Globe and Mail, October 20. 1979
BYLINE: Paul McGrath; GAM
DATELINE: Toronto ON
BODY:
Two years and $1-million in the making, Fleetwood Mac's Tusk is hardly
a monument, but it does have exceptional moments. The liveliest work is
again Lindsey Buckingham's, and if anyone in the band can be said to have
progressed over the period, it is certainly he. Ledge, That's Enough For
Me, What Makes You Think You're The One and I Know I'm Not Wrong, all
Buckingham tunes, show the band in an up-and-kicking position, far beyond
the hotter moments of Rumours. The startling change in production
technique on those tunes gives them a compelling, basement-band quality,
a feeling the band has lost in the smoothness of their past work.
Stevie Nicks makes a couple of predictable contributions, only to
break the mold on Beautiful Child, which features her most mature singing
to date. There's less of the flaky witch-debutante in her voice, and she
handles the range of this song with real passion, echoed beautifully in
the backup vocal work. Christine McVie's tunes are neutral, they neither
interest nor bore completely, but it's the ennui she adds with her voice
which eventually defeats them.
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