It behooves you to scan through the Blue Letter Archives on the Penguin to see the tip of the iceberg of widespread critical opinion about Lindsey's solo work. Estimation of his body of work is high, indeed, from American critics.
What makes AllMusic the gold standard? I've never heard it put that way. It's an expedient, convenient go-to for reviews, and Stephen Erlewine is an intelligent reviewer. But I'm not following how convenience and sense necessarily make for a reviewing gold standard. American newspaper and magazine critics (with whom I'm most familiar) who have nothing to do with AllMusic have amused and enlightened generations of pop and rock fans, and have helped shape the face of an art form (criticism, not music).
Who in his right mind would put AllMusic as a critical standard ahead of Bob Christgau, Lester Bangs, Greil Marcus, J.D. Considine, Steve Pond, Steve Simels, Noel Coppage, Stephen Holden, Connie Johnson, Cameron Crowe, John Rockwell, Bob Hilburn, Kristine McKenna, Joel Selvin, Dave Marsh, John Swenson, Gary Graff, Sylvie Simmons, Jon Landau, Bob Palmer, Joel Selvin, Ben Fong-Torres, and I could go on and on (incidentally, I rattle off this list of excellent critics
by memory, and I could, with time, rattle off the publications they wrote for and even quote from many of their Fleetwood Mac reviews).
Lindsey's reputation has always been one of critic's pet; Stevie's has never been that (although an occasional outlier jumps on her bandwagon, like Jancee Dunn or Dennis Hunt). He is the critical darling; she is the arena filler and album seller—that's one of those truths that Fleetwood fans learn early on in their reading about the band. Your total ignorance of that commonplace truth (really, it's a cliché) lends me to believe even more than I already did that you are very new to the Mac fan "community." Of course, if I'm wrong, you'll forgive me.
Check out
No. 36 in this list of the 50 best of 2017 from the Rolling Stone staff.
10-20-2018, 10:48 PM
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