LB - A Child In His Soul (NY Times Music Review)

[MacMan]

October 12, 2006
Music Review | 'Lindsey Buckingham'
Going His Own Way, a Child in His Soul
By BEN RATLIFF


There are some difficult-to-like aspects of Lindsey Buckingham’s work, and he was daring enough to put the most difficult-to-like one up front in his show at Town Hall on Tuesday.

It came in the song “Not Too Late,” from his new solo album, “Under the Skin,” about growing older as an artist and being tensely aware that even if you are great at what you do, you may not receive proper recognition; this may make you feel aimless.

After he stated the problem, in breathy long tones, he sang a kind of mission statement, a courage-building verse. “I’m not a young man, but I’m a child in my soul,” he sang. “I feel there’s room for a man who is whole/And there’s a need for songs that are sung/for chances not taken, for deeds not yet done.”

This is all demonstrably true, but it is also wishy-washy and self-aggrandizing. And someone like Mr. Buckingham, who wrote a number of Fleetwood Mac’s popular songs, may have a hard time persuading you to be sympathetic about the problem.

He was brutally stacking the deck against himself. But everything was all right in the end: the strength of his songs, his singing and his guitar playing, and his strange intensity as a performer allowed him to carry the evening.

Mr. Buckingham finger-picked his loudly amplified acoustic guitar and sang to the end of his lung capacity, pushing his nasal voice until it strained and frayed into a ragged yell. He likes the same strenuous quality in vocal harmonies, as sung by the two other guitarists in his band, Brett Tuggle and Neale Heywood. It reflected a stubborn belief in the power of full, clear singing in pop music, the kind that makes the connection between Brian Wilson and ritual chanting.

The music on “Under the Skin” was recorded mostly by Mr. Buckingham himself in home and mobile studios, and his challenge was to replicate its meditative concentration. He did, and he’s also a generous performer. His stamina kept the music’s energy fresh and volatile; at times in he seemed to be nearing a state of hypnosis while booming away on voice and guitar.

Drawing a line to anything remotely similar, you might think of an experimental band like Animal Collective, which will probably never make an album that sells in excess of 19 million copies (as Fleetwood Mac’s “Rumours” did). Another reason the show succeeded was the audience: Mr. Buckingham may sing about feeling underrecognized, but he seems to have the best kind of fans, who revere him precisely for his strengths. Rarely do audiences express so much pleasure at the first notes of yet another new song from an aging artist’s album. He performed about half of the new album, as well as a few older solo-career songs; the rest came from the Fleetwood Mac repertory, including “Second Hand News,” “Go Your Own Way” and “Tusk.”

Paranoia and dissatisfaction pervade Mr. Buckingham’s work, both old and new; the middle-aged serenity in the new “It Was You,” which mentions the names of his three young children, is the exception to the rule. Most of the time it’s dark and dramatic in there, and he spared none of that darkness in a few between-song speeches, which used the rhetoric of therapy and sounded like late-night monologues from 70’s free-form radio.

Lindsey Buckingham will perform at the Orpheum Theater in Boston tomorrow; Foxwoods Casino in Mashantucket, Conn., on Saturday; and Borgata Music Box in Atlantic City on Sunday.

[dontlookdown]

The New York Times love fest continues.

No wonder it's the only US newspaper I truly love.

[goldie]

ah yes. And all is well in NY with Lindsey.