Extended Play Reviews

[secondhandchain]

Here's one from E.W.

http://music-mix.ew.com/2013/04/30/fleetwood-mac-new-album-extended-play-ep/

[kak125]

Fleetwood Mac have released their first collection of new music in a decade. As promised, the legendary band tabled a full album release in favor of an EP, titled "Extended Play" and available exclusively on iTunes.

The record kicks off with the bouncy "Sad Angel," in which co-lead singers Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks harmonize over looping guitar and Mick Fleetwood's driving beat. "Hello, hello sad angel, have you come to fight the war?" they ask.

The rest of the EP includes the classic-sounding "Without You," which started as a track for Buckingham Nicks, the duo's pre-Mac group. There's also a piano ballad by Buckingham called "It Takes Time" and the album closer "Miss Fantasy."

It's their first new music since 2003's "Say You Will," which debuted and peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard 200.

The band told Billboard in February that, "Big, long albums don't seem to be what everybody wants these days." Whether a full-length album emerges from this current reunion is entirely up to fans, Nicks said.

"[Let's] see if the world does want more music from us," Nicks said. "If we get that feeling, that they do want another 10 songs, we can reassess."

Fleetwood Mac is on tour until June.
http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/1560079/fleetwood-mac-release-extended-play

[TerraRhiannon]

"[Let's] see if the world does want more music from us," Nicks said. "If we get that feeling, that they do want another 10 songs, we can reassess."

Fleetwood Mac is on tour until June.
http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/1560079/fleetwood-mac-release-extended-play

So here's an idea, Stevie. Let's release it with no advertisement except at your shows, and only on iTunes. So half the world wont have access to it! ;) :laugh:

[tabruns]

So here's an idea, Stevie. Let's release it with no advertisement except at your shows, and only on iTunes. So half the world wont have access to it! ;) :laugh:

Apparently that's the right way to do it, since it's doing well on the charts!

[KenshiMaster16]

"[Let's] see if the world does want more music from us," Nicks said. "If we get that feeling, that they do want another 10 songs, we can reassess."

Guess it's time to reassess. *cough cough* ;)

[TerraRhiannon]

Apparently that's the right way to do it, since it's doing well on the charts!

I know!!! Who knew! :blob2::blob1::]

Number one, baby!!

[Josh2003]

So Stevie & Lindsey produced Without You, and Mitchell Froom produced the other three tracks. Interesting.

[elle]

So Stevie & Lindsey produced Without You, and Mitchell Froom produced the other three tracks. Interesting.

yup, that's what i thought.


http://ultimateclassicrock.com/fleetwood-mac-extended-play-album-review/
FLEETWOOD MAC, ‘EXTENDED PLAY’ – ALBUM REVIEW
by Michael Gallucci April 30, 2013 12:17 PM

iTunes

The last time Fleetwood Mac made an album together, they were minus Christine McVie and enough good songs to fill its 75-minute running length. They’re still without McVie on their new four-song EP, but they fixed ‘Say You Will’’s biggest problem by keeping ‘Extended Play’ at an economical 17 minutes. And if it sounds more like a Lindsey Buckingham record than an actual band one at times, at least ‘Extended Play’ is the best thing released under the Fleetwood Mac moniker since 1987’s ‘Tango in the Night.’

In fact, ‘Extended Play,’ which is available exclusively on iTunes, sounds a lot like Buckingham’s recent solo albums, but with a punchier rhythm section and Stevie Nicks’ backing vocals. All of which give the music way more life than if Buckingham – whose insular approach to his solo records often make them sound thin and narrow – would have recorded them himself.

The opening ‘Sad Angel,’ propelled by acoustic guitar and a killer hook, crackles with more energy than anything the band or Buckingham, who wrote and sings lead on all but one of the EP’s four tracks, has done in years. It doesn’t hurt that Nicks and Buckingham still make a great singing team, chiming in on the choruses like it’s 1977 again. The song is the highlight of ‘Extended Play’ and its only real uptempo track.

But the remaining three songs are almost as good, especially the closing ‘Miss Fantasy,’ a shuffling pop number featuring a whispered vocal by Buckingham, with Nicks pushing along the choruses. The hushed piano ballad ‘It Takes Time’ is mostly Buckingham until the final minute, when strings swell around the spare melody. And Nicks and Buckingham share lead vocals on ‘Without You,’ a leftover cut from the pair’s pre-Fleetwood Mac duo days written by Nicks.

Fleetwood Mac have been performing a couple of the songs on their current tour, so in a way, ‘Extended Play’ doubles as a show souvenir for fans wanting new material from the band. It’s not essential Mac by any means, but after all these years, and all these years apart, it’s nice to know that they’re still capable of making some sweet music together.

7 out of 10 Official Ultimate Classic Rock Rating



btw, if anybody thinks Sad Angel is more rocking than a number of songs on Lindseys most recent solo albums, they are either deaf or never listened to those albums.

[michelej1]

Rolling Stone By RJ Cubarrubia

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/fleetwood-mac-release-extended-play-ep-20130430

April 30, 2013 9:55 AM ET

Fleetwood Mac have returned with their first batch of new music in 10 years. Extended Play, available now exclusively on iTunes, contains the new tracks "Sad Angel," "It Takes Time" and "Miss Fantasy," penned by Lindsey Buckingham. It also includes "Without You," a rediscovered and revamped track originally written by Stevie Nicks from the pair's Buckingham Nicks project.


Extended Play is Fleetwood Mac's first studio release since the 2003 LP Say You Will. Buckingham promised the EP was on the way earlier this month during a concert in Philadelphia. In January, he talked to Rolling Stone about how his relationship with Stevie Nicks has developed over the years.

"It's still evolving, and that's the beauty of it too. I've known Stevie since high school. We were a couple for many, many years, and we've been a musical couple forever," Buckingham said. "After all this time you would think there was nothing left to discover, nothing left to work out, no new chapters to be written. But that is not the case – there are new chapters to be written."

Fleetwood Mac are currently on a North American tour. Their next show is tonight at the Sprint Center in Kansas City, Missouri. For full tour dates, visit the band's website.


Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/fleetwood-mac-release-extended-play-ep-20130430#ixzz2RyIbVztK
Follow us: @rollingstone on Twitter | RollingStone on Facebook

[mylittledemon]

I know!!! Who knew! :blob2::blob1::]

Number one, baby!!

It's #59 currently... :shrug:

[Christopher]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/30/fleetwood-mac-extended-play-released-new-songs_n_3186031.html?utm_hp_ref=entertainment
Fleetwood Mac 'Extended Play' Released As Band Debuts New Songs

Earlier this month veteran rockers Fleetwood Mac promised fans they would soon be releasing new music, and Tuesday morning they did just that.

Made up of Stevie Nicks, Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, and Lindsey Buckingham, Fleetwood Mac released a four-track EP called "Extended Play" on Tuesday, available exclusively through iTunes.

"One of the things we thought would be a good idea before we hit the road would be to go into the studio and cut some new material," Buckingham said at a Philadelphia concert in April. "So last year we did that. It's the best stuff we've done in a long time, and in a few days we're going to drop an EP of new stuff."

The extended play is Fleetwood Mac's first collection of new material in 10 years. The band released its last studio album, "Say You Will," in 2003. The new EP features four songs from Fleetwood Mac: a retro Nicks-penned track "Without You," as well as new songs called "Sad Angel," "It Takes Time," and "Miss Fantasy." Take a listen to "Sad Angel" above.

With more than four decades in the business, the members of Fleetwood Mac are currently in the midst of a North American tour. The tour kicked off earlier this month, hitting cities across the U.S. and Canada before wrapping in Sacramento, Calif. on July 6. The band then heads abroad, kicking off the European leg of the tour in Dublin, Ireland on Sept. 20.

So what has kept the rockers (now all in their 60s) going all of these years, making new music and traveling the world on an exhausting schedule? "It has everything to do with the feeling I get when my fingers touch those keys and I sing that first sentence," Nicks explained to HuffPost Entertainment about her love of making music in December. "It may not save the world but people are gonna love it. Because I love it."

