DISCUSSION: Christine's songs from Mirage
 

Can we just forego the pretense and select "Hold Me" as the winner already? None of her other Mirage songs come even remotely close. In fact, with the exception of HM, I think this is her weakest batch of songs ever.

I tend to agree... though this being Christine, these set of songs are still very solid.

Love In Store: Blah. Just boring. It's a typical Christine foot-tapping melody, it's just kinda dull and lifeless.

Only Over You: I actually really like this song. I love how it abruptly starts with her vocal, right in the middle of the chorus. Kinda turning typical song formula on it's head. I think the harmonies on this one are very lush and beautiful as well.

Hold Me: Definitely one of the top Mac songs of all time. Whenever I hear this song, it instantly brightens my mood. It's so bubbly and foot tapping.

Wish You Were Here: Even though pretty much everything about this song is cliche, I still like it. It's beautiful to listen to. I especially enjoy the long outtro.

Dang... now I've gotta pull out Mirage for a listen! :D

I gotta come out and say it: I don't like Mirage. Even though it does have a few great songs, they could keep the rest. I find it quite bland, but look on the bright side: that next year, Stevie gave us the awesomeness that is Wild Heart

1. Love in Store- I kinda like it. Fun, catchy, and made even better by Joan the Wench's 4th of July vid on YouTube (she puts up fireworks everytime the Brits appeared)
2. Only Over You- It reminds me of Mystified from Tango in the Night being slow and boring
3. Hold Me- One of Chris's best songs to date. Great harmonies with Lindsey and a music vid that makes me crack up (orry, but Stevie walking around a desert in heels, a red dress, and randomly lays down on a chaise lounge is kinda funny)
4. Wish You Were Here- Sorry, to me, this'll always be one of Pink Floyd's best songs, not for Christine

Love in Store - Love the chorus in this one, so sweet and catchy :)
Only Over You - I really really like this song. The whole sound of it is like a throwback to some of the Tusk songs. Especially 'Walk a Thin Line'.
Hold Me - Another great pop classic from Chris!
WYWH - Meh.

Christine's songs on Mirage.

Love in Store-Fun catchy...just ok. It is rather stock Chris Right? Just ok.

Only Over You- This is a stinker. Just boring. It's a song that just sits there and goes nowhere. No Likey:D

Hold Me- Easily her best on the album. I love that she duets with Lindsey on this. They, to my ears, blend great. Fantastic Song.

Wish you were Here- It's cheesy soft and sappy.........I can't help like it though...:laugh: When the piano starts I can't help but think for half a second that Silver Springs has started.

I had to re-listen to these songs as i rarely RARELY spin Mirage. My least favorite Rumours era album.

Mick

This has become my favorite FM album, I can't believe no one else loves it :shocked:

Love in Store-One of my favorite songs!

Hold Me-Probably my favorite Chris song ever, just a beautiful song that was never done justice live.

Wish You Were Here-A pretty good song, nothing special though.

Only Over You- :confused:

I actually like this batch of songs better than her Tusk showing. Of course, I like Hold Me best, as it is one of my favorite FM songs overall. I'd like to close my eyes, fall back and sink into its layers. But I don't think any of Christine's Mirage songs are bad. Also, as I've said many times, I listened to this album on vinyl and I loved the way her songs closed each side of the LP. Fittiing lullabyes each.

Michele

While Christine is usually pleasant, this is my least favorite batch of songs from her.

Hold Me: My definite favorite. When that chorus hits, it's like a ray of sunshine.

Love in Store: Not bad, but :shrug:

Wish You Were Here: Schmaltz, but I love the long outro.

Only Over You: The only song of hers I truly despise. (Well, that and One More Night). The moment she begins with, "I'm out of my mind," I hit the skip button.

Second that. :nod:

My ears can hear "Hold Me" all day and night. I LOVE that song. The rest of her Mirage tracks are really pretty, however, if I had to vote on Christine's weakest material (that is for lack of a better word. I don't think any of her songs could be considered weak), I'd have to say "Wish You Were Here" and "Only Over You" would be it. "Love in Store" is totally fun. It doesn't hold a candle to "Hold Me" but it's awesome on its own.

I love Mirage!!! It never gets enough credit! I enjoy all of Christine's songs on the album, even though 'Wish You Were Here' could have been shorter.

First I'll give a little Mirage run down before we break down these tunes.

