Reviews: Philadelphia Inquirer, Boston Herald

[blinker12]

A couple more reviews _ one positive, one negative. At last, somebody likes "Red Rover"!

PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER
FLEETWOOD MAC "Say You Will" (Warner Bros./Reprise) 3 stars
Ever since 1977's "Rumours," there's been a heavy monkey on the back of Fleetwood Mac _ a near-impossible expectation that the ensemble would deliver another collection of gentle love odes and relentlessly optimistic proclamations in the mold of that mega-success. Each subsequent work has addressed the "Rumours" shadow in a different way _ 1979's "Tusk" was willfully (and woefully) experimental, and 1997's "The Dance" went at it head-on, featuring several old songs that didn't make the cut during "Rumours."
Not until " Say You Will, " though, has the group fashioned such a radically varied and imaginative all-points response. "Say" starts with songs that continue the chiming-guitars template of Christine McVie-era Mac ("What's the World Coming To," "Thrown Down," the title track), then surrounds them with incandescent pop hooks that demand radio time (the mandolin-kissed "Steal Your Heart Away," which could be a tribute to George Harrison, is one of the best singles in the band's hefty discography), and significantly darker visions (Nicks' harrowing "Illume (9/11)" and "Destiny Rules," Buckingham's "Murrow Turning Over in His Grave") that work their magic more subversively, over time. There are also curiosities _ among them Nicks' '80s-sounding fantasia "Running Through the Garden" and Buckingham's three-minute etude "Red Rover."
The latter is perhaps this too-long album's masterwork: Atop a choppy, percussively strummed guitar chorale, Buckingham first sings quietly, in a blues-tinted moan. Then, as the guitars gather steam, he climbs into his upper register for a soaring refrain unlike anything in the Mac canon. By the time he reaches the modified schoolyard taunt _ "Red rover, we've come to take you over" _ you feel as if you've been through a movie-length emotional journey, and it becomes clear that while Fleetwood Mac has invested serious energy in rekindling the low-key flame of its classics, it hasn't stopped thinking about tomorrow.

_Tom Moon


BOSTON HERALD
FLEETWOOD MAC
"Say You Will" (Reprise)
Two and one-half stars (out of four)
The "Rumours" lineup of Fleetwood Mac returns - with the exception of dropout Christine McVie - for a studio album that manages to be surprisingly strong and a disappointment at the same time. Splitting the songwriting and lead vocals exactly in half, " Say You Will" crams a Stevie Nicks CD and a Lindsey Buckingham CD into one disc. Nicks plays her usual Wiccan woman role, whether recalling 9-11 with the smell of Nag Champa
incense or wondering whether she and her lover were "together in another life." Either you're enchanted by her mystic musings or you're rolling your eyes.
Buckingham supplies the jolts with nervy guitar playing, genuinely weird songs and some welcome abrasiveness. "Murrow Turning Over In His Grave" may be the wackiest pop media critique since R.E.M. asked "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?"
Propelled by the still-exceptional rhythm section of namesakes Mick Fleetwood and John McVie, " Say You Will" rates as the big Mac's best outing since Buckingham's late '80s departure. What it lacks is a future classic. No new "Rhiannon" or "Go Your Own Way" here, alas.