In the Meantime newspaper reviews
 

I'm starting a thread for "Meantime" newspaper reviews. I found two (rather negative) ones, attached below:

Independent on Sunday (London)
June 20, 2004, Sunday
BYLINE: NICK COLEMAN
One liked to think of her has the sensible one in Fleetwood Mac - a bit self-absorbed but in a nice way: practical, wise, vulnerable, soulful and, like, y'know, real. Here she is, following last year's creditable effort by a Christine-less Mac, working with musoid nephew Dan and sounding about as engaged with contemporary musical values as someone who made the best-selling pop album of the '70s. It's not a bad record. In fact her voice is as warm and unmannered as ever. But the arrangements are shinily dull and the songs consider love as a fudge of banal metaphors. Sorry. NC

Sunday Times (London)
June 20, 2004, Sunday
BYLINE: Mark Edwards
Sanctuary SANCD280 **
No band better exemplifies the adage that you need conflict in a group to create great music than Fleetwood Mac, where a soap opera's worth of dysfunctional relationships and addictions created some of the best adult-oriented rock ever to grace the airwaves. Christine McVie left the bickering band some half-a-dozen years ago for a quieter, presumably happier, life out in the country, and well, you're way ahead of me, aren't you? -the result is a solo album of soft rock so soporific that you'd swear several of the session musicians fell asleep while making it. Which is a shame, because the one song where the album sparks into life -Anything Is Possible -suggests that McVie still has hits inside her, if only she had something a little edgier to write about. ME

Here are more: (I don't know if they had been posted before)

-» Mojo (07/2004), Review: In The Meantime

*** (3 out of 5 stars)

Former Fleetwood Mac songbird flies solo for the first time in two decades.

Fleetwood Mac's cool-as-an-oyster chanteuse decided to pass on Mac's latest reunion efforts, prompting her former bandmates to insist the icy blonde was fed up with music business, and planned to retreat to her country home. But in seems Christine McVie was fed up with her erstwhile companions, and stealthily recorded In The Meantime, rather then participate in reconfiguring the '70s pop monolith. Just so we know she means business.

McVie not-so-cyptically tackles the invitaion on the vituperous Bad Journey, leaving no doubt that she's shut the door on her past for good. Most of In The Meantime finds the once-winsome musician with claws extended - penning songs that crackle with ire, indignation, and with none of the frothy self-deception of the past, be it on the casual hit-or-miss sex of Anything Is Possible or the chilly kiss-off of Sweet Revenge.

...and...

Q Magazine, July 2004

Christine McVie
In The Meantime
Sanctuary/ Adventure Records

* * * (3 out of 5 stars)

The ex-Fleetwood Mac vocal linchpin returns.
by Howard Johnson

McVie's voice is supremely confident, honed to perfection after decades in front of the mic. The price she pays for such quality, though, is a loss of spontaneity. The music is well played, but it doesn't seep down to your bones quite the way it should. Rumours, McVie's most successful venture, crackled with inter-personal tension, which added edge to the music's melodic inclinations. It sounds like McVie's a happier gal here, which is doubtless good for her, but maybe less so for her music.

Reviews of In the Meantime
 

I wonder if some reviewers actually listen to the CD.

Mojo thinks the songs "crackle with ire and indignation" yet Q thinks she sounds like a "happier gal"

I think they've looked at the song titles and played it through maybe once skipping tracks they don't like the sound of (or have decided in advance what they mean)

Gail

That's what I notice too. Some reviewers say that she sounds too happy, but I don't think so. And you can't review an album with a "quick listen or two". It takes a few listens 'till it actually grow on you.

ummm, i've never, ever, felt that christine was 'a bit self-absorbed'. not even in a 'nice way', whatever that means.

what a bizarre thing to say!

How many critics actually listen to ANY album more than once when reviewing it? I'll bet, very few if any do. Actually, the Q & Mojo reviews aren't really that bad. Both reviewers seem to basically like the album. I'll bet both reviewers would like it even more if they listened to it another time or two.

