I gave Warner Brothers Under The Skin, which was a much more specific look at one aspect of what I do [i.e. solo, acoustic singing and playing], and I was excited about that because it delved into something new for me. But it wasn't that accessible or didn't express a full range of personality, which [Screws] does," observes Buckingham.

One thing Skin did accomplish was to highlight his extraordinary and unique gifts as a guitarist who swings somewhere between Django Reinhardt and Robert Fripp, something he often doesn't get much credit for.

"I think so, too [laughs]. One reason is my style is hard to label. Another reason I took for the lack of focus on that part of things was with Fleetwood Mac the guitar playing has to be in service of making a good record, if you want to call it that. It has to be in service of the song, in service to the overall production. In doing that, quite often you don't notice what's going on [with the guitar]. If you took it out you'd hear it but within it completes, it counterpoints, it supports the melody and atmosphere of the song in a way that doesn't draw attention to itself."

"It is more fun to be able to strip down any existing things and start with a guitar on its own terms. When we [he and Nicks] first joined the band it was a lesson in adapting down. Not only did I have to change the kind of guitar I was using to fit the existing sound but there was also a pre-existing style between Christine McVie's piano and John [McVie]'s bass, a lot of melody and space being filled up, and you've got to work with the holes you could find, which weren't that many [laughs]. You have to pick your spots to play and suddenly you find yourself discarding things you would normally do," says Buckingham. "So, it's nice to have that empty palette to start experimenting around, and to have that palette be about the electric guitar."

It's worth remembering that Buckingham stepped into some mighty guitar shoes when he joined Fleetwood Mac on New Year's Eve 1974. Peter Green was revered, in England especially, in a near Clapton-is-God fashion, and his successors, Danny Kirwan and Bob Welch, were no slouches, both players of nigh infinite melody and hard string edge. Was there any pressure to play in the styles of his predecessors?

"Not so much in trying to emulate a style but early on, if you can imagine us going on the road and doing a two-hour set, we'd only done one album. So, on some level, I was like a cover band guitarist doing Bob Welch stuff, Danny Kirwan stuff, doing Peter Green stuff. There was a kind of lounge element until after Rumours, when we could pretty much lose [the earlier material]. We did keep doing 'Oh Well' for a while but it took a while to pay our dues," recalls Buckingham. "That's cool. We were the new kids and we needed to do whatever needed to be done to get us out there to play music."

Even out touring on his own, Buckingham still carries a bit of the Fleetwood Mac mantle with him, never fully able to step outside their big shadow.

"When I went out last year, what I thought about was certain staples I couldn't contemplate not doing, nor could I have contemplated the audience being that happy if I hadn't done them. So, of course, I had to throw in 'Go Your Own Way,' 'Big Love,' 'Never Going Back Again' and maybe 'Tusk' in there as givens," says Buckingham. "Then, the challenge became making a show that's trying to have a tone similar to the Under The Skin album, which was a much lighter and more produced acoustic album, with one or two guitars doing the work of a whole track. It doesn't vary and it's probably way more mature than [Screws], if you can even use that word with this genre [laughs]. The challenge became to create something that felt like the album but still worked in other things."

"This time, the challenge with a more rocking album is how do we hit the ground running and then not run out of steam? If you're going to start by rocking right away, to make the statement the album is making, how do you not run out of building room by the end? That's our current challenge," says Buckingham. "The only thing to make sure of is to never rely too much on Fleetwood Mac or it becomes unclear what show you're doing. They're my songs and they can be used in the same way as Stevie uses Fleetwood Mac songs in her shows. It's just a matter of emphasis. Ultimately, you want to offer the discerning fan an experience that's unique."

Lindsey Buckingham is currently on tour with his solo band behind Gift of Screws. Tour dates can be found here.

John Run

09-16-2008, 07:51 PM

After listening to the album for 5 days now, I must say it is a huge jump up from Under the Skin for me. Under the Skin never worked for me as an album. Just too much of the same. Acoustic guitars, songs without melody, and breathy vocals often whispered, not sung, always processed. People love it, I know. It was just not for me. I am someone who thinks Out of the Cradle is one of the finest albums ever made, by anyone, so perhaps that frames by auditory preferences for you all?

Not as good as Out of the Cradle, but it steps into the number 2 position in my ranking of Buckingham solo albums. With the exception of Time Precious Time, all of the songs hang together as a cohesive album. Time Precious Time would have been better suited to Under the Skin than this album. As the 2nd track it offers an odd detour away from the overall feel of the album. The song itself is okay, just not on this album. Actually I think if you include Down on the Rodeo and Someone's Gotta Change Your Mind, along with Miranda from Say You Will on this album and drop Time Precious Time, you would have a really nice 12 song CD....Hmmm....maybe I will put that together for myself....

Right Place to Fade is a great, great Buckingham song. Yeah, it leans on Second Hand News a little, but you can ripoff from yourself, right? Love Runs Deeper, along with Right Place to Fade are the best pop-rockers Buckingham has recorded since the Out of the Cradle time period.

