Reviews: USA Today, AP

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Positive notice from USA Today; negative from AP, although he has some kind words for Stevie. (And yes, he says "Throw Down" instead of "Thrown Down." Duh.)
Gee, I'm kinda surprised by how many bad reviews Say You Will is getting. I worried when I heard it would be 18 songs long that the critics would bitch, but I didn't realize they would run with it like they have been.
Oh well, I'm still loving the CD myself. The critics hated Tusk, too, right? And that album is now revered. I think Say You Will will undergo a similar reappraisal one or two decades from now.


USA TODAY
HEADLINE: Return of the Mac
Pop/rock: Fleetwood Mac, Say You Will ( * * * out of four) Like some kind of melodic flu, Fleetwood Mac periodically erupts after undergoing mutations and spreads a new, yet familiar, bout of infectious pop-rock. The current strain consists of founding members Mick Fleetwood and John McVie and singer/songwriters Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham. This first original album with Nicks and Buckingham since 1987's Tango in the Night comes off as two interlocking solo albums more in sync with 1974's Buckingham Nicks than Mac's chart-busting Rumours. It's also the first without Christine McVie, whose harmonies, sunny sentimentality and spry keyboards gave Mac a certain pop lilt. That's occasionally missed, but her absence leaves a broader stage for Buckingham's agile guitar and Nicks' bewitching romanticism, resulting in darker, meatier fare. Buckingham brings tension and daring to his tunes; his breezy production cradles Nicks' fragile rasp, an impossible amalgam of strength and vulnerability in such bittersweet tales as 9/11 reflection Illume, Thrown Down and Silver Girl, a touching ode to Sheryl Crow. Say what you will about the band's bumpy past, Say You Will is a welcome relapse of the Mac attack. --Edna Gundersen


ASSOCIATED PRESS
" Say You Will" (Reprise, $18.98) - Fleetwood Mac
You'd think being gone for 15 years would make it hard for a band to wear out its welcome. But Fleetwood Mac manages that with an album that buries its treasures in an avalanche of mediocrity. At 18 songs and more than 76 minutes, you could put
this disc on, leave the room to make a sandwich, run a few errands, go to college for four years, come back and it will STILL be playing.
That sense of slog is more glaring now that Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks are the two main songwriters and voices, given the retirement of Christine McVie. McVie is listed on this disc as a contributor, but it's unclear what she did. The understated elegance of her songwriting and singing is sorely missed.
As a result, "Say You Will" is like two alternating solo albums with a band that too often is trying to sound like Fleetwood Mac instead of just being Fleetwood Mac.
It's also quite a surprise, frankly, that Nicks is the real mainstay now. Buckingham often appears too tightly wound and muddled in his writing, while the ethereal hoo-hah of the old Stevie has been replaced with a down-to-earth, world-weary wisdom.
There are some fine songs here. Buckingham's questioning opener, "What's the World Coming To" and the melodic "Miranda" and "Bleed to Love Her," and Nicks' "Ilume (9-11)," "Throw Down," "Everybody Finds Out" and the closing lullaby, "Goodbye Baby," are the best. Put them together with a few Christine McVie
songs, throw the rest out and you've got a killer Fleetwood Mac album. - David Bauder, AP Writer