How revolted was Tusk?

[Scarlett DuBois]

I personally find "Tusk" the album that will turn people onto Fleetwood Mac, weirdly enough. I actually can understand this. I love the Mac for two big things: Lindsey's brilliant meticulousness as an arranger (he stands up there with Phil Spector), and the sparkling personality of the individual songwriters.

I know a lot of Fleetwood Mac fans are also into stuff like The Eagles, James Taylor, etc. Very middle of the road, and (most serious rock criticism will back me on this), a huge amount of mediocrity attempting to sell itself on "sincerity" since it lacks musical ingenuity.

I'm an R&B and straight pop band foremost, but when I DO dig into 70s rock and roll, you're a lot more likely to find me latching onto more creative, unpretentious, fun and weirdo acts like The Clash, Blondie, Elvis Costello, The Police, or even occasionally Siouxise and the Banshees. Tusk, for me, is the album that gives Mac fans a chance to prove that our guys could stand up alongside the new wave for personality and creativity - that they were not, in fact, the Eagles with a couple of chicks. Fleetwood Mac is not middle aged man sports-bar music. It's sophisticated pop - and Tusk is sophisticated insanity. A lot of people my age think of Rumours as "mom and dad's music" (although they shouldn't), but Tusk will impress anybody of any age. It's too unique and too full of personality to ever feel dated or stereotyped, which is certainly more than you can say for $*%U#*$# hotel california.

The Lindsey songs impress me. A guy I used to go out with remarked that "I Know I'm Not Wrong" vaguely seemed like it presaged Green Day. I can see that. Although Christine's writing is in a slump on tusk, in my opinion (I hate Think about me, it sounds like dim-witted bluesy dinosaur rock, only watered down, at least it does to me), she has a gorgeous foray into what might be called "Country Soul" with "Over and Over". And "Honey Hi" is just a really great harmony experiment. One of my few complaints about tusk is the mixing: there is a lot of great vocal interaction going on on that record, and I feel like on ALL mac records, they are MIXED. TOO. LOW. Listen to a live version of "Over and Over" and tell me that the gorgeous vocals Stevie and Lindsey do behind Christine don't BREAK YOUR HEART. There's just NO EXCUSE for that to be buried into a sort of anonymous hum on the record.

I love Lindsey and Stevie's wacky howling over eachother on "The Ledge". It almost reminds me vaguely of the duet between Debbie Harry and guitarist Frank Infante on "I Know But I Don't Know". Stevie doesn't radiate the sparkling intelligence and cool irony that made Debbie Harry a star, but she DOES have a stronger voice and a hell of a lot of charisma, so the numbers Lindsey arranges for her really let us see a different side of her. After "Rhiannon" and then "Dreams", Stevie could've really stagnated if Lindsey let her keep riding the "mystical ballad" horse too much.

But fortunately, he gives us Angel, which sounds like some kind of bizarre funk, and the rough arrangement brings out what I think is her greatest vocal performance on a Mac record. It's not neccesarily a great TUNE, but listen to how she goes from a whisper to a scream and back again, even the cute way she talk-sings the last verse. That number alone shows that Stevie could out-drama Patti Smith, and look better and be less pretentious while she was doing it.

I also feel Sisters of the Moon doesn't get enough credit. It's heavy guitar - and it's basically a three chord progression - I'm pretty sure it's also open fifths, or power chords. If you want to go in a technical sense, Sisters of the Moon really does qualify as a genuine punk song.

I feel like if there are any big flaws in Tusk, it's that Lindsey's presence might be a bit TOO strong. His new-wavey/punk numbers are great, and stand out, but I feel that Walk a Thin line, for instance, was just redundant, and not that funny just wasn't a very good song - especially because the chord progression is recycled for the superior I Know I'm Not Wrong.

Anyway, I feel the slump mainly comes from the fact that Lindsey seems to bring himself and Stevie solidly out of the Mac stereotype: He himself composes songs with a different kind of structure than Rumours era material, and he puts arrangements on Stevie's songs (except for Sara) that cast her as a variety of characters - she gets to play Hillbilly folk singer on storms, dusty springfield esque pop diva on Sara, gothic punker (siouxsie again) on Sisters of the Moon, funky screamer (Dusty agian, actually) on Angel, and he gives her a spare, almost cabaret like space in which to dramatize on "beautiful child". Tusk is all about Lindsey the innovator and Stevie the actress.

He just didn't seem to put the same effort into Christine's material - it just chugs along with the same kind of Rumours vibe, only with less lush production to support it, and inferior melodies. There is no "Oh Daddy" on Tusk. Which is a shame - Tusk feels so disjointed, partly, because Stevie and Lindsey bravely move onto new turf, and Christine kinda gets left behind.

All in all though, I think Tusk is the album that holds up best over time and proves the Mac to be more than just another shiny seventies pop band, but a really distinct group of highly creative individuals sometimes stilted by a little less courage and cooperation than they needed to carry it off.

I also think Mirage is wildly under-rated. I agree that it's a "weird" record, and what makes it weird is that is has this kind of really awesome 50s nostalgia: Lindsey's doo woppy ballads like "Book of Love", Stevie's veer into Country; even Gypsy sounds like it could've EASILY been a girl-group song with a different production. Check out "I Never Dreamed" by the cookies - very similar chord structure. And Christine gets comfortable again with her updated Connie Francis ballads like "Wish you were here". I LOVE Mirage. "Empire State" in my opinion is the only really unimpressive tune on it, and Stevie's "Straight back" is just her phoning in another "look at me, I'm witchy!" song. But That's alright is one of her BEST vocals ever, and one of the Mac's BEST and bravest arrangements.

So, yeah. Them's my thoughts.