I love Underground and Treason. The simpleness and vulnerability of the music and lyric on Underground moves me. Treason is Buckingham meets Springsteen, Petty, and Brian Wilson in one song. The keyboard part on Treason sounds like the keyboard part on Springsteen's Valentine's Day. Actually I am suprised about how much synth I hear on the album. He uses synths to add a lushness or atmospherics to Great Day, Play in the Rain, and Treason.

As somone who has been critical of the songwriting, vocal, production, and engineering choices on both SYW and UTS, I must say I am surprised and pleased with Gift of Screws. Perfect no, but to these years, it is really good!

BombaySapphire3

09-16-2008, 08:27 PM

I have listened to it once through it usually takes more than that to sink in particularly with LB Id have to say my favorites so far are Did You Miss Me and Love Runs Deeper an infectious song that could have been a hit back when Fleetwood Mac's new songs actually got airplay. The guitars on Great Day are awesome..Overall a good album with some real highlights ..I'd have to rank it seconcd behind OOTC right now though.

michelej1

09-16-2008, 09:32 PM

By: Dennis Cook
Jambase (http://www.jambase.com/Articles/Story.aspx?storyID=15075)

If he'd done nothing else outside of Fleetwood Mac people would know the name Lindsey Buckingham.

This whole article was GREAT. Thanks Peter. I especially loved how he said the album cover looks like a mug shot. At least he knows that. I love it that people at WBR are keeping him real. I also laughed when he said his sister-in-law thought GOS just meant sex, even if it did, that would be an awfully strange way of phrasing it, leaving so much food for thought that I would skip right over the vulgarity of it. But I love the meaning of the poem, nothing worth having comes without work. I love the way Lindsey molded the words into a rather edgy rock song. From a person who is so unexposed to rock music that I think Come is "heavy metal," I'm actually SHOCKED by how much I like the title track, especially since the leaked bootleg never appealed to me that much.

Well, I'm off to see Mr. B perform by the bay.

Michele

Nico

09-16-2008, 09:57 PM

I really love these interviews but I must say something.

When Lindsey is speaking to Kristen does he say things like, "I'm so happy I met you, baby, at a relatively late time in my life. Because otherwise we wouldn't have each other or our three beautiful kids who have changed my life."

I'm not kidding. He uses this exact phrasing, or something very near to it, almost every time he discusses his family. I dare someone make a poster and hold it up when he decides to share this information with us in concert.

Still love him.:xoxo:

strandinthewind

09-16-2008, 10:03 PM

. . . As somone who has been critical of the songwriting, vocal, production, and engineering choices on both SYW and UTS, I must say I am surprised and pleased with Gift of Screws. Perfect no, but to these years, it is really good!

I agree. I have some issues with the vocals, but then I always do no matter the artist :laugh:

I think LB could be one of the better guitarists around in that I think his style creates a unique sound and he can make the guitar emote. I neer thought I would ever hear a better example of the latter than the yearning at the ending of Bleed to Love Her on SYW, but some of these new songs give come close!

Of course, whenever I hear any of their solo stuff, I alway imagine what the other two could have added - I guess I am just built that way.

TrueFaith77

09-16-2008, 10:06 PM

Of course, whenever I hear any of their solo stuff, I alway imagine what the other two could have added - I guess I am just built that way.

Yep, that is the rub. We share this. It's not OUR problem though. . .

strandinthewind

09-16-2008, 10:09 PM

Yep, that is the rub. We share this. It's not OUR problem though. . .

On some of the songs, I could swear I hear La Nicks in that harmony :laugh:

As an aside, in the Rumours Forum, there is a post of the live Dreams video from the 70's -- CM's voice just ads so much to that - and La Nicks' vocals are out of the ball park. I miss CM :sorry:

But, I digress. The new LB record is great!

vivfox

09-17-2008, 12:56 AM

By: Howie Edelson

Lindsey Buckingham releases his fifth solo album today (September 16th), called Gift Of Screws. The album features appearances by Fleetwood Mac bandmates John McVie and Mick Fleetwood.

Buckingham says that the sessions for Gift Of Screws and his 2006 comeback album Under The Skin were the most relaxed of his career. He was asked about the tenseness in some of Fleetwood Mac's legendary sessions: "If there was one worst thing it was probably just it was difficult for all four of us as two couples to have broken up to be alienated -- probably not to have gotten anything close to closure -- and to still have to kind of move forward. And to do that you kind of had to compartmentalize your emotions a little bit. You had to seal one thing off here and get on with it there. It was kind of an exercise in denial."

Lindsey Buckingham performs tonight (September 16th) in San Diego, California at Humphrey's Concerts By The Bay. He'll be on the road through the end of October.

http://www.kbsradio.ca/news/music/87/790815

michelej1

09-17-2008, 03:32 AM

On some of the songs, I could swear I hear La Nicks in that harmony :laugh:

Like Underground .

