tensions in FM - still creative or not anymore?

[elle]

looking at pretty amazing charting (and trending on FB, she's almost unavoidable all of the sudden!) of SN's upcoming album preorders, i asked in one of the other threads whether if hugely successful she might be tempted to go exclusively solo.

this response in particular i found thought-provoking:

Originally Posted by PenguinHead

At this latter stage in their careers, Stevie and Lindsey will be part of Fleetwood Mac until the end. They maintain a healthy creative tension between the two of them

do we really think their tension is still creative at this point? or has any lingering "tension" become more arresting to any creative growth FM might still have?


right now, with numerous oldies tours and without an album in the last decade, FM seems to be just the means of capitalizing on their past glories and grabbing tons of money for its members... not the creative outlet. can it be that the last instance of creative tension in FM was actually in the early 80s, during Mirage era? Tango was mostly created by Christine and Lindsey with very little participation from Stevie, and Christine and Lindsey seem to complement each other ending in more of a creative synergy than tension, and their recent interviews seem to attest to that synergy being still strong and highly creative.

the last album rumours-era FM released was SYW, and various fans (and SN herself, i believe?) have argued not only that the tension was not healthy or creative but that it was instead counter-productive - that Lindsey's songs were better in their original GOS shape without adding Stevie on them, and that Stevie's songs were better as demos, without Lindsey's contributions to them. and then there was their most recent output - EP, on which there was no creative tension considering Stevie was mostly absent from it, and contributed one song from 1974 which has been also argued by fans that is worse on the EP than the original demo.

so where is that supposed creative tension in the last 30+ years and is it really still healthy or helpful? Stevie has been pretty adamant that she doesn't need or like tension in order to create anymore, while describing how great making of IYD was since there was no tension between her and her collaborators.

meanwhile, FM album has been on hold since 2010. it was started and aborted in 2012, and then again worked on in 2014 with the addition of Christine, and is now again on back burner waiting. so how is the tension creative?? no new album for 10+ years doesn't seem very creative to me.