LA Times Go Insane review, August 1984

[Les]

Los Angeles Times
August 16, 1984

"Go Insane"
Lindsey Buckingham
Elektra

by Kristine McKenna

Buckingham has long been the most quirky and adventurous member of Fleetwood Mac, and like a spirited horse harnessed to an elegant carriage, he makes music that strains against pop conventions even while evidencing respect for the tradition that inspired it.

Lyrically, this is a dark record concerned with sexual obsession, fear and hope, but the actual meaning of the album remains a bit murky. You can read the lyrics sheet, listen to the production and get the point, but the various parts of "Go Insane" fail to cohere into a larger whole. It's simply not one of those occasional albums that manage to illuminate a specific issue with an unusually clear voice. "Go Insane" reveals little beyond Buckingham's supreme skill as a popmeister. His admiration for Brian Wilson is evident in the way he uses the studio: The record is a rococo pop apparition that could only be invoked through hours of obsessive work in a soundproof room.

Though a flouncy bit of fluff called "Slow Dancing" is the LPs best shot at the charts, the most interesting cut is "D.W. Suite," a baroque pastiche composed in memory of Beach Boy Dennis Wilson. An ambitious three-part epic whose wafting layers of sound incorporate harp, church bells, ambient noise and gurgling water, it's the best song Brian Wilson never wrote.