Michele

michelej1

09-17-2008, 04:45 AM

Entertainment Weekly

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20225097,00.html?cnn=yes

Rating: A-

By Marc Weingarten

As a member of Fleetwood Mac, Lindsey Buckingham is a rock potentate. As a solo artist, he's an avant-garde aesthete, breaking down beguiling melodies into sonic mushroom clouds. Gift of Screws finds him creating an insular world of ghostly vocals and nervous guitars. On ''Time Precious Time,'' a frenetically picked acoustic guitar ticks off the moments before an emotional reckoning, while the jittery title track throws a cherry bomb at Bush's war machine. Buckingham remains the master of type A chamber pop. A-

michelej1

09-17-2008, 04:47 AM

Star Telegram, 9-17-08

http://www.star-telegram.com/entertainment/story/912325.html

Lindsey Buckingham

Gift of Screws

***

Any Buckingham solo project is rife with stylistic ying and yang: Gift of Screws features the ex-Fleetwood Mac-man’s guitar work running a gamut from flamenco-spiced runs to viciously serrated electric guitar solos. And Buckingham’s vocals seem purposely soaked in a distancing wash of reverb, or are whispery intimate. The effect places his alternately jaded or mantra-like lyrics across a great chasm, or right up against your earlobe. Those extremes make for songs that want to grab and repel you at the same time.

michelej1

09-17-2008, 04:49 AM

Boston Globe, 9-16-2008, by Linda Laban

http://www.boston.com/ae/music/cd_reviews/articles/2008/09/16/the_gift_is_his/?page=full

The Gift is His

Gift of Screws (Reprise)

ESSENTIAL "Great Day"

Beginning with Buckingham Nicks in 1973 and most famously with Fleetwood Mac, Lindsey Buckingham has made music professionally for 35 years. Yet "Gift of Screws" is only his fifth solo record. Perhaps that's why the singer and guitarist (who turns 60 next month) still sounds so vital and passionate, especially on the voluptuous, opening songs "Great Day" and "Time Precious Time," where his luminescent riffs and nimble finger-picking shine. (Conversely, the final songs, "Underground" and "Treason," are throwaway and perfectly placed for the stop-button.) Mostly, though, Buckingham doesn't stray far from his comfort zone of soft-rock (the engaging "Did You Miss Me"), blues rock (the infectious "Wait For You" with it's gloriously determined chorus), and arena-rock boogie ("Love Runs Deeper," a delirious, catchy stomp with Buckingham's straight-ahead guitar solo in just the place you'd expect to find it: the middle). That's the stuff that Fleetwood Mac's stellar "Rumours" and "Tusk" were made of, but, apart from the odd drum and bass part - notably, Mac's Mick Fleetwood and John McVie perform on a few tracks - the Buckingham single-handedly turns these screws.

Lindsey Buckingham performs at Berklee Performance Center on Oct 17.

strandinthewind

09-17-2008, 06:24 AM

Like Underground .

Michele

I think so. LB and La Nicks used to sound very similar in the 70's, but that changed as they aged. Personally, I think LB loved the tight harmonies, which La Nicks gave him for years, to be woven in the looser musical structure of many of his songs.

TrueFaith77

09-17-2008, 08:01 AM

Current Metacritic Rating: 81 (http://www.metacritic.com/music/artists/buckinghamlindsey/giftofscrews?q=lindsey%20buckingham)

kak125

09-17-2008, 09:25 AM

If this has already been posted I am sorry. There are so many pages it would take forever to go through them all, LOL!

Lindsey Buckingham

Gift of Screws Hear it Now

RS: 3.5of 5 Stars Average User Rating: 4.5of 5 Stars

2008

View Lindsey Buckingham's page on Rhapsody

On this album's opener, "Great Day," there's an electric-guitar solo so blowtorch-hot, it seems specifically designed to bitch-slap anyone with the nerve to wonder if Lindsey Buckingham still rocks. Buckingham's 2006 comeback, Under the Skin, was largely a reflective, parlor-room affair, full of self-doubt and dazzling acoustic playing, and here, the mood is still darkly introspective: "Suicide days, suicide, suicide nights/In the wheelchair almost blind," he sings on "Wait for You." But the sound under him is a wild roadhouse blues with the signature groove of old bandmates Mick Fleetwood and John McVie. Fleetwood's drumming also powers "The Right Place to Fade," a classic Mac-style hook barrage with a strummy "Go Your Own Way" gallop and a head-kicking harmony chorus. Elsewhere, things are more subdued: "Time Precious Time" is a spiraling incantation that's nearly psych folk. Old rubberneckers may ponder whether songs like "Did You Miss Me" address Buckingham's former paramour Stevie Nicks. But who cares? What matters here isn't that he used to be in Fleetwood Mac — it's that he can still make music nearly as bright.

http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/album/22723948/review/22787151/gift_of_screws

michelej1

09-17-2008, 09:29 AM

I think so. LB and La Nicks used to sound very similar in the 70's, but that changed as they aged. Personally, I think LB loved the tight harmonies, which La Nicks gave him for years, to be woven in the looser musical structure of many of his songs.

