The SWS Reviews Thread

[elle]

short and succinct from twitter [part of the convo on how relevant LB's music is that is mostly about IOOT so i put it in the separate thread] -

@YoungJerks
@nczeitgeist Dude have you listened to his new album? It's kind of f***ing great. Not an inch of "aging rock icon" to be found.

[elle]

another really nice review (need to click on the link to see the cutout) -

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WiRil7KS9V...Sow+Review.jpg

Saturday, December 31, 2011

Review: Lindsey Buckingham "Seeds We Sow"
Let's back up and test-drive "El Camino," "Seeds"

"It cascades, works up a rhythm, thumps & thrashes"

http://nickslive.blogspot.com/2011/1....html?spref=tw

[michelej1]

Originally Posted by elle

another really nice review (need to click on the link to see the cutout) -

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WiRil7KS9V...Sow+Review.jpg

Thanks.

Lindsey Buckingham, Seeds We Sow B+

The first thing clearly noticeable about Buckingham's Seeds We Sow is the gorgeious guitar work. It cascades, works up a rhythm, thumps and thrashes. The famed Fleetwood Mac member hasn't lost his touch with the six-string. Performed, recorded and mixed by Buckingham, Seeds We Sow swirls melodies and moods, multi-layered vocals and pointed lyrics.

There's even an indie pop feel to the disc, particularly in the way Buckingham keeps the proceedings refreshingly uncluttered, almost low-fidelity.

These are songs that unfurl with repeated listens, particularly the beautiful title track, "Illumination," and the stomping rockers "That's the Way Love Goes" and "One Take." Play this one during a long road trip. It's great driving music.

[PenguinHead]

Originally Posted by elle

another really nice review (need to click on the link to see the cutout) -

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WiRil7KS9V...Sow+Review.jpg

Saturday, December 31, 2011

Review: Lindsey Buckingham "Seeds We Sow"
Let's back up and test-drive "El Camino," "Seeds"

"It cascades, works up a rhythm, thumps & thrashes"

http://nickslive.blogspot.com/2011/1....html?spref=tw

I have both of those albums. Recently discovered the Black Keys. I liked El Camino so much, I bought all of their earlier albums.

[elle]

http://driftwoodmagazine.com/2012/01...-seeds-we-sow/

Driftwood

FLEETWOOD MAC, GUITAR, LINDSAY BUCKINGHAM, ROCK

Review: Lindsey Buckingham, Seeds We Sow
In CD Reviews, Reviews on January 12, 2012 at 7:00 am

Lindsey Buckingham
Seeds We Sow
[Mind Kit Records/Eagle Rock (2011)]

Seeds We Sow is Lindsey Buckingham‘s sixth solo album since leaving Fleetwood Mac, and his first self-release effort. As a guitar player, Buckingham ranks as one of the best, and this album serves as a reminder of just how good he is. Many of the tracks demonstrate Buckingham’s glissando guitar attack, a 6-string fingerpicking method which seems to defy time and space and gravity.

The title track, a self-confessional that edges into a brittle, preachy protest song, has a blistering “sheltering sky” aura, with plenty of reverb and echo and swirling dynamics, and is faster than the speed of light almost. [Lindsay Buckingham defies laws of physics. News at 11. -ed] “Stars are Crazy”, another whirlwind of cascading notes, seduces with its angry, dangerous tone and threatens to run off a cliff with its barrage of pulsating rhythms and bouncy tempos.

However, as much as I enjoy Buckingham showing-off speed-demon crazy guitar licks and zipping around the fretboard as if his fingers were on fire, he’s at his best when he keeps things simple, sane, and stripped-down. Buckingham’s genius lies with his subtle guitar interplay and arranging, which were brilliantly on display on most of the successful Fleetwood Mac hit singles and albums. His most engaging work rests on when he lays low on the guitar and builds up tension and suspense with clever guitar and vocal overdubbing, as he does on classic Mac songs like “Go Your Own Way,” “The Chain,” “That’s All for Everyone.” Seeds We Sow has three speeds: Super doggone fast, kinda fast, and real slow. The last two are the ones you want to sing along with late at night when there’s a slight chill in the air and the moon is fading softly away. “End of Time,” my personal favorite from the album, has some clever simple guitar chords and restrained phrasings as he

Always keep me in your heart
even though I maybe dead and gone
and though we’re far apart
my love for you is strong.