A lot of lukewarm feelings towards this album so far, and probably justifiably so. When I hear Mirage, I sigh a little thinking about what could've been on this album. To me this always sounds like an album that was only 2/3 of the way done. But with the double album of tusk, and some solo work the artists were just running on empty for album quality material. Imagine if Tusk had been a single, or the solo albums had been pushed back what it would've sounded like. Imagine for a minute if in the tusk sessions they had to choose between a beautiful child and a storms, or LB put trouble on this album, or if Brown eyes got the bump to this album, or a little edge of seventeen? I hear the album and I hear some greatness, surrounded with average or leftover tunes.....very sad.

Love in store....to me this sounds a bit like a leftover song, generic in it's form. As an opener it gets your feet tapping, but it doesn't draw you in like any of the previous openers...even Over and Over (which I love) makes you say "What's going on with this album" Love in store doesn't make you think at all. With that said it has a decent sing a long quality. It fits better on the road than in the studio. I do find the backing vocals a solid add in, but this feels like a bare bones song that for FM is borderline filler.

Only Over You....I will say at first I really didn't like this song. I wondered how in the world this ever made the cut. I had to force myself to listen to this for a while. Then it was obvious and it makes much more sense. The dedication to Dennis Wilson cleared it all up. I'm not much of Dennis Wilson fan as a solo artist. But if you sit down and listen, OOY has a very similar tempo to many of his songs. It also has a brooding meloncholic feel, which is exactly what DW portrays in nearly every song. I don't know the DW catalog well enough to know if OOY is actually a response to one of his songs or not. It's clear that CM, and probably LB are attempting thier best DW impression, and they hit it pretty spot on. With all that said...I still really don't find it melodically attractive, but I find it a solid artistic attempt to pay homage.

Hold Me---probably nearly everyones favorite, not just for CM, but for the Mac on this album. Great upbeat song, one of the best duets you'll find in pop music. JM's bass in this song doesn't get the credit it deserves, the transitions seem flawless here. I'm always left wanting to press repeat, but I can't help but feeling that it could've used another verse...2 minutes of Hold Me, Hold Me etc.....I get it...I'll hold you.

Wish you were here.......2 things.....great outro........you already wrote songbird...why must we keep trying to write another one.

Mirage is a pretty lukewarm album for me. I actually enjoy about four songs and kind of like three others. Hate is certainly a word I would never use for a Christine song, or really even dislike, but indifference is definitely a word to use. That's how I feel about most of Christine's songs on Mirage.

Love in Store: Really not a fan of this one. And I always hear her say "we got love in a store," which makes me think of buying love at a convenient store. :shrug:

Only Over You: I feel kind of like a jerk for saying it, but it's boring and unremarkable.

Hold Me: The only thing I like are the fabulous harmonies. But I'm glad this song exists, because the video? So utterly awesome. They all look so drop dead gorgeous in it!

Wish You Were Here: My favorite of this set. I love the piano (despite it starting off similar to Silver Springs) and those background ooo, ooo, ooos are really catchy.

With that logic, she'd already written "Show Me A Smile"...why did she need to write "Songbird"? :shrug:

Should we count "Hold Me" for Christine or collaboration?

If it goes to Christine, I'll be with her other 3 songs. :shrug:

If it goes for collaboration, it will automatically qualify in the Favorite Mirage songs poll, along with the winner of Christine's other songs from Mirage. Keep in mind if it counts as a collaboration it will eventually battle "World Turning, "The Chain" and any other songs deemed a collaboration. :confused:

Well nobody replied yet to my earlier post, but I'm thinking about counting "Hold Me" as collaboration. :shrug:

I don't think it should be a collaboration. The only part Lindsey has is own vocal is "come on and" He didn't help write it.

Yes, it's not a collaboration.

Michele

Hold Me, Don't Stop, and Think About Me... are all Christine as writer.. just LB on the vocals...


World Turning, Mystified, Isn't It Midnight are penned Buckingham/McVie as the writers..

:mad:



...because she perfected it with "Songbird."

Thanks for your input. I'll count "Hold Me" as Stevie... I mean Christine! :laugh:

Why so many negative comments about Love in Store? Am I going crazy here? The song is, to my way of thinking, the best tune on the album--pure pop thats drenched in all these great catchy harmonies. It's so fun and so believable. I actually feel that magic of new love every time I hear it.

Incidentally, most critics at the time thought Christine's songs were the strongest on the album.

As is Little Lies (along with Eddie Q). But I'm thinking those tango collaborations were mainly Christine germinations, whereas World Turning seems like both writers began from scratch and worked it out together.

Lindsey's not a writer on Little Lies and not on Isn't it Midnight either. They did write Ricky together and You and I, Part II

I was surprised to read an interview where Chris said Lindsey did the Mystified lyrics and she did the music. Reverse on You and I. The Mystified words are not only feminine, but more tender than Lindsey usually is.