The way he has used both Christine and Stevie's voices on projects outside of FM (his own and other artists'), I think he likes the contrast they both add, with Stevie singing similar to him and Christine singing fuller, very much.

Michele

strandinthewind

09-17-2008, 09:32 AM

Not to mention the Stevie look alike he used in the Slow Dancing video :eek:

michelej1

09-17-2008, 09:37 AM

Not to mention the Stevie look alike he used in the Slow Dancing video :eek:

I don't think she's a look alike, I just think we are all conditioned to think anyone about that height with blonde hair looks like Stevie. With the pictures in UTS I kept saying to myself, "Why don't we see Kristen's face? Why is she turned away from the camera? Why is she wearing a gypsy dress?"

Michele

AliceLover

09-17-2008, 09:45 AM

I think so. LB and La Nicks used to sound very similar in the 70's, but that changed as they aged. Personally, I think LB loved the tight harmonies, which La Nicks gave him for years, to be woven in the looser musical structure of many of his songs.

Thats clearly Lindsey singing the background harmonies. Its such an amazing song.

michelej1

09-17-2008, 04:48 PM

[Female vocal harmony shines through, huh]

The Austinist, 9-16-08

http://austinist.com/2008/09/16/new_release_tuesday_2.php

Lindsey Buckingham Gift of Screws (Warner Bros.)
Though originally slated for release in 2001 Gift of Screws is finally out, though its parts are very different from the original version. Most of the tracks from 2001's album (never released on Reprise) wound up on 2006's Under the Skin, and those that didn't might never surface again. Regardless, our official version of Gift offers bright, reflective and downright rockin' Buckingham tunes that sometimes dabble in the sunshine-y rays of Fleetwood Mac influence. Rightfully so: joining Buckingham on this album are old friends Mick Fleetwood and John McVie, and the time-tested duo offer their signature rhythm section bursting with galloping drums and full bass. "Right Place to Fade" is a highlight, and will be familiar to those acquainted with the bootleg of Gift's original version. We're glad it has survived this long: the guitar work, female vocal harmony and undeniably-Fleetwood snare and cymbal play take us right back to that first time we listened to Rumours. Moving out of the sensitive, nearly all-acoustic venture of Under the Skin, Gift of Screws offers electric anthems, trademark finger picking and exhilarating highs throughout. Kudos to L Bucks for maintaining such a diverse and gratifying palette, lucky for us those fingers are still nimble enough to put into practice what his mind invents.

strandinthewind

09-17-2008, 04:53 PM

I don't think she's a look alike, I just think we are all conditioned to think anyone about that height with blonde hair looks like Stevie. With the pictures in UTS I kept saying to myself, "Why don't we see Kristen's face? Why is she turned away from the camera? Why is she wearing a gypsy dress?"

Michele

I think she looks and dresses just like La Nicks. I can't post the video right now though.

michelej1

09-17-2008, 04:57 PM

I think she looks and dresses just like La Nicks. I can't post the video right now though.

Yeah, I've seen the vampire video many times. I don't thinks she's just like Stevie at all. I think an argument could be made that in the UTS picture, Kristen is dressed like Stevie (sort of) from the Tusk photo shoot, in her white dress. Then, we don't see her face either, to keep the illusion intact.

Michele

michelej1

09-17-2008, 04:58 PM

New York Magazine, 9-17-08:

http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2008/09/exceptional_long-awaited_solo.html

Long-Awaited Solo Work From Lindsey Buckingham

Gift of Screws, Lindsey Buckingham’s fifth solo album, has been a long-gestating affair. Some of its material dates back to the nineties, and it was completely derailed when the singer-guitarist gave up tracks for Fleetwood Mac’s 2003 album, Say You Will. But it’s here now, and it feels totally complete, from the ominous opening track “Good Day” and the anthemic “Love Runs Deeper” to the rollicking title track. A pleasant surprise in the late stage of the legend’s career.

strandinthewind

09-17-2008, 05:54 PM

Yeah, I've seen the vampire video many times. I don't thinks she's just like Stevie at all. I think an argument could be made that in the UTS picture, Kristen is dressed like Stevie (sort of) from the Tusk photo shoot, in her white dress. Then, we don't see her face either, to keep the illusion intact.

Michele

I think K dresses like Stevie. She did on the T&C cover and in other pics I have seen her in. To be fair, the witchy look has been in for awhile now.

As for the video - I do not think she looks like La Nicks in the face, but she looks like her from a far, which mainly is whay they show. That and the fact that she is doing ballet and the higer harmonies sound exactly like La Nicks in that era just add fuel to the fire :laugh:

As an aside, the intro of this song sounds to me exactly like the intro to Stand Back.

vivfox

09-18-2008, 11:30 AM

Buckingham displays craftsmanship
Bill Robertson and Cassandra Kyle, The StarPhoenix

Lindsey Buckingham

Gift of Screws

Reprise Records

Rating 3 1/2

Lindsey Buckingham, one-fifth of the biggest-ever version of Fleetwood Mac, has long been known as a meticulous craftsman.