[TerraRhiannon]

It's #59 currently... :shrug:

Weird.. it's still showing as being the top album in Rock on iTunes. I think I have iTunes Canada or US or something maybe.

Or my iTunes just knows what I want to see.

[KarmaContestant]

Weird.. it's still showing as being the top album in Rock on iTunes. I think I have iTunes Canada or US or something maybe.

Or my iTunes just knows what I want to see.

Right now (just checked), it is number 6 on the iTunes album chart.

For those who may not know, these are iTunes sales charts - not Billboard rankings or anything like that.

However, with iTunes being the largest (in terms of volume) music retailer in the world, being number 6 in the U.S. late in the day after release, is very impressive. :nod:

[michelej1]

However, with iTunes being the largest (in terms of volume) music retailer in the world, being number 6 in the U.S. late in the day after release, is very impressive. :nod:

That's good to know. I wasn't sure. I thought maybe it was common for new releases by a name band to have a big spurt up the first day and then fall to #139 within the week. So, to know it's not a regular thing is inspiring.

Michele

[KarmaContestant]

That's good to know. I wasn't sure. I thought maybe it was common for new releases by a name band to have a big spurt up the first day and then fall to #139 within the week. So, to know it's not a regular thing is inspiring.

Michele

It says to me that it's selling units to more than just internet fans. If this were not available online, and only a CD release in brick-and-mortor stores, I doubt it would have charted. Just my opinion, of course - I'm no sales analyst.

Of course, it might very well fall to 139 tomorrow. :shrug:

Unrelated:
Gosh, the projects Stevie could do if she embraced the internet.

[elle]

Right now (just checked), it is number 6 on the iTunes album chart.

For those who may not know, these are iTunes sales charts - not Billboard rankings or anything like that.

However, with iTunes being the largest (in terms of volume) music retailer in the world, being number 6 in the U.S. late in the day after release, is very impressive. :nod:

it's #6 on overall album sales chart, and #1 on the rock album chart. so TerraRhiannon is also correct.

all this is itunes US, not Aus, UK, NZ, etc. so whoever said #50something was not looking at the itunes US.

[elle]

It says to me that it's selling units to more than just internet fans. If this were not available online, and only a CD release in brick-and-mortor stores, I doubt it would have charted. Just my opinion, of course - I'm no sales analyst.

Of course, it might very well fall to 139 tomorrow. :shrug:

agree. same if it was available on both amazon and itunes - it would be split. of course, top of itunes promotional banner plus the price helps too.

[michelej1]

Perez Hilton

http://perezhilton.com/2013-04-30-fleetwood-mac-release-new-music-extended-play-ep-listen-sad-angel

We didn't want to believe the Rumors (ughh we couldn't resist!) in case they proved to be false…

But huzzah! Fleetwood Mac really DID record new music and it's all available for your listening pleasure RIGHT NOW in the form of their Extended Play EP!

Take a listen to Sad Angel, one of their brand new tunes written by Lindsey Buckingham (above)!

Now, we've already heard this track before as Stevie Nicks and co. have been playing it while on tour, but the legitimate studio recording gives us a FAR better sense of what this song is about than the muddled live version.

Extended Play is the band's first collection of unheard tracks since 2003's Say You Will, and amongst its freshly penned melodies is Without You, a rediscovered song from the Buckingham Nicks project that was never officially released.

Yaaaay for more Fleetwood Mac! Our ears will never tire of their supreme musical talent and soul-stuffed creations!

[Christopher]

"Extended Play" just inched up to #5 on the US Itunes album chart! ;)

[Jondalar]

Very Awesome.

[elle]

http://ultimateclassicrock.com/fleetwood-mac-sad-angel/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

FLEETWOOD MAC, ‘SAD ANGEL’ – SONG REVIEW

by Dave Lifton April 30, 2013 8:52 PM
Share on facebook! Share on twitter!

Earlier today (April 30), Fleetwood Mac released a four-song EP, ‘Extended Play,’ their first new studio material since 2003′s ‘Say You Will.’ While the EP is available for purchase exclusively at iTunes, you can stream the lead track and first single, ‘Sad Angel,’ below.

Written by Lindsey Buckingham, ‘Sad Angel’ opens with some typically kinetic, percussive Buckingham rhythm guitar before his vocals come in, and joined later by the whole band. The rhythm section of John McVie and Mick Fleetwood chug along in typical no-nonsense, muscular fashion, with some keyboards and a few layers of guitars to fill it out.

Even though she sings in tandem with Buckingham for all but the opening 15 seconds, Stevie Nicks is largely invisible. She takes her lines well and the two still blend together very well, but there’s little of her trademark personality on display. Maybe that’s a little harsh, but for a band that has traded so frequently on the duo’s history together, ‘Sad Angel’ doesn’t offer much in the way of tension between its two lead singers.

Not that that’s a bad thing, of course. Throughout the run-up to the release of ‘Extended Play,’ we’ve heard about how those past issues are behind them – note how they’re posed in the press photo above – so what better way to prove it than with a nice, poppy song that is, lyrically, light years removed from their famously autobiographical work.

Or is it? The ambiguous lyrics could be Buckingham acknowledging that he and Nicks need each other, and are never better than when they’re together. “We fall to Earth together / The crowd calling out for more / Hello, hello sad angel / Have you come to fight the war?” they sing in the chorus. It’s hard to tell, because we usually associate Nicks with gypsies or witches, not angels.

If ‘Sad Angel’ is about her, then it’s a nice peace offering as the two of them prepare to write the newest chapter in their incredibly long history together. If not, then it’s still a welcome return to form for one of rock’s most enduring bands.

7 of 10

[michelej1]

^Oh come on. She's been an angel for a long time.

Michele

[ShangriLaTroubl]

When I first heard this song I kind of thought it was about Stevie coming back to Fleetwood Mac. "Hello, Sad Angel, have you come to fight the war?" Make sense in that respect.

[streetangel27]

When I first heard this song I kind of thought it was about Stevie coming back to Fleetwood Mac. "Hello, Sad Angel, have you come to fight the war?" Make sense in that respect.

That's what I thought too

[secondhandchain]

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/posts/la-et-ms-review-fleetwood-macs-foursong-extended-play-20130501,0,4251800.story

[estranged4life]

it would be released on disc, don't care for iTunes

[bombaysaffires]

^Oh come on. She's been an angel for a long time.


that's "ayn-jell":D

[michelej1]

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/posts/la-et-ms-review-fleetwood-macs-foursong-extended-play-20130501,0,4251800.story

By Mikael Wood
May 1, 2013, 8:30 a.m. Los Angeles Times

The four songs on the new Fleetwood Mac EP -- which the legendary pop-rock outfit put up for sale on iTunes on Tuesday morning with little advance warning -- arrive steeped in echoes of the past, in at least one case quite literally: "Without You," a strummy acoustic number overlaid with harmony vocals by Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, reportedly dates back to sessions for the two singers' 1973 album as a long-haired vocal duo deeply opposed to shirts.


But the other tunes on "Extended Play," newly composed by Buckingham and co-produced by him and L.A. studio pro Mitchell Froom, feel no less rooted in earlier iterations of this on-again/off-again institution.

"Miss Fantasy" has some of the folky back-porch guitar action of "Never Going Back Again," while the stripped-down "It Takes Time" could be Buckingham's version of Christine McVie's big piano ballad, "Songbird." And opener "Sad Angel," which you can hear below, shimmers with the glossy textures of 1987's "Tango in the Night." (Incidentally, if you want to get a sense of Fleetwood Mac's enduring influence on synthed-up young rock acts like Phoenix, go straight to "Tango" -- it looms larger these days than the vaunted "Rumours" does.)

Nothing about this self-reference surprises, of course, especially given that Fleetwood Mac is in the midst of a giant arena tour that will bring the band to the Hollywood Bowl on May 25 and Anaheim's Honda Center on May 28. Old hits are what the members are playing onstage -- "Don't Stop," "Dreams," "Go Your Own Way," "Silver Springs" -- so old hits are what the members are hearing in their heads.