It certainly could have surfaced on any Fleetwood Mac record with its dreamy lyrics mixed with soft, pleading lines. “That’s the Way Love Goes”, a spirited harpsichord romp with a simple lead guitar crawl continues in the same vein, and gets stuck in your head on the first play. “When She Comes Down” is also a sure-fire winner with a drifting, slo-mo heartbeat and crafty, layered vocals ala Beach Boys. Less is more, and “Gone to Far” has a steady strum of three chords and some wistful, heartfelt singing that Lindsey does so well. A final successful song is Buckingham’s cover version of the Rolling Stones’ “She Smiled Sweetly,” which he underplays with just guitar and voice. Melancholy perfection.

Those wishing to witness first-hand Buckingham’s astonishing dexterity on the six-string and songwriting skills are advised to seek out Songs from the Small Machine: Live in LA, a DVD/CD of Buckingham performing in front of an adoring crowd of fans.

—TJ McGrath (Woodbridge, CT)

[elle]

http://thisisaclose-up.blogspot.com/...uckingham.html

Tuesday, January 17, 2012
BO11: "Seeds We Sow" by Lindsey Buckingham

It’s hard to conceptualize such a singular talent with so many commercial successes taking as many sonic detours as this guy. Lindsey Buckingham himself framed his intermittent solo work as “indie films” when compared to the widescreen blockbusters of Fleetwood Mac, and that’s as good an analogy as any; it captures the sense of experimentation and control that has defined his non-Mac work, and as any good film geek knows, the indies give you something to devour and perseverate upon that the major studio fodder just can’t provide.

Seeds We Sow is as close to a skill set sampler as one can imagine, as hushed confessional vocals align with the taut and powerful shouters, with backdrops of frenetic finger-picking and forceful six-string abuse and metronomic strumming showcasing the broad musical palette Buckingham can bring to bear seemingly on command. It’s a capstone to everything he’s ever done as a musician, from experimental to insinuating, and it’s a shame that there’s no outlet for this indie to get the big-screen close-up it deserves.

Posted by H8 at 11:00 PM

[Lindsfan]

Originally Posted by elle

http://thisisaclose-up.blogspot.com/...uckingham.html

Tuesday, January 17, 2012
BO11: "Seeds We Sow" by Lindsey Buckingham

It’s hard to conceptualize such a singular talent with so many commercial successes taking as many sonic detours as this guy. Lindsey Buckingham himself framed his intermittent solo work as “indie films” when compared to the widescreen blockbusters of Fleetwood Mac, and that’s as good an analogy as any; it captures the sense of experimentation and control that has defined his non-Mac work, and as any good film geek knows, the indies give you something to devour and perseverate upon that the major studio fodder just can’t provide.

Seeds We Sow is as close to a skill set sampler as one can imagine, as hushed confessional vocals align with the taut and powerful shouters, with backdrops of frenetic finger-picking and forceful six-string abuse and metronomic strumming showcasing the broad musical palette Buckingham can bring to bear seemingly on command. It’s a capstone to everything he’s ever done as a musician, from experimental to insinuating, and it’s a shame that there’s no outlet for this indie to get the big-screen close-up it deserves.

Posted by H8 at 11:00 PM

And the great reviews just keep on coming

...and am I the only one that had to look up perseverate?

--------------------

[Nico]

Still loving this album passionately.

[Lindsfan]

Originally Posted by Nico

Still loving this album passionately.

Me too! I love it as much today as when I first heard the songs at Saban <333

[elle]

http://www.citybeat.com/cincinnati/b...ve_missed.html

March 6th, 2012
By Brian Baker | Music | Posted In: Reviews

BackBlog: Music You May Have Missed
Horrible Crowes, Shiny and the Spoon, Hank III and more

There have been many Lindsey Buckinghams, none of them being the frequent guest on DeAndre Cole’s What Up with That. There’s the Buckingham who teamed with girlfriend Stevie Nicks on their ill-fated 1973 album, and the Buckingham who joined Fleetwood Mac in 1974, bringing Nicks along in the deal and transforming the British Blues-to-Pop outfit into a commercial juggernaut. There’s the Buckingham whose break-up with Nicks fueled the creative engine that drove 1977’s Rumours to platinum numbers, the Buckingham whose perfectionism and substance binges colored the schizophrenically wonderful Tusk, the Buckingham who left Fleetwood Mac, the one who came back and all the Buckinghams who have maintained a potent presence in the band ever since.

Then there are the solo Buckinghams, the early ones on the Fleetwoodiesque Law and Order and Go Insane and the introspective and vindictive Out of the Cradle, and the later ones from the husband and father; the acoustic Under the Skin, the long-delayed Gift of Screws and the new, self-released Seeds We Sow.