That could account for the haunted and pained looks he wears on the cover and in the CD booklet of his latest album, Gift of Screws. It's as if he hates to be dragged away from his work, even for a few quick promo shots.

Track one bears witness to that theory: Great Day opens with some quirky, oddly syncopated rhythms, over which are layered many, many guitars, all of them played by Buckingham. In fact, except for a bit of help from a few bandmates and a couple of appearances by Mick Fleetwood and John McVie, Buckingham, like studio/musical mavens Paul McCartney and Brian Wilson, does it all.

The overdubbed acoustic and Spanish guitars in Time Precious Time are meant to affect a waterfall, and they do a marvelous job. Indeed, the guitar work here is stunning. You can't make out a whole lot of what Buckingham is singing -- here or anywhere on the album -- but suffice to say there's a melancholy tinge to this reflections on modern life and love, and he does provide the lyrics.

For the balance of the album, Buckingham goes for a slightly more conventional pop-rock sound, sounding like Fleetwood Mac on The Right Place To Fade (try Second Hand News) and giving us a straight ahead rocker on the title track, with its wild guitar and drums and its maniacal vocal on the chorus.

Buckingham likes to take his time and make his own kind of music. This album bears the marks of a devoted and eccentric musical wizard.

--Robertson

http://www.canada.com/saskatoonstarphoenix/news/arts/story.html?id=5be67daf-77f6-4438-882c-56ded2b05d78

michelej1

09-18-2008, 02:45 PM

From the Inland Empire Weekly, by George A. Paul

http://www.ieweekly.com/cms/story/detail/the_weekly_jive/1582/

Lindsey Buckingham--Gift of Screws (Reprise)

Every so often, music magazines publish lists of the best ________ (fill in the blank), ultimately leading to debates between critics and fans. After Rolling Stone published its 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time issue in 2003, I took issue with some glaring omissions. One was Lindsey Buckingham. Longtime Fleetwood Mac followers will back me up. Thanks to a unique finger-picking style, the man has a distinct, instantly recognizable electric guitar sound which really comes to the forefront during solo albums. There’s also a manic intensity few can match, and each is in evidence here. Major gaps tended to bookend past Buckingham discs because every time he’d start work, the Mac crept back into the picture and those songs morphed into band compositions. Now he’s making up for lost time. Under the Skin, a solid, mostly acoustic effort (plus the usual layering, overdubs and studio trickery) arrived in 2006 and a live CD+DVD came out earlier this year. The rocking Gift of Screws trumps all predecessors with strong pop melodies and memorable solos. Drummer Mick Fleetwood and bassist John McVie guest on a handful of tracks. Folky freak out “Time Precious Time” recalls Buckingham’s live “Big Love” revamp. Wife Kristen contributes lyrics to “Love Runs Deeper” (not a cringeworthy Linda McCartney-type ordeal) capped by a sizzling solo. Standouts include the lush, reverb-drenched “Underground,” piercing guitar riff-driven “Wait for You,” a jubilant “Right Place to Fade” (think “Second Hand News”; it’s another of the studio wiz’s layered voice extravaganzas), chiming “Did You Miss Me” and the spare, almost gospel-tinged closer “Treason.” (George A. Paul)

michelej1

09-18-2008, 03:03 PM

Metro News (Canada)

http://www.metronews.ca/vancouver/entertainment/article/113994

Lindsey Buckingham
Album: Gift of Screws
Label: Reprise/Warner
Rating: ***

This is probably Lindsey Buckingham’s finest effort since the heyday of Fleetwood Mac. There’s plenty of nifty hooks and blistering guitar solos here that will send people running for their old copies of Rumours (especially the three tracks on Gift of Screws which feature his old bandmates Mick Fleetwood and John McVie). At times, though, Buckingham’s guitar sounds as if it’s set on hyperdrive, like he’s trying a bit too hard, like he’s got something to prove. Well, after all those years in the wilderness, maybe he does?
– Graham Rockingham

michelej1

09-18-2008, 03:05 PM

The Gazette (Canada)

http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/arts/story.html?id=0fdc23c5-5471-4237-869d-56fc99972247

Lindsey Buckingham, Gift of Screws, Reprise
Don't let Buckingham's wasted, sleep-deprived look on the cover mislead you. On this rocking companion piece to his last studio album, the low-key Under the Skin, Fleetwood Mac's guitarist and visionary has never sounded more alive. That lightning-speed nylon-string picking he's been perfecting ever since he recast Big Love as an acoustic number is all over the place here. Sometimes it explodes into shards of sound, sometimes it holds back and maintains the suspense. Either way, the tension usually resolves into spectacular hooks, as on The Right Place to Fade, or serious electric wailing, as on Great Day. And Mac trivia buffs, take note: this album shares only its title track with the speculated contents of the legendary unreleased album from 1997.

