Album Review, San Diego Union Tribune, March 4, 1984
BYLINE: George Varga, Free-lance writer
BODY:
CHRISTINE MCVIE, Christine McVie, Warner Bros. Records. Christine McVie's bittersweet ballads and lightly buoyant rockers are marked by a gentle lyricism and quiet strength that provide Fleetwood Mac with many of its most appealing qualities.
On her first solo outing since joining the group in 1970, the British-born musician barely deviates from her by now patented approach, and while "Christine McVie" is a warm, engaging album, it doesn't tell us anything about its maker that we didn't already know. Accordingly, most of the seven songs that McVie wrote for this record could easily be placed in the midst of any recent Fleetwood Mac album without attracting much attention.
Still, if "Christine McVie" rings with the sound of deja vu, it is not without its pleasures, and McVie is an accomplished tunesmith with a knack for producing compelling, if not especially daring, music. "Love Will Show Us How," the record's sprightly opening track, is the most uptempo selection presented, and any differences between it and McVie's work with Fleetwood Mac are so slight as to be virtually undetectable. More intriguing are the R&B-tinged "One In a Million," on which she energetically trades vocals with Steve Winwood, and another Winwood-McVie collaboration, "Ask Anybody," wherein her sonorous singing recalls that of Joni Mitchell.
Apparently, McVie does best when she has a musician with abilities commensurate with her own to serve as a foil to her.
It is for this reason that the two numbers featuring Winwood stand out from the album's other, more homogenized offerings. Elsewhere, the blonde vocalist-keyboardist glides easily through several restrained rockers, reaching her emotional peak on "The Smile I Live For," a tender, evocative love song that ranks with her best work.
The instrumental accompaniment by McVie's supporting musicians is predictably polished, and the presence of Mac guitarist Lindsey Buckingham on six cuts adds further to the record's air of familiarity. Hopefully, McVie will assume a broader, more daring approach next time around, although -- in lieu of a new Fleetwood Mac album -- "Christine McVie" is virtually assured of success. o o o
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