Untethered by label expectation and commercial demands, Buckingham is free to meander around his creative garden and pick whatever looks good in the moment and, as always, he has plenty of ripe choices. He exhibits his graceful acoustic fingerpicking dexterity on the title track and “Stars Are Crazy,” leans hard into Fleetwood Mac’s banked Pop/Rock turn on the beautifully intense “Illumination,” “In Our Own Time” and “One Take” and matches (and transcends) his own best work with the effervescent “Rock Away Blind,” the gorgeous Pop ode “Gone Too Far,” the majestic balladry of “When She Comes Down” and the hybridized Pop-lull-to-Rock-tumult of “That’s the Way Love Goes.”

Buckingham wasn’t even planning to create an album when he began the songs for Seeds We Sow, and that unplanned mindset translates to a relaxed atmosphere across the album’s eleven tracks. Just as importantly, Buckingham wrote and performed everything on Seeds We Sow, working quickly and unhampered by his notorious streak of perfectionism. As a result, Seeds We Sow stands as the pinnacle of Buckingham’s musical accomplishments because he was free to draw on the spark and spirit of all of the creative elements that have defined him over the past three and a half decades. All of the Buckinghams have been brilliantly erratic songwriters, stellar harmony vocalists and supernaturally gifted guitarists, and they all bring an interesting shade of eccentric genius to whatever they do. They’re all the same and all incredibly unique and all of them seem to have contributed a little something to Seeds We Sow. What up with that indeed.

[elle]

http://www.heathpost.com/2012/02/alb...y-lindsey.html

The Heath Post
A Celebration of Home, Kentucky, Sports, Music, and Other Passions

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2012

Album Review: Seeds We Sow by Lindsey Buckingham

I can only hope that at 62 I can still put this much passion and energy into a project the way that Buckingham did for this album. Many musicians hit their peak performance in their mid 20's. Buckingham at 62 sounds like he's still hitting for the rafters and delivers a very solid album.

There are a few things here that are very interesting. One piece is how Buckingham recorded the album. It was done in his home studio and he is the only performer on all but one song on the album. Despite that he took the time to construct, layer, and produce fully realized songs. He didn't just dial in an acoustic set which he could have easily done as his guitar work on this album is brilliant. No he fully flushed out every song.

Second thing going on here which really drew me to this album was the lyrics. Whether on purpose or not Buckingham has created a set of 10 new songs and one cover which are all reflective in nature. Either looking at love or life the songs here have a thoughtful air to them. This makes the album a great choice for a late night drive alone through the countryside.

Of course all of this work is done with Buckingham's unique pop sense which he brought to fruition so effectively back in the day with Fleetwood Mac. Buckingham still has that same unique sound, but it still works even 40 years later.

On top of that Buckingham has made one song which will be a strong candidate for my song of the year and even song of the decade. "Stars Are Crazy" lyrically is a simple song about the pain of a broken relationship. As I said earlier it is a reflective song but Buckingham delivers it with a fully emotional performance and has placed it in the middle of some brilliant production work. The pulse and drive of the guitars on this song bring the emotions of the lyrics to a masterful peak and is a rare beautiful piece of work.

Following the Rhapsody rating method I give it 3 out of 5 stars for Pretty Good.


Posted by Matthew Vaughn at 2:32 AM


Labels: Album Reviews, Music
2 comments:

Eric February 5, 2012 4:17:00 PM EST
excellent song.

Eric December 21, 2012 2:42:00 PM EST
still excellent.

[FierySequences]

I can't stop listening to this piece of art that is just truly amazing. This isn't your typical “Jump on the LB love wagon” post. As you see, I, like SN have a love-hate relationship with Mr. Buckingham. I bought UTS in what 2006, and although I didn't hate it....didn't even dislike it, I didn't give his future work much chance. Around this time (or shortly before it) I had also bought ITM by Ms. McVie, and the whole experience just left my with a feeling of....well, I want New Mac material!

I really do appreciate this album....something is to be said of an artist (of LB's stature if Enchanted is playing in the background....and I totally tune it out to hear SWS).

This whole album is an orgasmic journey to the ear....and I still can't believe it has taken me a whole year to warm up to it....I am speechless towards his talent. I'm not going to do a track-by-track critique but will list my fave's: "In Our Own Time" "Illumination" "That's the Way Love Goes" "Stars Are Crazy""One Take" "Gone Too Far”“End of Time”.

I am sad I missed him on his last tour(but not to sad) b/c I like LB to be not all acoustic. I had considered going....but had spent my concert funds on SN (with Stewart) which was uneventful....Heart (3rd row) they were awesome! And the not-so-proud-of Madonna in New Orleans-never again, lol. LB is amazing and I will catch his next show.

