The One Great Song on These Terrible Albums
 

https://ultimateclassicrock.com/grea...errible-album/

Fleetwood Mac, "I Do"
From: Time (1995)

No Lindsey Buckingham or Stevie Nicks? No problem! Actually, lots of problems. Thankfully, Christine McVie could still provide a reliably joy-filled chorus

Christine has a few other good songs on the album, particularly "Nights in Estoril" and "All Over Again", but I agree with this assessment. "I Do" is an absolute bop. It was one of my top played songs on Spotify last year.

I agree. Was "I Do" the only single? Other Christine songs deserved to be singles.

Yes, and it was a minor hit and Canada. Fleetwood Mac was actually relatively successful in Canada during the 1990s: Two songs, "Save Me" and "Paper Doll", were top ten singles there. "Skies the Limit" and "Silver Springs" hit the top 40 and three more songs ("Love is Dangerous", "I Do", and "The Chain") also charted.

When this thread was posted and I read the title before clicking to enter, I supposed “These Terrible Albums” meant Behind the Mask and Time, since this is the Post Rumours forum. Not that I consider them terrible, but obviously they didn’t meet my expectations. Then I realized it was an article about different albums.

Having said that, I don’t find GREAT songs, but I do and Nights in Estoril are good ones. In general, I like very much Chistine songs in that album, and actually are the only ones I usually listen.

On the other hand, I do enjoy listening to almost all of BTM's songs. I do enjoy even Skies the Limit, though I’ve read harsh criticism about that song. My fave songs are Do You Know, ITBOMM and WTSGD. Yes, Save Me is not one of my faves.

I absolutely LOVE Do You Know. I always have.

Ignore the haters. Skies the limit is a great song. I love everything about it INCLUDING the spelling!!!!!
Yes it was a song quickly thrown together and it shows. But IMHO it shows the talent of Chris because even in a pinch she can write and put down some great chords. Supposedly BTM was finished and after playback the consensus was the album was very dark and lacked the typical peppy Chris song. So they came up with Skies the limit quickly and threw it on the first track, side one. It has some great harmonies with the 4 singers too. I particularly like Chris's keyboard playing and Mick's cracking of the drums.

I've come full circle on Skies. It's really sung well, and the chorus is fantastic. Also, love Stevie on this song.

BTM is what Old Spice would sound like if it was a rock album.

Behind the Mask?

Dead on arrival. I bought the cd on the day of its release, listened to it twice, and stored it away. It was a record full of duds and the magic was gone. There's nothing behind the mask but emptiness.

Then - I had to suffer through the 1990 tour when they decided to OPEN the show with "In the Back of My Mind". Stevie and Chris were wise to exit after this s*it show.

I enjoy Skies, Save Me, Love Is Dangerous, and Do You Know. The rest is cheap filler.

Besides the OWTS tour, the 1990 was my favorite Mac tour. I was too young and never saw Tusk, Rumours, or Mirage. I am sure they would have been my favorite. It almost seemed Chris was the ring leader. It was raw, supporting new material, and the last of the arena rock sound from the band. While the Dance was exciting to have Lindsey back we got neutered Chain and a very scripted and tame set. I think in some ways Stevie's tranquilized self allowed her to fall behind the other members of the band. She was always seen as the "star" and focal point. They really seemed like a band. I was awestruck when I left the arena in 1990 and was sad it was coming to and end (so we thought). The band rocked with Isn't It Midnight among other songs.

Hi! I'm taking it too late, but I think it's just in time...
Personally, it's a joke to know that I Do was the only single from Time, so it's sad to know that the press only writes its opinion based on it, without listening to the whole album.
Hollywood and Sooner Or Later were definitely the best songs of Chris from that album, and probably some of the best from her career. In fact, they're longer than the rest, but not because of that, they're worse than the only single we had...
Just an opinion!

We seem to have divergent opinions on this. I find that "I Do", "Nights in Estoril", and "All Over Again" are her best songs on the album. "Sooner or Later" and "Hollywood" are ambling compositions that could have benefited from some pruning.

Completely agree. “Hollywood” never did much for me, but “Sooner or Later” would have been way better if it had been half as long and it would have still gotten the point across.

I've always liked "I Do" -- I've listened to it a few hundred times over the years -- but I think it's a safe, easy choice for that article. Reading the summary, it seems the author just followed two steps. 1) Don't bother considering the other three singers/songwriters because they're not Stevie and Lindsey. 2) Pick the Christine song that sounds the most like a Rumours-era track (a choice that was even easier because that was the only single from the album).

It would have been more interesting to me for the author to step outside the box a bit, especially outside Christine's five songs. "Winds of Change" and "Dreaming the Dream" were always my favorite among Billy, Bekka, and Dave songs. Certainly on par with "I Do" in my mind. Solid guitar work, unusually restrained (for her) but resonant vocals from Bekka, great backing vocals on the former, and steady-as-usual work from Mick and John on that one, too.

Since they didn't comment on BTM, I won't either...except to say I'd have loved to have heard the Rumours lineup's take on "Save Me."

huh--I guess I disagree with the premise. TIME is no masterpiece, certainly. But there are about seven or eight really good tunes on it. It's more of a matter of the end result lacking cohesion. But hey, that was the problem with PENGUIN, too, and that's one of my favorite albums.

Anyway, the songs from Time that I think hold up VERY well are:

Talking to My Heart
Winds of Change
Nothing Without You
Nights in Estoril
Hollywood
All Over Again
Sooner or Later
Got it In For You

Ironically, the only Christine song I don't like is "I Do." She sings it well and it's solidly put together, but the arrangement is pretty bland.

I agree, but Penguin and Time have completely different predecessors and came in different times. After the huge trajectory of the Rumours lineup, one expected a far better album. But that was impossible for obvious reasons.

I don’t think people expected a far better album. What they wanted was Stevie Nicks somewhere on it. Without her or Lindsey, they shut their ears. TIME is for a number of diehard fans a better album than MASK, which was the REAL disappointment coming after TANGO. In 1995, no one was talking about FM anymore. Few even knew the album was released.

Song for song TIME stacks up in a way few people are willing to acknowledge.

Agreed! People were/are not willing to listen to TIME with objective ears. I also think the Billy/Bekka opening “Talking to My Heart” is damn good.

And this is where I say “huh?!” and insist Temporary One is a great tune, and you say “huh?!” and we go round and round…

But, as Christine once sang, “it sure feels nice.”