Brenmaren

09-18-2008, 03:23 PM

http://backtorockville.typepad.com/back_to_rockville/2008/09/lindsey-bucking.html

MacMan

09-18-2008, 05:59 PM

The Hurst Review (http://thehurstreview.wordpress.com/2008/09/18/lindsey-buckingham-gift-of-screws/)

Not many artists deserve comparison to Brian Wilson, but, if ever there was one, surely it’s Lindsey Buckingham. Both mean, after all, as undisputed pop geniuses, channeling their own eccentricities and tortured madness into wonderfully melodic, accessible, and creative music. And, of course, both men eventually succumbed to the pressures of their own demanding muses; Wilson notoriously broke down during the middle of his Smile album, crumbling under the weight of his own creative ambition, while Buckingham, after playing a central role in one of the most wildly popular blockbuster albums of all time, Fleetwood Mac’s Rumors, turned to spearheading one of the most dumbfounding and bizarre albums of all time, the indulgent and drug-addled Tusk, eventually fading away into a solo career that’s been deafeningly quiet and frustratingly sporadic, especially after his proliferation and chart-topping success with the Mac.

But both men, of course, have more or less recovered. Wilson eventually finished the Smile album to rave reviews, and Buckingham’s recent output has been marked by a genuine sense of peace and serenity, as he’s seemingly abandoned the excesses of his rock and roll youth and settled into a life of quite pleasure and simplicity with his family and his art. For all these superficial similarities, however, the standing differences between the two could not be more pronounced than they were in 2008, when Wilson released That Lucky Old Sun, a deliberately nostalgic, backwards-glancing pop album, and Buckingham turned out Gift of Screws, an album that’s very much about the here and the now.

Which doesn’t mean, of course, that it finds the artist charting new territory, but it does find him taking stock of his gifts in a way that makes this easily his most essential and consistent record as a solo artist. Indeed, for the first time, all of Buckingham’s gifts are on display on a single album– the guitar pyrotechnics, the sun-kissed California pop melodies, the strange flourishes of studio wankery, the deeply sentimental lyrics. Even more impressive: He accomplishes all of that in an endearingly short, concise set, as the album clocks in at just ten songs and less than 40 minutes of music.

Of course, most of that can also be said of his 2006 album, Under the Skin, a quietly introspective, inwardly focused disc of acoustic singer/songwriter fare. Gift of Screws has been heralded as his turn away from introspection and back toward all-out rock, which is partially true but also a bit misleading. For one thing, Buckingham proves here that pop and rock can be just as introspective as acoustic folk, as these songs form a very personal and intimately-detailed reflection on the cost of celebrity and the rewards of love and family. And while it’s true that the album occasionally erupts into the kind of white-hot electric guitar solos he generally reserves for his live shows, to call this his rock album is simply an oversimplification, as it’s really a pop album that happens to rock from time to time, but also covers a lot of other ground. Indeed, it encompasses everything he’s ever done, and seems to point toward the future even as it takes stock of the past.

It’s a bravura performance, one in which Buckingham revels in all of his many skills. Those who love him for his studio wizardry will get a kick out of the wicked-cool opening track, “Great Day,” a seamless blending of muffled percussion, kitschy keyboards, spry acoustic fingerpicking, distorted vocals, and a pair of raging electric guitar solos; he’s practically a one-man symphony. Those who are still under the spell of Under the Skin will appreciate the nimble acoustic guitar work of “Time Precious Time,” while those still holding out for a Fleetwood Mac reunion won’t want to miss “Did You Miss Me,” a ridiculously catchy pop track that would have been a standout even on Rumors. But of course, there practically are a couple of Fleetwood Mac reunions here, as Mick Fleetwood and John McVie stop by to provide the rhythm tracks to a few songs, even bringing a blues touch to the winding “Wait for You”– a road down which Buckingham proves more than happy to go with his swaggering electric guitar licks. The rest of the album offers variations on this sound, from the artsy studio craft on “Love Runs Deeper” to the slamming rock of the title cut. It all culminates in a wonderfully gospel-drenched closing number, “Treason,” a song that’s about as hooky and addictive as anything he’s ever written.

Buckingham sounds like he’s having a blast here, which is half the fun; it’s a joy to hear an artist of his stature so contented, so pleased just to be making music. He sings about his love for his family and the quiet life here– sometimes with joy for the present, elsewhere with regret over past mistakes– and it’s hard not to think of this as the sound of lessons learned, wisdom gained. And indeed, Buckingham sounds like he’s in a good place right now; while many of his peers, like Peter Gabriel or Phil Collins, either grow increasingly insular and indulgent or keep hashing out the same old tripe, Buckingham is a rare artist who continues to push himself without ever turning his music into pure vanity. Gift of Screws may be a very personal project, but it’s almost as fun to listen to as it must have been to make, and that, as much as anything, is what makes it a standout in a career that’s been full of them.