And yet "Extended Play" -- Fleetwood Mac's first studio output since "Say You Will" in 2003 -- doesn't sound stale or overworked; indeed, the songs have an impressive crispness (after only a handful of spins, anyway) that makes their familiarity seem less like evidence of a tapped creative supply than like proof that this is simply the kind of music Fleetwood Mac writes.

"I remember you," Buckingham sings over and over again near the end of "Miss Fantasy," and he might be addressing his own melody. But it's a good one. You'll remember it too.

[mylittledemon]

Unrelated:
Gosh, the projects Stevie could do if she embraced the internet.

:laugh: Reminds me of my mother... even she won't sit down in front of a computer.

[michelej1]

Mostly Junk Food, April 30, 2013

http://www.mostlyjunkfood.com/stream-fleetwood-mac-extended-play-ep/


No, you didn’t read that wrong. Fleetwood Mac is actually back with new material for the first time in ten years and no one can be disappointed about it. They quietly released it on iTunes earlier today and is actually a strong EP for only being fifteen minutes long. However, they could’ve come up with a better title than “Extended Play” but they’re old so they get a pass. In related news: Steely Dan just announced a summer tour.

Here’s what Lindsey had to say about the project:


“It’s still evolving, and that’s the beauty of it too. I’ve known Stevie since high school. We were a couple for many, many years, and we’ve been a musical couple forever,” Buckingham said. “After all this time you would think there was nothing left to discover, nothing left to work out, no new chapters to be written. But that is not the case – there are new chapters to be written.”

[michelej1]

Just this excerpt from The Music Network, by Nathan Jolly

http://www.themusicnetwork.com/music-news/artists/2013/05/01/fleetwood-mac-release-first-new-material-in-a-decade/

While we aren't wild about the prospects of a song called Miss Fantasy penned by a 63-year-old Lindsey Buckingham, we are thrilled beyond belief that Fleetwood Mac have released their first new music since 2003's muted Say You Will, an album marred by the still-strained relationship between Nicks and Buckingham.

[michelej1]

The Guardian, UK May 1, 2013 by Sean Michaels

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2013/may/01/fleetwood-mac-new-material-released

Fleetwood Mac have unveiled their first new music in a decade. Without fanfare or a marketing campaign, the band released their four-song EP direct to iTunes on 30 April.

The release, simply titled Extended Play, comprises a quartet of tunes: three originals by Lindsey Buckingham and one by Stevie Nicks, written in 1973 when the pair were still the duo Buckingham Nicks. This is hardly a set of sexagenarians' basement tapes: Without You – not be confused with the Danny Kirwan-written Mac song of the same name – and Sad Angel are as shiny as Rumours, and even the lonely piano ballad, It Takes Time, has a dramatic synths/strings coda.

Buckingham revealed plans for the EP at a gig in Philadelphia earlier this month – the band have been performing some of the new songs on their current tour. "It's the best stuff we've done in a long time," he said, promising that the record would be out "in a few days". It took a few weeks, instead, but within hours of appearing on iTunes, Extended Play had appeared in the digital shop's top 10 chart, though it has since dropped.

"We all felt that it would be great to go into the studio and record new material before embarking on this tour and the result has been remarkable," Buckingham said in a statement. Nicks has previously indicated that Fleetwood Mac would only record another full-length if she felt certain fans would buy it. "Big, long albums don't seem to be what everybody wants these days," she told Billboard in February. "[Let's] see if the world does want more music from us … If we get that feeling, that they do want another 10 songs, we can reassess."

One of Buckingham's new songs is an explicit response to Nicks's musical reticence. "At the moment [Sad Angel] was being written, I was really thinking about the fact that [Stevie] and I were not agreeing on the idea of an album," he recently told MSN. "The chorus is, 'Hello, sad angel, have you come to fight the war?' It goes on to talk about 'the crowd's calling out for more' … [Sad Angel and Miss Fantasy] are songs about Stevie and me."

Prior to Extended Play, Fleetwood Mac's most recent new recording was the 2003 album Say You Will. That record reached No 6 on the UK album charts, and achieved gold sales, but fell well short of the band's commercial peak from 1975 to 1987. The band have sold more than 100m albums worldwide.

Fleetwood Mac are currently in the midst of a North American tour, with plans to visit the UK and Europe this fall.

[michelej1]

Slate by Alex Heimbach, April 30, 2013

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2013/04/30/fleetwood_mac_ep_extended_play_and_10_essential_fleetwood_mac_songs_listen.html

Fleetwood Mac, which put out a new EP today, was one of the few music choices my parents and I could agree on. I would scream along with the rocking chorus of “The Chain” on the way to school and dance around the house to “Little Lies.” Since then, my appreciation for the band—from Lindsey Buckingham’s virtuosic guitar playing to the group’s layered harmonies—has grown more sophisticated, but the songs still pack the simple, emotional wallop they did for me 15 years ago.


Alternately credited with and cursed for creating “adult contemporary,” the members of Fleetwood Mac are almost as famous for their personal drama as for their classic songs. Originally, though, Fleetwood Mac was a simple British blues band, formed in 1967 by guitarist Peter Green and named after drummer Mick Fleetwood and bassist John McVie. This lineup, with a few additions, put out three albums, which did well in the U.K., but received little attention stateside. (One of the singles from that era, “Black Magic Woman,” became a major hit for Santana.) In 1970, Green left the band after suffering from a mental breakdown (he was later diagnosed as schizophrenic). A year later Christine McVie, John’s new wife, officially joined. A keyboardist who wrote her own music, Christine increasingly came to shape the band’s sound. Mick and the McVies stuck together through the early ’70s and more personnel changes—one of their guitarists joined the Children of God and another had an affair with Fleetwood’s wife—as they tried to replicate their British success in the U.S.


They didn’t have much luck until 1974, when Mick recruited the American folk duo Buckingham Nicks. For their first album together, this new version of Fleetwood Mac combined Christine’s songs with some that Lindsey and Stevie had already written. The eponymous result finally brought the band the American popularity they’d been looking for, selling five million copies and reaching No. 1 on the charts. It had four hit singles, including McVie’s poppy “Say You Love Me” and Nicks’ haunting “Rhiannon,” which highlighted her wild performance style.


Success also brought trouble, as it does. The band’s two couples began to unravel—as did Mick Fleetwood’s marriage to model Jenny Boyd—just as they returned to the studio. And so the musical legend of Rumours was born: The album is made up of songs that Christine, Lindsey, and Stevie wrote about their dissolving relationships. The most famous of these are Buckingham and Nicks’ dueling takes on their doomed love, her ethereal “Dreams” and his aggressive “Go Your Own Way.” But at the heart of the album is the only song all five of the band members ever collaborated on, “The Chain,” which emphasizes their commitment to carrying on as a group despite their personal disagreements.


After the massive sales of Rumours, the studio invested heavily in the band’s follow-up. But Buckingham was determined not to repeat himself and began experimenting with different recording techniques (including, for instance, laying on a tile floor as he sang into the microphone). Meanwhile, Stevie had embarked on a secret affair with Mick—which ended, much to her chagrin, when he left her for her best friend. Eighteen months and the largest recording budget of all time produced the messy Tusk. The album sold about a quarter of the copies its predecessor did, but the unnerving title track, which features the USC marching band, balances Buckingham’s desire for punky weirdness and the rest of the band’s gift for grandeur.


The band put out two albums in the ’80s: 1982’s Mirage—which was largely overshadowed by Nicks’ solo release Belladonna—and 1987’s Tango in the Night. Tango was troubled; the band’s lifestyle remained extravagant and Nicks had abandoned coke for Klonopin, which made her spacey and unreliable. Buckingham and McVie, who had a hit with my old favorite, “Little Lies,” took over most of the songwriting duties, but Nicks, with the help of Sandy Stewart, still managed to contribute one great song, the cheerful “Seven Wonders.”