I was thinking the exact same thing. In fact, she may be one of the least self-absorbed songwriters ever.

I have found over the years, that as a fan it only matters what I think of her music.

As a musician, it only matters what I think of my music as well.

It's really difficult sometimes! :nod:

Anyone know what a musoid is?! :laugh:

Ahhh, who really cares the critics say anyway. If we like the music, and I think we do/will, that's all that really matters. I think someone said somewhere in one of these threads around these parts, that all music critics are failed musicians with chips on their shoulders, or something to that effect. I liked the sentiment. :)

Very well said you two! :thumbsup:

are they hearing it?
 

thanks for posting the reviews of In the Meantime from the British press. I'm stunned by the fundamentally negative assessment of what I feel is a virtually flawless record. I am a huge fan and I know this biases me a bit, but I was always candid with myself (and others) about the shortcomings of her 1984 solo record. When I heard this new recording straight through I was not only pleased with its quality but delighted that it had far-surpassed my expectations. Her voice sounds great, all but one of the songs (Easy Come, Easy Go) are pop gemstones, and the spare, concise arrangments make claer that the vocals are the primary concern. I recommend the cd without qualification and think it's brilliant. I also think I have a fairly discerning ear...so I'm appalled and shocked that reviewers are tearing it up.

Here is a little, but rather positive note I found while looking through my mother's magazines. The magazine's name is "Woman and Home" and it's on the July issue. The little note is on the music choices of the month and it reads:

"The third solo album from the former Fleetwood Mac member (writer of Don't Stop and Songbird) proves that her piano-playing and songwriting muscles are in great condition."

I actually think the reviews are dead on. After listening to all the song samples, I was unimpressed.

That is why you should listen to the entire song several times before a giving a review.

oops...I meant to say, listen to the entire album several times before giving a review. You can't give a decent review listening to a one minute snipit.

Yeah, I think they may have been thinking of, say, one of 3 other members of the band? ;)
Amber

nothing impresses you :xoxo:

That's why I didn't attempt to review it. Just a passing comment.

Occasionally something comes along. I'll let you know. :laugh:

:nod: (actually i'm the same way!) My mom used to say my middle name was "salt". LOL!


I will post a review soon. The first seven songs are solid. after that I get a little bored with it. Dan P is a gifted guitar player. He is like his aunt, very pleasantly subtle about his beauty. One song that really confuses me is "Forgiveniess" Love the chorus but don't understand the verse. It ends completely differently than it starts as well. Sort of like Christine does Aretha Franklin.

Overall I have more problems with the arrangements, than the singing. She doesn't sound 61 years old.


But some of the arrangements are a little to predictable. For instance "So Sincere" is a killer song great progressions for most of the song, (so why end on the I chord) The only thing i can think of is the lyric "so sincere" so she wanted it to be a simple ending. But man that song cooked so good for 3 minutes you almost have to end on a jazzier more beefy chord instead of a triad! Oh well I'm a poor piano player and Christine McVie is a keyboardist that can say "I think I'll make an album this week".

A nice surprise is backing vocalist David Issacs. His voice is really cool. Almost LB with a dash of Stevie.

Here's one from New Zealand. Again not too favorable, I'm afraid.

The Nelson Mail (New Zealand)
July 15, 2004, Thursday
HEADLINE: Rumours of a comeback are exaggerated
BYLINE: HUNT Stewart
BODY:
Christine McVie - In the Meantime (Sanctuary)

Christine McVie was Fleetwood Mac's George Harrison. The classically-trained pianist was the quiet achiever of the band, and played no small part in the histrionics that enveloped it, but also no small part in the creative fusion responsible for bruised classics like Rumours.

McVie penned some of the band's catchiest material, even if the likes of Don't Stop, You Make Lovin' Fun and Songbird were all largely designed to rub poor old John McVie's nose in it.

Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks came and went, but McVie stuck with the band almost to the stony end. They parted company in 1997, and she was the only one absent from last year's Say You Will reunion.

McVie was most likely unwilling to give up her fittingly quiet and dignified life in England to rake over old coals with her old muckers, but obviously she hasn't lost the creative urge.

In the Meantime is well insulated from Fleetwood Mac (although John comes in for another pasting on Bad Journey) but suffers the distance.

Piano ballads like Songbird stood nicely on their own but the rest of McVie's Mac work was bolstered by Buckingham's technical alchemy. Lacking that edge, her lyrics are badly exposed by the generic production.

There are a couple of passably warm and breezy tracks like Calumny and Northern Star, which make the most of McVie's plaintive vocals, but the rest is a mix of flaccid MOR and forgettable blues-rock tracks like Liar.

McVie's attempt to prove she can foot it solo and make as much of a fist of it as Nicks should have been far better than this. God knows she's got the talent; maybe she just left it a little too late. Grade: C

:laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

Wrong ex methinks! This would be more believable if they had done their research.


Gail

I'm not sure I understand that remark. Rub his nose in it? Maybe "You Make Loving Fun", which I think was written about Curry Grant. But both "Songbird" and "Don't Stop" are very positive and loving songs.

>>I'm not sure I understand that remark. Rub his nose in it? Maybe "You Make Loving Fun", which I think was written about Curry Grant. But both "Songbird" and "Don't Stop" are very positive and loving songs.<<

Yeah, they are sweet, loving songs...but I guess maybe they were rubbing his nose in it in a 'Yeah I still love you, but I'm still leaving you, so get over it' sort of way. Songbird had to have been devastating for him to hear esp in those difficult days.

I guess i can see how someone might see YMLF to be 'rubbing his face in it' though.

-Lis

Admittedly though, you've never been a fan of Christine's music, and I'm sure that makes a big difference.

:laugh:
That's not true... he's endlessly impressed by Lindsey. Fleetwood Mac's ladies have to work overtime to please him though. ;) :laugh:

I don't know whether Carne feels the same way about these songs (or the songs from 1984) as I do, but I just don't dig these Christine McVie solo albums. I love listening to her sing -- I always have -- & I think her vocals on this new one are excellent: she's experimenting a bit with her lower register. But the performances are stuck in some boring gray area between totally structured & improvised. So what you get is essentially jamming -- off-the-cuff riffs & licks -- within a constrained, structured arrangement. And I think that's what creates the monotony. The reviewer who called it all "flaccid MOR & forgettable blues-rock" is spot on, I think.

Chris has always benefited from a little weirdness, the little left-field touches that illuminate Hold Me & You Make Loving Fun & Never Forget, & she doesn't get that from her solo producers. If you replaced her vocals on these tracks with, say, those of Olivia Newton-John circa 1980, I don't think any of us would give this music a second listen. Running Through the Garden would fit right in here.

Exactly. It all depends what someone's biases are. That reviewer admitted a bias against Christine's songs anyway. He claimed that her Fleetwood Mac songs weren't that great, just that Lindsey made them listenable. Obviously someone like that isn't going to like a Christine McVie solo album. You could find another reviewer with a different perspective who'd come up with a completely different review.

By the way, "Songbird" is not about John. According to Chris in that Rumours Classic Albums DVD, "Songbird" was for everyone in the band, not for just John specifically. "Don't Stop" is a loving, hopeful song for John. But, I do agree that YMLF is kind of a dig at John since it was about Curry Grant, her boyfriend at the time. Imagine how John felt hearing that song played live show after show, especially during the Rumours tour.