The truth is, that this record buyer will not waste my hard earned $ on Rumours III, but will purchase Songs from the Small Machine DVD, instead.

[Lindsfan]

Originally Posted by FierySequences

I can't stop listening to this piece of art that is just truly amazing. This isn't your typical “Jump on the LB love wagon” post. As you see, I, like SN have a love-hate relationship with Mr. Buckingham. I bought UTS in what 2006, and although I didn't hate it....didn't even dislike it, I didn't give his future work much chance. Around this time (or shortly before it) I had also bought ITM by Ms. McVie, and the whole experience just left my with a feeling of....well, I want New Mac material!

I really do appreciate this album....something is to be said of an artist (of LB's stature if Enchanted is playing in the background....and I totally tune it out to hear SWS).

This whole album is an orgasmic journey to the ear....and I still can't believe it has taken me a whole year to warm up to it....I am speechless towards his talent. I'm not going to do a track-by-track critique but will list my fave's: "In Our Own Time" "Illumination" "That's the Way Love Goes" "Stars Are Crazy""One Take" "Gone Too Far”“End of Time”.

I am sad I missed him on his last tour(but not to sad) b/c I like LB to be not all acoustic. I had considered going....but had spent my concert funds on SN (with Stewart) which was uneventful....Heart (3rd row) they were awesome! And the not-so-proud-of Madonna in New Orleans-never again, lol. LB is amazing and I will catch his next show.

The truth is, that this record buyer will not waste my hard earned $ on Rumours III, but will purchase Songs from the Small Machine DVD, instead.

I love your post. It makes me happy when someone takes the time to give an album a fair listen I still listen to SWS, or the live versions every morning on my way to work. It starts my day off on a high note!

You cracked me up with your listing of fave songs from SWS. It's almost the whole album, and I have the same difficulty in narrowing down my favorites from so many wonderful songs

Re. UTS. I always liked the songs, but preferred them live to the actual album. When people asked me what album of his to start with, I told them anything but UTS Well, not any more. Early last year I just put the thing on repeat one afternoon while having a lazy day, and it finally got under my skin! The problem was I always listened to individual songs, and once I listened to the whole thing, beginning to end, I came to love it. I'm not always in a Go Insane or Gift of Screws mood, and UTS is great for just chillin', or when I'm in a more pensive or reflective mood. It's really a beautiful album.

Re. Lindsey's solo shows. Of course, you know what you prefer, but I know a lot of people expected this acoustic show to be a mellow affair. Well, it wasn't. Whether playing his M1 or any of his acoustics, he is sooo intense. The show was often loud, always aggressive, and and what a pleasure to see him play in such an intimate setting. I hope you catch him next time he goes solo. I doubt you'd regret it, and the price is pretty darn reasonable.

[FierySequences]

[QUOTE=Lindsfan;1071233]
Re. Lindsey's solo shows. Of course, you know what you prefer, but I know a lot of people expected this acoustic show to be a mellow affair. Well, it wasn't. Whether playing his M1 or any of his acoustics, he is sooo intense. The show was often loud, always aggressive, and and what a pleasure to see him play in such an intimate setting. I hope you catch him next time he goes solo. I doubt you'd regret it, and the price is pretty darn reasonable.[/QUOTE]

thx for the kind words....see, this is why (and I was back on my concert kick) I wanted to go see him....I knew it was a good show. Based on Go Insane, Oh, Well and Tusk on the Unleashed tour.....I love this Lindsey...straight from the heart and fingers Rock!

My sister to this day still mentions how awesome he was at family/friends gatherings. He really stole the show at Unleashed (Columbus) and I have no problamo with it as long as they deliver an awesome show.

[GypsySorcerer]

Originally Posted by Lindsfan

Re. UTS. I always liked the songs, but preferred them live to the actual album. When people asked me what album of his to start with, I told them anything but UTS Well, not any more. Early last year I just put the thing on repeat one afternoon while having a lazy day, and it finally got under my skin! The problem was I always listened to individual songs, and once I listened to the whole thing, beginning to end, I came to love it. I'm not always in a Go Insane or Gift of Screws mood, and UTS is great for just chillin', or when I'm in a more pensive or reflective mood. It's really a beautiful album.

I agree with this. UTS is a beautiful album, and it's best experienced whole. I love the narrative from beginning to end.

I've recently rediscovered Seeds We Sow. I liked it when it was released, but kind of lost interest. (I know....bad fan.) On a whim, I played it the other day...and, wow! What an album. I haven't stopped playing it. I love every song except "She Smiled Sweetly."