After another blow-up with Nicks, Buckingham left the band right before the Tango in the Night tour. The split wasn’t permanent, but the band never really recovered; in 1997, Christine McVie permanently retired from Fleetwood Mac. The remaining foursome has toured sporadically since then. Their 2003 album, Say You Will, was fairly successful, but failed to live up to their earlier work.


The new EP is the band’s first new material since then. The best of its tracks, “Sad Angel,” hearkens back to the catchy pop-rock of Rumours, rather than the smoothed-out sound of their more recent stuff. Perhaps they’ve rediscovered the knack they used to have for transmuting a troubled dynamic into powerful songs, though it’s hard to tell on the basis of just three new songs, all by Buckingham. (The fourth track, “Without You,” is an old Buckingham Nicks tune.) However it turns out, I’ll always have “The Chain.” And if you’ve never given the band much thought, you’ll find 10 tracks to get you started below, both as a Spotify playlist and on YouTube and Amazon. Enjoy.

[elle]

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/J24TY-yvtY4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[michelej1]

New music review: Extended Play, Fleetwood Mac

By Bernard Perusse, The Montreal Gazette May 1, 2013


Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/enter...#ixzz2S7A2HpBp

It wasn't quite the blindside of David Bowie's sudden emergence in January with new music. Lindsey Buckingham had started the jungle telegraph with an announcement at Fleetwood Mac's April 6 concert in Philadelphia that the group would release an EP of new material "in a few days."

But the actual appearance of the music yesterday on iTunes still came as a surprise in an era when release dates are etched in stone and the hype machine gets going ages before the music surfaces.

Four tracks from the Mac - one of them a rediscovered oldie - is not the feat Bowie accomplished with 17 unheard songs. But it shares the same decade-long gestation period: this is the group's first fresh recording since the 2003 album Say You Will.

And it's a joyous 18 minutes.

Fans will read all sorts of meanings into the lyrics, which are hard not to connect with Buckingham's often-troubled relationship with Stevie Nicks. It is, after all, the backdrop for rock n' roll's longest-running soap opera.

"It's still evolving, and that's the beauty of it too. I've known Stevie since high school. We were a couple for many, many years, and we've been a musical couple forever," Buckingham said to Rolling Stone. "After all this time you would think there was nothing left to discover, nothing left to work out, no new chapters to be written. But that is not the case - there are new chapters to be written."

"I had a really good time working with him for four days at his house. I got to hang out with his family and his kids, his grown up kids, and really connect with him again. We're pretty proud of what we have done, and we're looking at it through the eyes of wisdom now, instead of through the eyes of jealousy and resentment and anger," Nicks told the same publication.

""Hello, hello sad angel, have you come to fight the war?" Buckingham and Nicks sing in harmony during the killer chorus of opening track Sad Angel, an uptempo, catchy pop-rocker written by Buckingham. In many ways, in fact, the entire EP sounds like a Buckingham solo release: strongly melodic, filled with dreamy hooks and neurotically self-aware.

Without You, which, tellingly, comes from the pre-Mac Buckingham-Nicks era, is the sole track penned by Nicks. It finds the two in a grizzled update of the Everly Brothers sound: over a gorgeous, crisp acoustic jangle, Nicks's rough nasality blends with Buckingham's high tenor in a celebration of where the two have brought each other. The perspective might be 40 years old, but it seems oddly poignant now.

It Takes Time, a stark, but sweet piano ballad, finds Buckingham's protagonist struggling to connect with his own feelings, while Miss Fantasy is quite the stunner: a sunshiny, bittersweet look back, with a chorus that evokes the Beach Boys. As Nicks comes in on harmony, the track soars higher than we could have hoped for.

No word yet on when, or even whether, a physical release will follow.


Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/enter...#ixzz2S79v48kd

[michelej1]

Miami Herald by Howard Cohen May 3, 2013
http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/05/03/3378779/michael-buble-coasts-fleetwood.html

Fleetwood Mac, Extended Play (LMJS Productions) * * * 1/2

Fleetwood Mac’s first new music since 2003’s Say You Will is short on Stevie Nicks, who resisted recording a full album with the group. The resulting four-track EP, released to iTunes as a digital download, makes you wish for more on the strength of Lindsey Buckingham’s three new songs.

Nicks contributes the folksy Without You, a reject from the 1973 sessions for the Buckingham Nicks LP. The pair harmonize over Buckingham’s tinny acoustic strumming. Meh.

Much better: Buckingham’s fresh songs in which he returns to writing crisp, accessible, engaging California pop/rock, like the infectiously melodic and rhythmically driving Sad Angel and the breezy Miss Fantasy, a piquant taste of Mirage-era Mac that makes great use of the famed rhythm section of Mick Fleetwood and John McVie.

His stark solo piano ballad, It Takes Time — imagine Christine McVie’s Songbird as its closest cousin — intrigues the most because it’s unlike anything the guitarist has released.

Nice to report, also, that 37 years after breaking up, those old rumours between Buckingham and Nicks never cease to amuse. Buckingham has said that Sad Angel was written in a bout of anger over Nicks’ reticence to record an album. “Hello, hello, sad angel/Have you come to fight the war/The drums, a fire, a calling ... the crowd calling out for more.” Score one for Team Lindsey.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/05/03/3378779_p2/michael-buble-coasts-fleetwood.html#storylink=cpy

[elle]

http://nickslive.blogspot.com/2013/05/review-fleetwood-mac-extended-play_3.html

REVIEW: Fleetwood Mac “Extended Play” - "concise burst of fresh songs'

Fleetwood Mac “Extended Play” (iTunes)

In the decade since Fleetwood Mac released 2003's “Say You Will,” a new surge of interest in the group's distinctive pop style has taken hold in the modern pop, alternative and country communities. Recent music by artists as diverse as Cut Copy, Lady Antebellum, Vampire Weekend, Haim, Daft Punk, John Mayer and Little Big Town was inspired by the warmth and harmonic richness of Fleetwood Mac's Lindsey Buckingham/Stevie Nicks era, and last year's tribute album, “Just Tell Me That You Want Me,” offered persuasive testimony to the band's enduring influence.

But for all the enthusiasm those acts show for Fleetwood Mac's pop shimmer, most would balk at walking a mile in their shoes, and continued tension within the band is a key reason why they only mustered four tracks for “Extended Play,” Fleetwood Mac's first new material since 2003. But this concise burst of fresh songs, mostly co-produced by Buckingham and Mitchell Froom (Crowded House), says more about what it really means to be part of Fleetwood Mac than anything since “Rumours” and “Tusk.” Buckingham takes it on directly with “Sad Angel,” which addresses the challenge of getting Nicks on board with new Mac material while the fans are “calling out for more.” Even the inclusion of “Without You,” an unreleased Buckingham Nicks song, underlines the continued tension — putting the song on “Extended Play” was a compromise after Nicks and Buckingham could not agree on how to handle the 40th anniversary of the “Buckingham Nicks” album.

But Buckingham extends an olive branch with “It Takes Time,” a rare piano ballad from the band since Christine McVie's retirement. The song acknowledges that Buckingham bears some of the burden here, and that he carries his own emotional baggage to every Fleetwood Mac gig. The group wraps up “Extended Play” with Buckingham's “Miss Fantasy,” a wistful uptempo song about “the queen of the underground.” “Everyone whispers when you go, into the silence soft and low/ Ten thousand voices, crying ‘on with the show,” Buckingham sings. Over 35 years after the romantic fissures that nearly wrecked the band, on “Extended Play” Fleetwood Mac proves that some chains never really break.

— George Lang
Newsok.com

[Villavic]

So Stevie & Lindsey produced Without You, and Mitchell Froom produced the other three tracks. Interesting.

Was Stevie a producer? I didn't know that.