Michele

Only Over You: The only song of hers I truly despise. (Well, that and One More Night). The moment she begins with, "I'm out of my mind," I hit the skip button, wrote GypsySorcerer.

Haha- reminds me of a funny thread a year or more ago- so many of us seemed to have cringed at Christine's 'I'm out of my mind' reading- and thought we were the only ones, and there were tons of us. The Ledge sure can make ya feel less lonely!
What is it about Christine singing that line? The inflection, I think, the sort of fluttery falsetto (or is it?), it's kind of like chalk on a blackboard! Somehow, from Christine it doesn't 'ring true' at all--
I'd totally believe Stevie singing 'I'm out of my mind'--
Christine's persona just seemed too 'cool, calm and collected' emotionally, or too stable, to pull that song off.
I think Miss Rock A Little with her Wild Heart would've been spellbinding on the vocal ...."People say I'm crazy..." Of course, they did!
I think it's a case of Christine having written a song that would have been great had Stevie sung it! (I'm out of my mind, well, baby, and its only, you know, over-over you- I'm still out of my mind, baby, well, well well, still I am out...of my mind, baby, and it's only over you!)

ROTFL! I knew you wouldn't stay away for long. The "house on top 'o me" one has returned also.

You're right about Little Lies. That's Just Christine and Eddie. But if you look at the songwriting credits on Tango it says the music for Isn't It Midnight was written by Christine, Eddie, and Lindsey, with lyrics by Christine.


I am interested in what Christine or Lindsey said about lyric/music credits on Mystified and You and I. The credits for neither of those songs makes distinction as to who did what in the collaboration, whereas such distinctions are made on Isn't it Midnight. Such distinctions are also made on Seven Wonders and Family Man. Strange, indeed.

Oh yes, I see that you're correct on those credits.

Michele

Love In Store- I really like this song actually. However, I think Stevie does it better. I actually wish they would have pulled it out during Unleashed.

Hold Me- Christ, I never knew so many people loved this song. Don't get me wrong, I like it, it's catchy, and I usually listen to it if it happens to pop up, but it has never been one of my favorites. I can't say that I ever intentionally play hold me unless I am in some weird ass mood.

Wish You Were Here- I simply CANNOT listen to this song and not think of Silver Springs. But it's alright.

Only Over You- Such a bummer to have this song come after Gypsy. Gypsy is fun and amazing and then this comes along and is just bleh.

I have to say, I think Christine's songs on Tusk are far superior to her songs on Mirage and her songs on Tango take the cake.

Wow, I agree with ALL of this except I am confused about Love in Store. Do you have a recording of just Stevie singing it?

I agree it has 'Stevie' lyrics, but I always took it as Chris saying 'Look, this isn't usually me, but I'm so in love with this person that I feel that way this time around. Still, don't think I'll let him treat me badly, I may be totally in love, "but I'm not a fool".'

Actually, Christine's lyrics always have her being overcome by love and loss. Her lyrics are more dependent than she actually is. She is often passive in love, used, lyrically. Whether she is usually "out of her mind" is a different story, but I always loved the song. I don't see the difference between being out of her mind and over her head.

Being an Ozzie and Harriet collector, I always loved it that Kristen Nelson Tinker (Rick Nelson's ex) named her book "Out of My Mind." It wasn't a nod to Christine, but it always reminded me of that song.

Michele

OH how I wish I did! But alas, I do not. However, in the ever amazing Rolling Stone video of her singing Wild Heart, she starts singing Love In Store and then goes into Wild Heart. She doesn't sing much of it, but what she does sing has always made me long for a full version of her singing it!

Love In Store is within the first 52 seconds..

Something about Stevie singing abit of a Christine song just makes my heart warm. :angel:

You are right again. It even sounded better with Lori's harmony, dontcha think?

Sounds definitely better with Christine in the lead.

I've only heard it in MP3 form, but has anyone ever heard Christine sing Rhiannon? It's from Rumours rehearsals and it's hilarious (in fact, at one point, she makes fun of the end by saying "Dreams unwind, etc. etc.")

Oh, there's a difference! Having been both, I would know!
You are so wise and level-headed, Michelej1! It's not that I disagree with you- from a logical and mentally healthy person's perspective, 'out of my mind' and 'over my head' would seem similar!
Oh, but no, very different :)
"Out of my mind" would require a totally different med than 'over my head' which a valium or xanax- or a glass of wine, would help.

Yes!

(10char)