MacMan

09-18-2008, 06:13 PM

Lindsey Buckingham Goes In For A Mug Shot, Gets Screwed

I think it's fair to say that Lindsey Buckingham* probably got screwed a lot during his Fleetwood Mac heyday. Hell, he probably got screwed a lot after that, too. And there was assuredly some screwing before, from Stevie Nicks and possibly others. The point is the man did some screwing. Whilst listening to "Secondhand News," I've had innumerable women make some offhanded remark to me about laying down in the tall grass and letting Lindsey do his stuff to them. Maybe it was the hair. Also, I hang out with a lot of women who like Fleetwood Mac.

Apparently, the gift of so many screws is ending up blurry, haggard, and gaunt. This cover is an almost complete repudiation of the "sex" portion of the rock and roll lifestyle. It's like Lindsey is saying, "This is where all the screws got me! Now I look no different than the mug shot of the local wino who wears a bathrobe outside and smells like liquid smoke and vinegar!** This was the Gift of Screws!"***

* It must be noted that I think Lindsey Buckingham is a genius, and that I would probably lay down in the tall grass and let him do his stuff to me.

** This is a reference to an actual person. I used to work at a liquor store.

*** Speaking of gifts from screws, this post gives me an excuse to post this kinda rad version of "Here Comes The Sun", which is the perfect answer to the question "What would it sound like if Lindsey Buckingham covered 'Here Comes The Sun'?"

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/WOZFfTI4GGc&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/WOZFfTI4GGc&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="283" height="229"></embed></object>

michelej1

09-18-2008, 07:54 PM

[B][SIZE="5"] It's like Lindsey is saying, "This is where all the screws got me! Now I look no different than the mug shot of the local wino who wears a bathrobe outside and smells like liquid smoke and vinegar!** This was the Gift of Screws!"***

Oh, that's hilarious. And all you Beatles fans are just jealous 'cause you wish George did it that way:D.

Michele

michelej1

09-18-2008, 07:55 PM

Tampa Bay Tribune, September 18, 2008

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2008/sep/18/190000/fx-mac-guitarist-conjures-magic-of-live-sound/entertainment/

Were Lindsey Buckingham not a member of one of rock's most successful groups, he would likely be adored by a small but intense cult following, the kind of fan boys who wouldn't deign to listen to anything loved by the rabble, such as Fleetwood Mac.

But when Buckingham explicitly invokes Fleetwood Mac's "Second Hand News" on this album's "The Right Place to Fade," it's not just a reminder about his more lucrative day job. It shows that those irresistible pop confections he whipped up for Mac often had something strange, even disturbing, at their cores.

Like much of Buckingham's solo work, "Gift of Screws" plays like a Fleetwood Mac disc with everything askew and the intensity level peaking well into the red. Minus Mick Fleetwood and John McVie's grounding R&B-schooled grooves and Stevie Nicks' more mainstream influence, Buckingham gives free rein to his studio innovations and the more shadowy side of his psyche.

Listen to "Time Precious Time," the second cut here. It's almost unbearably beautiful and also scary as hell. Buckingham plays gorgeous ascending and descending finger-picked guitar lines throughout, then multi-tracks them into a gale-force cascade of notes, both heavenly and oppressive.

"Gift of Screws" is the first studio album on which Buckingham has truly unbridled his guitar the way he does live. He closes "Great Day" with a screaming solo that will have jaws dropping and builds "Wait for You" on a howling guitar line that's like barbed wire slicing through oleander. For all his studio wizardry, "Gift of Screws" also conjures the raw splendor of Buckingham live.

"Gift of Screws" gives free rein to Fleetwood Mac guitarist Lindsey Buckingham's studio innovations and the more shadowy side of his psyche.

vivfox

09-19-2008, 07:10 AM

By ALAN SCULLEY Post-Tribune correspondent
September 19, 2008

There's one place Lindsey Buckingham wishes he could have snuck into after finishing the controversial 1979 Fleetwood Mac album "Tusk."
"I make the joke that I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall in the board meeting when they first put 'Tusk' on and started listening to that thing over at Warner Bros.," Buckingham said in a recent phone interview.

The reasons for Buckingham's curiosity are obvious enough. "Tusk" was the follow-up album to Fleetwood Mac's blockbuster 1977 album "Rumours." And rather than filling "Tusk" with the kind of finely crafted and accessible pop of "Rumours," Buckingham had steered Fleetwood Mac in a quirkier, more adventurous direction.

What's more, "Tusk" was a double album that would have to carry a higher-than-usual retail price. Buckingham can only imagine the uneasy atmosphere that must have filled the room as the Warner Bros. executives realized their expectations for eight-digit sales of the next Fleetwood Mac album had gone up in smoke.

The topic of "Tusk" is appropriate now because Buckingham recently has once again shown his willingness not to play things safe with his music.

In 2006, he released a stripped back, primarily acoustic CD, "Under The Skin," that prompted words of caution from the Warner Bros. camp.

"It's almost kind of a 'Tusk' in miniature," the guitarist and singer said.