[elle]

http://www.offthetracks.co.nz/fleetwood-mac-extended-play-ep/

May 3, 2013 by Simon Sweetman
Fleetwood Mac: Extended Play – EP

Fleetwood Mac

Extended Play – EP

LMJS Productions

Though you could argue it’s phoned in by the title alone, I really like this four-track EP by Fleetwood Mac, the band’s first release in a decade and their second set of recordings sans Christine McVie. Once again her presence is missed – because it’s now just The Stevie and Lindsey Show and her counterpoint was (always) crucial.

Where Say You Will, the band’s last album, was far too long (some 75 minutes) Extended Play is probably just a bit too short – six tracks might have been nice. But it’s a move I applaud. For two (crucial) reasons. Firstly, Fleetwood Mac is a hits-act, running the nostalgia circuit, giving its fans what they want, delivering ****-hot performances, still white-hot with Lindsey’s guitar prowess front and centre, that oh-so-capable rhythm section, Nicks still playing the twirling white-witch bogan-fantasy to the hilt and – yes – The Stevie and Lindsey Show is a big part of the sound and look and story of the band’s tours – as it has been since 1975 (with just a slight break). So fans want to hear the hits and a new album would be a waste of time but a new EP allows them a fan-souvenir and a chance for the band to slip in just a wee bit of new material. A nice touch, I say.

But the other great reason for a four-track EP at this stage in their career – far more important, I say – is this idea of simply offering all you have to say at any one moment and nothing more. Or, put another way, offer up your best work – avoid the filler. So Fleetwood Mac only has four songs they want to share right now. So be it. See reason one above – no one is going to a Fleetwood Mac show for the new material.

I don’t see this move of releasing an EP as misguided, I think it’s smart that a band like Fleetwood Mac releases an EP over an album; that they’ve done so at this stage in their career pleases me. More bands should be releasing just the good material.

So, all that said, is the material on the EP good enough?

For the most part, yes. And – it has to be said – thanks to Lindsey. Three of the four songs are from Buckingham, who really has been doing the heavy-lifting since Tusk. And – in the decade since Say You Will – he’s the Mac member that’s offered the most outside of the band; his solo albums a grand showcase for his skills; each album offering something new, a fresh angle. The other song is one that Buckingham had a hand in way back; has been resurrected.

So, opener, Sad Angel is the sort of immaculate pop song Buckingham has been scrubbing since his first solo album and in the way the riff dissolves into the hook it bears some resemblance to his great solo track Trouble. It’s a strong new addition to the Mac cannon.

Without You is a re-recording of a pre-Mac Buckingham/Nicks demo – and though it’s lightweight it plays into the history and is something for fans to hear; to reconnect with that soap-opera back-story that is so important to this band. It’s the weakest song on Extended Play however.

But It Takes Time is gorgeous, Lindsey at the piano, deciding – essentially – that if the band is missing Christine McVie and Christine McVie Songs he’ll just write one. It Takes Time wouldn’t have been out of place on the recent return from Bill Fay. It’s my pick for winning track on EP – it’s the something special you often find on EPs.

And the closer, Miss Fantasy, is another strong pop song. Flavours of the Mac of old. Just enough to distinguish it – and the other songs here – from Lindsey’s solo career; it’s deceptively slight at first – just 17 minutes after all – but you hear the textures, that lovely feel that is signature.

Will it change the world? No. Will it keep the fans happy? Of course.

The EP is available at iTunes or you can stream it.

[elle]

http://roxboroghreport.blogspot.co.nz/2013/05/fleetwood-macs-first-new-music-in-10.html

Fleetwood Mac's First New Music In 10 Years - Extended Play

Fleetwood Mac are back with their first new recordings as a band for 10 years. Particularly from the thinking man's guitar hero Lindsey Buckingham, there have been plenty of solo projects in more recent years and Stevie Nicks even managed an acclaimed solo album in 2011 (In Your Dreams).

But this is the first time since the whopping 18-track album Say You Will of 2003 that Fleetwood Mac have recorded new music. At this stage it seems very much like they are testing the waters because they've only released four songs on an EP with the nice little title of Extended Play. Word is Nicks is reluctant to release a full album if it's not going to sell and that her long time sparring partner / love / muse / ex Buckingham is more keen.

So the EP is kind of a hedging of bets. If it sells then Fleetwood Mac fans can expect a new album. If it doesn't, then expect them to keep touring as a collective but to only get new releases in the form of solo projects.

I hope they do a full album and that they realize the comparatively (for them) mediocre sales of their last album shouldn't dissuade them from attempting to further their legacy, rather than just maintaining it. Say You Will had some highlights (namely Bleed To Love Her and Steal Your Heart Away), but suffered from being too long and sounding a bit like the combination of two solo albums from Buckingham and Nicks. Without Christine McVie (who retired in the late 90s to the English countryside), this is always going to be a concern.

Fleetwood Mac as they look today.

But, that doesn't mean they shouldn't try. Live, Fleetwood Mac are still just as compelling as ever and listening to these quite excellent four new songs (albeit one that's a reworking of a song from the 40 year old Buckingham / Nicks LP) makes me want to hear more.

The new songs are reminiscent of classic Fleetwood Mac in that the material is autobiographical. After all these years, there remains something very intriguing - as well as unique - about two people singing songs about each other, to each other. And while these songs are the songwriting works of Buckingham, Nicks should know that nobody produces her songs better than he can.

Here is my favourite of the new Fleetwood Mac songs, Without You.

[michelej1]

Rolling Stone
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/extended-play-20130507

By Will Hermes May 7, 2013

"We fall to Earth together/The crowd calling out for more," goes a couplet on this four-track EP by the remaining Macs (Christine McVie sits out). Note to band: That doesn't mean y'all have to answer. But if their first release of new music in a decade isn't replacing any classics, the voices of Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks can still bring chills. The gem is "Without You," a breezy Nicks-written folk rocker from the couple's pre-Mac project Buckingham Nicks: Largely acoustic, with twined harmonies, its chords twist and resolve like a sun-dappled mobile on a breezy day. And we confess: Hearing the ex-lovers put words in each other's mouths remains as fascinating as ever.


Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/extended-play-20130507#ixzz2SacTSnFc
Follow us: @rollingstone on Twitter | RollingStone on Facebook

[kak125]

Fleetwood Mac Has Four New Songs Out (It’s a Secret…Shhhhh….)

Fleetwood Mac, a group I listened to with great interest in 1975, has a new album out. Or rather four songs they’ve put on iTunes. You can hear them on Soundcloud and iTunes. They released these tracks themselves, bypassing their old label Warner Bros. Records. If they used a publicist, it was probably Stealth PR, the same company that’s handling Rod Stewart. So shhh…. Maybe they’re just counting on everyone to find the songs. I really like “Sad Angel.” If radio still existed, this very nice Lindsay Buckingham song would be a hit.

http://www.showbiz411.com/2013/05/07/fleetwood-mac-has-four-new-songs-out-its-a-secret-shhhhh

[kak125]

Last week, Fleetwood Mac released their first new recordings in almost a decade — a four-song digital EP titled Extended Play. The collection features three new tunes written by singer/guitarist Lindsey Buckingham — “It Takes Time,” “Miss Fantasy” and “Sad Angel” — as well as a Stevie Nicks-penned track called “Without You” that dates back to her and Buckingham’s pre-Fleetwood Mac days, when they performed as a duo.

Nicks recently chatted with ABC News Radio about the new songs, and revealed why the band decided to release just a few songs rather than a full-length album.

“In this day and age, nobody really wants an album anyway, [and] we didn’t have time to do a record anyway, because we were all working all last year,” she explains. “And…when you do a record, especially a Fleetwood Mac record, that means you rent a house and you’re working for almost a year. We didn’t have that year. So, this way, we have new songs.”

Nicks also told ABC News Radio that Buckingham’s new tunes were written in early 2012, and he initially recorded them with just drummer Mick Fleetwood and bassist John McVie.

“I didn’t go because my mom had just passed away, and I really just couldn’t go into the studio,” she points out. “So they went in basically without me, and that was fine.”

Stevie adds that, although she didn’t participate in the early sessions, Lindsey made an effort to come up with material that was well-suited for her. “Lindsey just tried really hard to see through my eyes,” she notes. “He certainly knows me well enough to do that.”

