The public & the critics rarely experience the same shock. The public is usually shocked when bands try something new; the critics are generally shocked (or at least sickened) when bands don't. On those few occasions that Fleetwood Mac tried to épater le bourgeois, the critics mostly loved it.
Okay by me ... Stevie's material on "Tango" should be looked at in terms of its trackness rather than in terms of songwriting acument. In that light, Seven Wonders & When I See You Again are both noteworthy & satisfying for Fleetwood Mac. With Fleetwood Mac, it doesn't matter who writes the song; it's what's done with it that counts.
See, I feel that Mick had a bigger influence on Lindsey's departure than Stevie did. Lindsey had been fighting his Stevie demons for many years by that point, but Lindsey's aggravation factor with Mick was more recent & had actually hit crisis point in 1986 & '87.
Yeah, but you still gotta figure some time in there for detoxing Mick & John. Mick especially was a major mess during the making of "Tango."

WHAT!? OMG!!! No Seven Wonders? I love 'Seven Wonders' but When I See You Again and WTTRS SUCK!!!!

Let me begin by saying that I don't like "Ricky," but I like the idea of a Lindsey-Christine only album. Though, I would change the name of the album to "You And I." I'd also add "Can't Help Falling In Love" from the "Fine Mess" soundtrack. And, while we're at it, let's kill off "Family Man."

As for Stevie's stuff, I like "Seven Wonders" and WTTRS. But, Stevie would have been better, for her own sake, just being a solo artist at that point. She wasn't bringing her "A" game to Fleetwood Mac, which continued into BTM. So, why even bother? She had to work a lot of things out in her life at that point, and being in a band like that probably didn't help.

You & I, Pt. I
Everywhere
Big Love
Isn't It Midnight
Caroline
Mystified
Tango In The Night
Little Lies
Down Endless Street
Can’t Help Falling In Love
You & I, Pt. II

Hmm...I had forgotten about "Can't Help Falling In Love", which I love. I may have to revise my "revised" Tango CD again.:D

Better would be "You & Me."
That one's rather tepid, rather watered-down. Nothing terribly special about that track.
Because the band at that point was still arranging & producing good tracks. It didn't matter whether the song itself was any good or not. All that mattered was whether the treatment was interesting. "Seven Wonders" got a helluva treatment, for those who choose to actually pay attention to it.

I love this arrangement... :woohoo:

Stevie said in an interview (I don't remember from which era) that she brought in other songs to the Tango sessions, like "What Has Rock And Roll Ever Done For You", but that Fleetwood Mac for some reason opted to use her "stranger" songs instead. (I don't know if she used the word "stranger", but it was something like that.) Anyone remember which interview this is from? :)

Stevie's collaboration on TITN was definitely more than weak. But if she hadn't been there, I'm sure this wouldn't have been the band's second-biggest-selling studio album, much to the record company's regret, and someone else :laugh:

“Ricky”—I hate it. I don't hate it as much as I hate “Skies [sic] the Limit” but I still hate it. It goes on and on and on and yet nowhere at all. The backing track might be interesting as trance music. Or something.

Ricky IS really bad. It's nothing more than a song idea, that never really got fleshed out properly. What we're stuck with is awful.

I like Skies, though.

Yeah, Skies is a personal disgust, but I could see how someone else would enjoy it, whereas Ricky...well, it’s not home and it’s not Tara.

Ricky is a turd.

Come out tonight
 

It may not be single material, but Ricky is perfect for that album. Refine the mixing/engineering a little, flesh out the backing vocals a bit, and slip it right in there, perhaps in place of the non-sequitir and ungrammatical You and I Pt II if need be.

The problem is that no one looks and no one sees.

Oh, look! It’s the voice of a pretty girl 😆