She has never outrightly said Songbird is for John, that's true. But in the Japan 1977 backstage stuff, where she is 'interviewing herself' while sitting next to Curry-the guy keeps asking her who it's about, and she stubbornly evades the question. Back then she never said 'it was for everybody.' ....She said 'it's a love song, it's just me and the piano'-- and that it was 'intensely personal'. The guy presses on, "It's you and...?" and she laughs and says "It's me and my dog." To which you can hear Curry mutter in the background, "Thanks." (That comment is actually quite funny. :-) ) She says "I really don't wanna get into more than that, I really don't."

If I were John I would want to think that song was for me. But I'm a romantic sap. :-) He has said several times that hearing Chris do it live makes him cry, that it 'evokes memories.' If it affects strangers in such a powerful way, imagine what he felt hearing that. That's the magic of this band, their little real life stories that affect the way WE hear the songs. Am I making sense? let me shut up. :-P

-Lis

You think "Running Through The Garden" is "flaccid" and "forgettable"?
I find it to have a nice bit of quirkiness to it. Of course, the demo is somewhat quirkier than Lindsey's production of it, and oddly so.
But even as it is on 'Say You Will,' it doesn't strike me at all as the kind of song you might find Olivia Newton-John singing.

At any rate, I don't own Christine's new album yet (I'm trying to patiently wait for the American release, to help insure respectable sales here on this side of the Atlantic), but from the tracks and snippets I've heard, I think it has more substance than her 1984 album.
I guess I just don't expect edginess or quirkiness from Christine McVie... that's not her style... so I don't miss it if it's not there. :shrug:

Yes, you make perfect sense, Lis. :D While I still tend to think "Songbird" was written for the band in general, I definitely think John believes it was written for him. Maybe even Curry Grant thought it might be about him at that time, too. :D I'm looking foward to reading part 2 of the John/Chris story. :)

>>I'm looking foward to reading part 2 of the John/Chris story. <<

Thanks! Marty and I got about half of it formatted last night w/ the pictures etc-- and the second half should be done tonight. So within a day or so, Part Two will be up. Sorry it has taken forever! :-)

-Lis

I don't think the 1 minute snippets really do the album justice. I think it is more muscular than the 1984 album.

But you don't buy a Christine album expecting a lot of experimentation - you might as well say "that Morrisey would be OK if he didn't write such depressing lyrics" that's how he is. Or that Nigel Kennedy would be great if he gave up playing that daft violin.

This is Christine's style - if you don't like it OK don't buy the damn record.

Gail

Yay! I can't wait! I liked the first part so much!! :D

That's great! After you're all done, I'm going to print out the entire thing. :)

Lis, I know what you're saying. But I'd much rather have an ex of mine writing loving sentiments about me rather than hateful and hurtful ones. Take for example lines like, "loving you isn't the right thing to do", "shacking up is all you want to do", and "you can go your own way". That to me is "rubbing my nose" in it. Those lyrics sting and hurt. I'd much rather hear Chris' words of positive sentiment from "Don't Stop" and "Songbird" than those any day. Even though "You Make Loving Fun" wouldn't be something I'd want to hear if I was John, it still wasn't a personal attack against him. :)

I agree. If she had done something more weird or quirky, that would have been a major turn off for me. I'm very happy with her style just the way it is.

I did like her 1984 solo album alot, but In The Meantime is far better, in my opinion. It kind of reminds me of Paul McCartney's first solo album that he made right after the Beatles broke up with just him & his wife. Only this time it's mainly Chris & Dan working together. Both albums are very simple, but very effective & very good.

Exactly. And THAT'S what's missing from Say You Will. The balance. I know I sound like a broken record here, but Chris was always the balance. Even smoothing out S & L's songs. Was it sweet? It sure was. :angel:

My sentiments exactly!

Gail

Homer, you're totally right. I sense the same feelings in her album than I did in her Fleetwood Mac contributions (especially the later ones like Time). I find the album cohesive, sweet and dreamy. And a great one at that. I just loved it. I don't get the newspaper reviews... OK for them I suppose. Most of the times they don't even listen to the album.