At the time, Buckingham had also begun work on a plugged in, more commercially viable studio album, which came to be the newly released fifth solo CD "Gift Of Screws." Buckingham said the label asked him to consider putting a few of the full-band songs planned for "Gift Of Screws" on "Under The Skin" to make the album more palatable to radio, retailers and fans. Buckingham, though, stuck to his vision of keeping "Under The Skin" in its acoustic-centric form, and Warner Bros. didn't push the issue, although that meant the label wouldn't put a big push behind "Under The Skin."

"You know, I think I've earned the right to make whatever album I wanted," Buckingham said, referencing the enduring popularity of Fleetwood Mac. "I think Warner Bros. was quite happy to put out 'Under The Skin.' But there was a qualification from (label president) Tom Whalley at the time saying we'll be happy to put this out, but don't expect us to do a lot -- and they didn't. So that's OK, though. That was a boutique album."

The reaction to "Gift Of Screws" at Warner Bros. Records has been markedly different. And Buckingham said the CD he gave the label might be more musically accessible than even he expected.

"I was actually surprised because on the one hand I didn't really expect to make this as rock 'n' roll as it turned out," Buckingham said. "But once I got my road band down and we started cutting some tracks in my studio downstairs, it just wanted to go that way. Then there were a few songs that had (Fleetwood Mac bassist) John McVie and (Fleetwood Mac drum) Mick Fleetwood on them that had been waiting around to find a home. And those seemed to want to go in this grouping.

"So when I finally sent it ("Gift Of Screws") over there, I mean, I was actually very surprised at how strongly they reacted in the positive," he said.

"I'm fairly used to a conservative response, shall we say, from the record company as regards to my work. But they're pretty excited about this record."

Warner Bros. has good reason for its enthusiasm. "Gift Of Screws" sounds like a CD that could have considerable popularity.

The album is not without its edgy moments. It opens with a pair of quirky (but also attention-grabbing) songs, "Great Day" and "Time Precious Time." The former song is built around bursts of acoustic guitar notes, a programmed beat and a pair of stellar electric guitar solos. The latter tune is a showcase for Buckingham's lightning fast finger-picked guitar playing with a vocal that repeats the "time, precious time" phrase as if was a mantra.

From there, though, "Gift Of Screws" shifts more toward the kind of finely crafted, melodic pop that made Fleetwood Mac multi-platinum superstars. In fact, songs such as "Did You Miss Me" and "The Right Place To Fade" would not sound out of place on a Fleetwood Mac album such as "Rumours" or "Tango In The Night" (1987).

Meanwhile, songs like "Wait For You" and "Gift Of Screws" -- both of which feature the rhythm section of McVie and Fleetwood -- find Buckingham striking a middle ground between hit-worthy accessibility and musical adventurism.

Buckingham will feature several songs from "Gift Of Screws" on his tour this fall. The shows find him joined by the same musicians that played on his tour to support "Under The Skin" -- Neale Heywood (guitar), Taku Hirano (drums) and Brett Tuggle (bass, keyboards). The character of the evening, though, will be different.

"Last time I was doing a lot of, spending a lot of time out there by myself doing single guitar pieces," Buckingham said. "I'm still doing some of that, obviously, but we're going to hit the ground running this time and rock a bit more.

"That seems to be what the ("Gift Of Screws") album is doing."

Buckingham's tour will run well into the fall. After that, he plans to turn his attention to Fleetwood Mac, the group he joined in 1975 along with his then-girlfriend, singer Stevie Nicks. The band recently announced that it will tour the United States next year. But this outing will feature the four core band members -- Buckingham, Fleetwood, McVie and Nicks, a change from earlier this year when Sheryl Crow announced that she was likely to join Fleetwood Mac for the tour and possibly an album.

Buckingham said Crow's statements caught the band members off guard, and the idea of inviting Crow into the band never went beyond the discussion stage.

The whole issue, Buckingham noted, grew out of the fact that Nicks, who is good friends with Crow, was interested in adding a woman to Fleetwood Mac to replace retired singer/keyboardist Christine McVie.

On the tour supporting the group's 2003 CD, "Say You Will," Nicks had missed the male-female balance that Christine McVie brought to Fleetwood Mac, and floated the idea of adding Crow.

"It (Christine McVie's absence) gave me a lot of room to be a guy, to sort of do the kind of thing I do on stage and exert the kind of energy I exert, and to push that envelope a little bit," Buckingham said. "Consequently I had a great time doing it. I think Stevie was a little less comfortable with the divide that it created between herself and me. I think she missed Christine's presence.

"She missed that kind of mitigating force that sort of glued (things) together. And consequently when it came down to us contemplating touring next year, I think Stevie was possibly looking for some sort of a comrade on stage."

"The whole thing was a complete hypothetical," Buckingham said. "There had been no real, anything set in stone at all. It was just something we were considering, period."

If you go

What: Lindsey Buckingham

When: 7:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 2

Where: House of Blues, 329 N. Dearborn St., Chicago

Price: Tickets: $54.50

Info: (312) 923-2000 or http://www.hob.com/venues/clubvenues/chicago/

http://www.post-trib.com/entertainment/1171397,buckingham.article