Nicks finally got the chance to add her voice to the new tracks late last year when she visited Buckingham at his home studio. “He and I picked…two songs out of the several songs that they did that I like very much, otherwise I wouldn’t have wanted to sing on them,” explains Stevie. “We did them, and we finished all the vocals and they came out great.”

Nicks also brought in her old song “Without You,” which she reportedly had rediscovered after coming across an old demo that had been posted on YouTube.

“We can’t figure out for the life of us why it didn’t go on the Buckingham Nicks album,” says Stevie, referring to the 1973 album she and Lindsey recorded as a duo. “But it didn’t and it’s just this amazing song…So we rerecorded it and it came out great.”

Extended Play is available now at iTunes for $3.96. Fleetwood Mac has regularly been playing two songs from the EP, “Sad Angel” and “Without You” during their current North American tour, which is mapped out through a July 6 show in Sacramento, California. The band also has a European trek planned for the fall.

http://www.classichitsandoldies.com/v2/2013/05/08/stevie-nicks-says-new-fleetwood-mac-songs-came-out-great/

[michelej1]

By Roger Friedman, Showbiz 411 May 7, 2013

http://www.showbiz411.com/2013/05/07/fleetwood-mac-has-four-new-songs-out-its-a-secret-shhhhh

Fleetwood Mac, a group I listened to with great interest in 1975, has a new album out. Or rather four songs they’ve put on iTunes. You can hear them on Soundcloud and iTunes. They released these tracks themselves, bypassing their old label Warner Bros. Records. If they used a publicist, it was probably Stealth PR, the same company that’s handling Rod Stewart. So shhh…. Maybe they’re just counting on everyone to find the songs. I really like “Sad Angel.” If radio still existed, this very nice Lindsay Buckingham song would be a hit.

[michelej1]

Consequence of Sound By Jon Hadusek on May 15th, 2013 in Album Reviews

http://consequenceofsound.net/2013/05/album-review-fleetwood-mac-extended-play-ep/

Fleetwood Mac are restless. After dozens of songs, albums, tours, and RIAA certifications, you’d think they would’ve reached a point of satisfied complacency, like when a star athlete hits the twilight of his or her career and admits, “I’ve done it all it’s time to retire.” Maybe Fleetwood Mac did, in fact, reach such a point after 2003’s Say You Will. The band announced an indefinite hiatus — its members diverting their concentration to their personal lives and solo endeavors. The Mac’s future was in question…

But if Michael Jordan wearing a Washington Wizards jersey taught us anything, it’s that you can’t keep The Best at bay while they still have the ability to play … and make lots of money. So in 2009, Fleetwood Mac reunited for a tour (which — just like Jordan on the Wizards — put asses in seats and made tons o’ cash). During the tour, Lindsey Buckingham dropped this nugget: “The time is right to go back to the studio.”

But for three years that promise went unfulfilled as Fleetwood Mac rode the nostalgia train all the way to the bank. Another world tour, TV appearances, and album reissues — no new music.

Until now.

Via a surprise press release last month, Fleetwood Mac announced Extended Play, a four-song EP of new material — their first since 2003. Expectations were high for these songs, considering Buckingham’s aforementioned statements and the subsequent lack of fresh studio material from the band.

By its own nature, Extended Play can’t meet those expectations. A quick-hitting EP simply cannot contain the songwriting force that is Buckingham/Nicks/McVie. ****, Rumours could barely contain ‘em (and Tusk overdid it). Instead, we don’t get that team at all. Just Buckingham. Every song on Extended Play is sung and written by him (“Without You” is a re-recording of an old Buckingham/Nicks demo).

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, though it makes the EP feel more like a Buckingham solo project than a true Fleetwood Mac release. The songs play it safe, adhering to the midtempo rhythms that best suit his voice. Lead track “Sad Angel” opens with the familiar jangles of “Go Your Own Way” — a momentary callback before we finally hear this new, Christine McVie-less iteration of Fleetwood Mac. Buckingham’s fatalism is firmly in place: “My eyes saw the words / With a prayer and a curse / Your pain had to sleep/With a sword that it keeps.” They’re contemplative lyrics for an otherwise simple pop tune. Modern production techniques enhance Buckingham’s clean guitar tones and his vocal harmonies with Nicks. Even the compressed MP3s sound superb — magnifying every nuance, from the patter of Mick Fleetwood’s snare to the slight gravely tic in Stevie Nick’s voice (which proves that she is in fact 64, despite her age-defying looks).

The new version of “Without You” is a welcome rendition. It’s an acoustic duet between Buckingham and Nicks — the only real presence she has on Extended Play. Although it was likely written while they were madly in love with one another, the song emphatically contradicts that idea: “I’m so lonely babe/I can’t live without you.” The following track, “It Takes Time”, is a somewhat forgettable piano ballad, but Fleetwood Mac close strong with the hook-y power-pop of “Miss Fantasy”.

Extended Play is a short tease, but these tracks aren’t throwaways or an attempt at a quick cash-in. Lindsey Buckingham wouldn’t put his name on something like that. A known perfectionist, he co-produced the EP alongside Mitchell Froom, and the attention paid to detail shows. Sure, the songs don’t veer far from Fleetwood Mac’s mellow-rock wheelhouse, but why should they? Extended Play is hampered by its fleeting duration; however, for being an out-of-the-blue release that costs less than $5, Fleetwood Mac fans should be more than satisfied. Just know that you won’t be hearing much from Stevie Nicks or John McVie.

Essential Tracks: “Sad Angel”

[secondhandchain]

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/posts/la-et-ms-in-rotation-fleetwood-mac-bauhaus-20130519,0,1952865.story

[michelej1]

^Thanks for that.


May 18, 2013, 10:00 a.m. Los Angeles Times by Mikael Wood

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/posts/la-et-ms-in-rotation-fleetwood-mac-bauhaus-20130519,0,1952865.story


The four songs on the new Fleetwood Mac EP — which the legendary pop-rock outfit put up for sale on iTunes last month with little warning — arrive steeped in echoes of the past, in at least one case quite literally: "Without You," a strummy acoustic number overlaid with harmony vocals by Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, reportedly dates to sessions for the singers' 1973 album as a long-haired vocal duo deeply opposed to shirts.

But the other tunes on "Extended Play," newly composed by Buckingham and co-produced by him and L.A. studio pro Mitchell Froom, feel no less rooted in earlier iterations of this on-again/off-again institution.

"Miss Fantasy" has some of the folky back-porch guitar action of "Never Going Back Again," while the stripped-down "It Takes Time" could be Buckingham's version of Christine McVie's big piano ballad, "Songbird." And opener "Sad Angel" shimmers with the glossy textures of 1987's "Tango in the Night." (Incidentally, if you want to get a sense of Fleetwood Mac's enduring influence on synthed-up young rock acts like Phoenix, go straight to "Tango" — it looms larger these days than the vaunted "Rumours" does.)

Nothing about this self-reference surprises, of course, especially given that Fleetwood Mac is amid a giant arena tour that will bring the band to the Hollywood Bowl on Saturday and Anaheim's Honda Center on May 28. Old hits are what the members are playing onstage — "Don't Stop," "Dreams," "Go Your Own Way," "Silver Springs" — so old hits are what the members are hearing in their heads.

And yet Fleetwood Mac's first studio output since "Say You Will" in 2003 doesn't sound stale or overworked; indeed, the songs have an impressive crispness that makes their familiarity seem less like evidence of a tapped creative supply than like proof that this is simply the kind of music Fleetwood Mac writes.

"I remember you," Buckingham sings over and over again near the end of "Miss Fantasy," and he might be addressing his own melody. But it's a good one. You'll remember it too.
— Mikael Wood

[PenguinHead]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/30/fleetwood-mac-extended-play-released-new-songs_n_3186031.html?utm_hp_ref=entertainment
Fleetwood Mac 'Extended Play' Released As Band Debuts New Songs

So what has kept the rockers (now all in their 60s) going all of these years, making new music and traveling the world on an exhausting schedule? "It has everything to do with the feeling I get when my fingers touch those keys and I sing that first sentence," Nicks explained to HuffPost Entertainment about her love of making music in December. "It may not save the world but people are gonna love it. Because I love it."

If you didn't know better, you would assume, by her quote, that Stevie is the keyboard player in the band.:confused:

[tabruns]

If you didn't know better, you would assume, by her quote, that Stevie is the keyboard player in the band.:confused:

Except for the fact that her quote clearly references writing songs (not playing in concert), which the article references as well in "making music".

[michelej1]

My Digital Financial Chronicle

http://www.mydigitalfc.com/knowledge/going-their-own-way-413

Going their own way By Abhinav Kaul, Ranaditya Baruah Jun 06 2013 , New Delhi

When I first heard Fletwood Mac, they were already way past their prime. Their glory years were long gone but it never showed when Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham took the stage. Nicks’ voice has remained as sultry and phenomenal as ever and Buckingham’s mellow guitar licks have somehow managed to get cleaner over the years.

The British-American rock band was formed way back in 1967. The band has undergone numerous changes over the years, but most fans identify Fleetwood Mac with Mick Fleetwood on the drums, John McVie on bass, Lindsey Buckingham on the guitar and Stevie Nicks on vocals.

There is nothing in the music business that these rock and roll hall of famers have not seen. So, one might think after a 10 year break the band may have finally hung up their boots bringing an end to an illustrious career.

But putting an end to all such speculations, last month, Fleetwood Mac announced Extended Play, a four-song EP of new material — their first since 2003’s, Say You Will, which had reached No 6 on the UK album charts, and achieved gold sales.

However, fans must be warned that this album is more a solo project of Lindsey Buckingham than a Fleetwood Mac album, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing as most songs play it safe, adhering to the mid-tempo signature rhythms that best define the bands music.

The lead track, Sad Angel, opens with the familiar jangles of Go Your Own Way — a momentary callback before we finally hear this new version of Fleetwood Mac. Like many of the group’s greatest songs, Sad Angel reflects on Lindsey and Stevie’s complex relationship. The track is a wonderful beginning to the record as Sad Angel is perhaps the most Fleetwood Mac-y on the album. It reminds one of the good stuff that the band belted out on record after record during their prime.

The new version of Without You is another welcome rendition. It’s an acoustic duet between Buckingham and Nicks — the only real presence she has on Extended Play. The 40-year-old track was most likely penned while they were madly in love with one another. Times have changed and both musicians have matured a great deal over the years but the song would definitely remind the old-timers of a more innocent time. The song was originally meant for a possible second Buckingham-Nicks album, before being dropped.

The following track, It Takes Time, is the only forgettable track on the album, but Fleetwood Mac close strong with the power-pop feel of Miss Fantasy.

Extended Play is a short tease, but these tracks aren’t throwaways or an attempt at a quick cash-in. Lindsey Buckingham wouldn’t associate with something like that. A known perfectionist, he co-produced the EP alongside Mitchell Froom, and the attention paid to detail shows. The songs don’t deviate far from Fleetwood Mac’s mellow-rock wheelhouse, and why should they? That’s exactly the kind of stuff that fans want from them.

Modern production techniques, which enhance Buckingham’s clean guitar tones and his vocal harmonies with Nicks, however seem too obvious at times.

Extended Play’s fleeting duration might be something fans would complain about. However, for being an out-of-the-blue release, Fleetwood Mac fans should be more than satisfied. .zz

[michelej1]

Fleetwood Mac's 4-song EP 'Extended Play' hints of more good music to come (CD review)

http://www.cleveland.com/popmusic/index.ssf/2013/06/fleetwood_macs_4-song_ep_exten.html

By Chuck Yarborough, The Cleveland Plain Dealer, June 13, 2013

Fleetwood Mac has sold more than 100 million records worldwide, including almost 50 million in the United States.

The current tour, which features Saturday’s stop at The Q, celebrates the 35th anniversary reissue of "Rumours," the breakthrough album by the lineup that featured founding members Mick Fleetwood on drums and John McVie — the Fleetwood and Mac in the name — along with Christine McVie on keys, Lindsey Buckingham on guitar and Stevie Nicks on vocals.

Sadly, Christine McVie, who was married to John when she joined the band, left the group in 1998, the year they were inducted into the Rock Hall.

Not so sadly, Fleetwood Mac is continuing to produce music. GOOD music. The band has a new EP out, appropriately enough called "Extended Play," that features four songs — "Miss Fantasy," "It Takes Time," "Without You" and "Sad Angel."

The EP has a rollicking, more acoustic feel to it that’s reminiscent of the days when Nicks and Buckingham were a duo, before they joined Fleetwood Mac. Which sort of fits, because "Without You" is actually a remake of a tune they recorded back in those days.

Buckingham sings lead on all four songs, and there are hints of Nicks on "Angel" and, obviously, "Without You." But John McVie’s voice is curiously absent, and the EP does suffer from the absence of Christine McVie, both vocally and on piano.

But that’s all relative. Comparing Fleetwood Mac’s sound to anyone else’s sound is like comparing Little League to the Majors. The foursome really is in a different league. That in mind, the worst thing about this EP is that it’s an EP, with only four songs, and the best thing is that its very presence portends the issue of a full album.

Cha-ching.

[billwebster]

Will there ever be a full album made out of those songs and the others they have been working on? I sure do hope so!

[secret love]

Will there ever be a full album made out of those songs and the others they have been working on? I sure do hope so!

We don't know. We do know it is just "a matter of how and when" not a matter of "if" for the remaining Lindsey-penned Fleetwood Mac songs to be released. So the band has already shared 3/8 new songs plus the new/old Without You.

There are five more Fleetwood Mac songs floating out there somewhere in the ether waiting to end up on an official CD or digital download release. I get the feeling from band interviews and particularly from Lindsey (and less so, Mick's) comments on the public record - that Lindsey, Mick and John would love to make a new Mac album, and that Stevie is less than thrilled about the idea.

But my prediction is we will get a full-length new Fleetwood Mac studio album maybe in 2014 or 2015 which will probably contain the four EP songs, plus the five already recorded (and unreleased) Lindsey songs (with some additional -Stevie- vocals), then maybe three or four new Stevie songs. She will come around to the idea of recording with Fleetwood Mac again, I think. But any future studio work with Fleetwood Mac will have to be on Stevie's own terms and she will need to have complete creative control over the direction of her new songs to feel comfortable working with the band.

It really would be a shame if Say You Will (2003) went down in history as Fleetwood Mac's last studio album. As much as I love SYW, I think Fleetwood Mac still continues to show so much promise and Extended Play (2013) showed they haven't lost their special touch or musical prowess. The band should play on while they still can, in studio and on stage. The fans will thank them for it.

[michelej1]

Taz.de October 14, 2013

http://www.taz.de/Fleetwood-Mac-auf-Reunion-Tour/!125432/

Malicious people might say, that was inevitable. That Fleetwood Mac would also eventually be "cool." In recent years, the retro mania had been responsible for the revival of post-punk, acid-folk and even hair metal. In archival understanding of history nuller years no musical niche was too remote to be not dragged by a clever decision guy band from obscurity into the public spotlight.

With Fleetwood Mac had no one make this effort. In Asservatenkammern mainstream radio playlists their songs are equally important evergreens like "Hotel California" by the Eagles. Anyone who has spent in the eighties, part of his youth listening to the radio, knows "Rumours" by heart.

Retro mania based on cultural codes and tacit agreements: driven by the desire to discover a pristine moment in the turmoil of pop history. On Fleetwood Mac meets nothing of all this to. Mick Fleetwood, Lindsey Buckingham, Stevie Nicks and McVie siblings never were seen as style icons. It does not require secret knowledge and familiarity of their songs was a retrospective Mythifizierung also detrimental.

The name Fleetwood Mac stands for high quality, perfect form use music, made possible by the 48-channel studio excesses. The music is so perfect in its technical execution, the songs that surrounded an aura of sanctity. "Rumours" is also the last great classic rock album that reveals emotional depths behind his obsessively polished surface. Because "Rumours" acted mainly from the end of love.

A Fleetwood Mac tribute album with acclaimed artists

However, when Fleetwood Mac this week complete their epic reunion tour (the third since the turn of the millennium) by German multi-purpose arenas, they meet a new situation. A large American coffee chain has succeeded for the Fleetwood Mac tribute album "Just tell me how you want me" some hip artists, including MGMT, Washed Out and Antony, but also gray eminences as J.Mascis, Bonnie " Prince "Billy and Marianne Faithful to win.

Last year, Warner released an exhaustive historiographical "Rumours" box set. So this year's Fleetwood Mac Road Show will take place under different circumstances than the tours in 2003 and 2009.

It will be interesting to see how the band reacts to the unexpected popularity of a new generation of musicians and musicians who actually should be socialized with punk. In "Rumours" in 1977, after all the debut albums by the Sex Pistols, The Clash, Television, Wire, Elvis Costello and Talking Heads came on the market.

Determine the musical legacy

A freshly released Fleetwood Mac 4-song EP "Extended Play" radioed ahead in this respect mixed signals. On the catchy upbeat song "Sad Angel", a slightly over made-piece power pop, followed by three adult pieces that try to tie something to try the classic folk-rock sound of the seventies. What the pieces is lost, is Buckingham's flair for melody and porous flitting sound signatures. Exactly what "Tusk", in retrospect even the best Fleetwood Mac album, is now estimated again by younger listeners.

So the timing could not be more perfect. Fleetwood Mac have it in our hands to help determine their musical legacy. Interpretations of largely significantly younger bands are helpful. They have reclaimed often wrongly maligned as smooth radio rock sound of the Mac a fabulous range of genres and highly complicated emotional states.

[KarmaContestant]

Taz.de October 14, 2013

http://www.taz.de/Fleetwood-Mac-auf-Reunion-Tour/!125432/

Malicious people might say, that was inevitable. That Fleetwood Mac would also eventually be "cool." In recent years, the retro mania had been responsible for the revival of post-punk, acid-folk and even hair metal. In archival understanding of history nuller years no musical niche was too remote to be not dragged by a clever decision guy band from obscurity into the public spotlight.

With Fleetwood Mac had no one make this effort. In Asservatenkammern mainstream radio playlists their songs are equally important evergreens like "Hotel California" by the Eagles. Anyone who has spent in the eighties, part of his youth listening to the radio, knows "Rumours" by heart.

Retro mania based on cultural codes and tacit agreements: driven by the desire to discover a pristine moment in the turmoil of pop history. On Fleetwood Mac meets nothing of all this to. Mick Fleetwood, Lindsey Buckingham, Stevie Nicks and McVie siblings never were seen as style icons. It does not require secret knowledge and familiarity of their songs was a retrospective Mythifizierung also detrimental.

The name Fleetwood Mac stands for high quality, perfect form use music, made possible by the 48-channel studio excesses. The music is so perfect in its technical execution, the songs that surrounded an aura of sanctity. "Rumours" is also the last great classic rock album that reveals emotional depths behind his obsessively polished surface. Because "Rumours" acted mainly from the end of love.

A Fleetwood Mac tribute album with acclaimed artists

However, when Fleetwood Mac this week complete their epic reunion tour (the third since the turn of the millennium) by German multi-purpose arenas, they meet a new situation. A large American coffee chain has succeeded for the Fleetwood Mac tribute album "Just tell me how you want me" some hip artists, including MGMT, Washed Out and Antony, but also gray eminences as J.Mascis, Bonnie " Prince "Billy and Marianne Faithful to win.

Last year, Warner released an exhaustive historiographical "Rumours" box set. So this year's Fleetwood Mac Road Show will take place under different circumstances than the tours in 2003 and 2009.

It will be interesting to see how the band reacts to the unexpected popularity of a new generation of musicians and musicians who actually should be socialized with punk. In "Rumours" in 1977, after all the debut albums by the Sex Pistols, The Clash, Television, Wire, Elvis Costello and Talking Heads came on the market.

Determine the musical legacy

A freshly released Fleetwood Mac 4-song EP "Extended Play" radioed ahead in this respect mixed signals. On the catchy upbeat song "Sad Angel", a slightly over made-piece power pop, followed by three adult pieces that try to tie something to try the classic folk-rock sound of the seventies. What the pieces is lost, is Buckingham's flair for melody and porous flitting sound signatures. Exactly what "Tusk", in retrospect even the best Fleetwood Mac album, is now estimated again by younger listeners.

So the timing could not be more perfect. Fleetwood Mac have it in our hands to help determine their musical legacy. Interpretations of largely significantly younger bands are helpful. They have reclaimed often wrongly maligned as smooth radio rock sound of the Mac a fabulous range of genres and highly complicated emotional states.

Yikes, what the heck translated that? I cannot believe it was written that way. And wtf is the writer thinking referring to the McVie's as siblings. :shocked:

[michelej1]

Yes, it was translated.

What if John and Christine had been sister and brother, how would that have changed things? Of course, Christine's Rumours songs might not have been the same, but would the entire band dynamic have been less tumultuous?

Lindsey says that Christine's break up informed SnL's and he and Lindsey had already fallen apart before by the time they joined FM, so I don't think he's correct, but the conjecture is interesting.

Michele

[elle]

http://musingsonthemediums.blogspot.ca/2013/11/album-review-fleetwood-mac-extended-play.html

Musings on the Mediums

A periodical blog where I discuss my musings and opinions on various forms of media, including movies, books, and, the main focus of this blog, video games. Unfortunately, I do not know enough to talk about things like television or music, so those will only be designated to a rare post. Read as I explore the confines of each medium, and which games I feel best utilize those confines and change both the nature of the medium and our ways of viewing it.


Saturday, November 2, 2013

Album Review: Fleetwood Mac, Extended Play

It seems like Fleetwood Mac make some of their best music in periods of great volatility. Rumours, the band’s 1977 masterpiece, was written and recorded during a time when the band’s personal lives were in the toilet. The Mac’s latest release, the four song EP Extended Play, was recorded in another bout of uncertainty, with multiples recording projects being derailed by Stevie Nicks’s and Lindsey Buckingham’s solo careers. Like during Rumours, the band somehow remains at their most focused during a storm, and has produced an incredible record.

One of the best things about Extended Play is that it sounds like Fleetwood Mac. In an era where the music industry seems to be pressing for more homogenization, it is great to hear a band that sounds like themselves. The EP’s lead, and best, track “Sad Angel,” is a classic Mac song of the highest caliber, reminiscent of many of the tracks from the beginning of the Buckingham-Nicks era Mac. Buckingham’s vocals effortlessly blend with Nicks’s, showing the potency of this long partnership.

In fact, all four of the tracks on the EP fit seamlessly in the canon of the first few Buckingham-Nicks led Mac. Buckingham’s electric and acoustic guitars shine together, for an incredibly well blended, bright sound. John McVie’s bass flits between sweetly accentuating the melodies to pounding along with Mick Fleetwood’s steady, reliable drumming, showing the strength of the consistent core of the band. And, like many good Fleetwood Mac songs, love is at the forefront of these songs from the haunting Buckingham solo piano and voice track “It Takes Time,” to the pleasant day dream of “Miss Fantasy.” Despite none of the band members being romantically linked any more (Christine McVie left the band after divorcing John, and Buckingham and Nicks terminated their romantic relationship during the recording of Rumours) it seems that these old habits die hard.

In a musical culture where artists, consumers and producers keeping pushing for “the new,” it is refreshing to hear something so classic. Fleetwood Mac reasserts themselves as a still relevant and superstar band in 2013, and remind us why these bands are still around, and still kicking ass.

Rating: 9.0/10


(guess this maybe should have been in EP reviews thread but i'm lazy to search...)