New Fleetwood Mac tribute album to be released September 14

[cliffdweller]

I Love: Angel by Marrianne Faithful, Storms by Will Oldham (this version blows me away!) Dreams by The Kills (including the brilliant Alison Mosshart), Oh Well by Billy Gibbons, Think About Me by The New Pornographers, and Gold Dust Woman, surprisingly, by Karen Elson. All in all, a pretty good album!

[shackin'up]

Originally Posted by cliffdweller

I Love: Angel by Marrianne Faithful, Storms by Will Oldham (this version blows me away!) Dreams by The Kills (including the brilliant Alison Mosshart), Oh Well by Billy Gibbons, Think About Me by The New Pornographers, and Gold Dust Woman, surprisingly, by Karen Elson. All in all, a pretty good album!

I knew that you would pick my faves too. I'm very happy with this endresult too.

[vivfox]

'Tribute to Fleetwood Mac' album review
Aidin Vaziri
Updated 3:06 a.m., Sunday, August 12, 2012

Rock

The last thing the world needs is a Fleetwood Mac tribute album with a hand-drawn penguin on the cover staring back at us every time we order an iced caramel macchiato. Still, here it is: the Starbucks-sanctioned "Just Tell Me That You Want Me," which sees a diverse group of performers - young, old, indifferent - take on the hirsute songs of heartache and treachery that fueled the 1970s. Washed Out, MGMT and Tame Impala offer reinterpretations worthy of countless blog posts. But given the source material, it's no wonder the women shine the brightest, whether it's Best Coast putting a bubblegum pop spin on "Rhiannon" or Trixie Whitley adding layers of blue smoke to "Before the Beginning." Only transgender New York performer Antony takes it further, sinking every ounce of emotion into the best remake of "Landslide" since the Smashing Pumpkins attempted it two decades earlier.

http://www.sfgate.com/music/article/...ew-3778860.php

[cliffdweller]

Originally Posted by shackin'up

I knew that you would pick my faves too.

Great minds think alike! Really into the Lee Renaldo/J. Mascis version of Albatross as well. They stayed true to the beauty of the song while adding a bit of noise/fuzz and distortion. Nicely done.

[michelej1]

Pop Matters
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/...-to-fleetwood/

By Dan Mistich 13 August 2012

Given the mythos created by the band’s in-fighting, love affairs, and line-up changes over the span of four-plus decades, it’s little wonder that young people continue to discover Fleetwood Mac in karaoke bars and in their parents’ dens after blowing off dust on hardly-played LP records. By including several indie contemporaries alongside already-established rock and roll heroes, Just Tell Me That You Want Me will likely provide yet another way for both younger and more nostalgic generations to connect with Fleetwood Mac’s back catalog.

Just Tell Me That You Want Me leads off with “Albatross” by the Lee Ranaldo Band with a little help from J Mascis, proof that Fleetwood Mac’s corpus is in very capable hands throughout the album. Although the spooky, instrument cover from Fleetwood Mac’s earliest incarnation is beautifully done, one wonders why the “day-job” bands of Ranaldo and Mascis didn’t contribute to the compilation—can you imagine Sonic Youth or Dinosaur Jr. working through renditions “Go Your Own Way” or “Say That You Love Me?”

Unsurprisingly, Billy Gibbons & Co.’s offering, the Peter Green-penned “Oh Well” is one of the better tracks to grace the collection. The veteran ZZ Top guitarist offers a slowed-down, sludged-up rendition of the song that retains the bluesy texture of the original while still managing to sound fresh. Gibbons’ selection is a natural one, but it’s done with just enough panache to both honor and reinvent the song, breathing new life into the iconic lead guitar and vocal parts while still keeping the melody recognizable.

Although the song is perhaps one of Fleetwood Mac’s most widely-recognized tracks, it is still surprising that “Landslide” makes an appearance. The Smashing Pumpkins, the Dixie Chicks, and Tori Amos have already adequately covered the song, and there’s nothing particularly novel about Antony’s cover of the song written and sung by Nicks on the Mac’s self-titled 1975 release. Antony’s offering isn’t bad by any criteria, it’s just unnecessary and could’ve been substituted by another track of equal or higher quality. Best Coast’s treatment of “Rhiannon” is also a misfire, but for altogether different reasons. As good as her playful performance of the song may be, it still comes off as being a mockery of the much-celebrated tune, sounding far too much like the original recording to warrant its inclusion on a tribute like Just Tell Me That You Want Me.

The New Pornographers find a way rework “Think About Me” in fun, upbeat ways without being ridiculous, another gem on the tribute. Matt Sweeney and Bonnie “Prince” Billy’s stripped-down acoustic cover of “Storms” from Tusk is even better, providing further evidence that there are no slouches on this collection. Although Nicks handled the lead vocals magnificently in the original, the crooning found on this version by two men works just as well.

“Straight Back”, “Tusk”, and “Future Games” are given electro-pop treatment on the second-half of the tracklisting, which gives the impression that the disparate genres were compartmentalized at least semi-consciously on the compilation. The layers of synthetic sound work well on Washed Out’s “Straight Back” and the Crystal Ark’s treatment of “Tusk”—the vocal harmonies on this particular track are performed in the spirit of Buckingham-Nicks while the rhythm section is surpassingly pleasant without big-band percussion—but not so much for MGMT’s “Future Games”. The swirling, spacey sounds that round out the album are fun, but the essence of the song is almost totally lost. It’s bold, but perhaps too bold to be called a tribute.

The most disappointing thing about the compilation, however, isn’t what’s included on the album—it’s what is noticeably absent from the tracklisting. To be sure, the essentials from Mac’s 1977’s Rumors are included here. The bases (“Gold Dust Woman” by Karen Elson and “Dreams” by the Kills) are adequately covered, but cuts like “The Chain” and “I Don’t Want to Know” could have easily replaced some of the lesser-known songs from Fleetwood Mac’s repertoire included on the album. But these omissions don’t render the tribute album an unsuccessful one. The choice to even out the songs throughout Fleetwood Mac’s existence is a good move, one that will surely inspire fans of the group’s many different to get ahold of the collection of songs included on Just Tell Me That You Want Me.

Rating: 7 out of 10

[michelej1]

NME Album Review
http://www.nme.com/reviews/various-artists/13561
August 8, 2012

Various Artists - 'Just Tell Me That You Want Me: A Tribute To Fleetwood Mac'

Each generation discovers the brooding magic of the Mac anew

7 out of 10

Fleetwood Mac were always cool. Their recording sessions had more sexual tension than a book club reading of Fifty Shades Of Grey. The band members treated private jets like Boris Bikes. They tried to credit their dealer on an album sleeve. They recorded an album, 1977’s ‘Rumours’, that’s sold over 40million copies. Always, always cool. And in 2012 The Mac are having a moment again, what with dangerously ace all-girl trio Haim confessing a debt and Best Coast’s Bethany Cosentino turning fangirl. Now comes the tribute album with NME faves Tame Impala and MGMT putting a spin on their favourite Fleetwood chestnut.

Of ‘Just Tell Me That You Want Me’’s 17 tunes, only seven weren’t written by Stevie Nicks. Guitarist Lindsey Buckingham gets a couple of dedications as Tame Impala faithfully replicate ‘That’s All For Everyone’ with a psychedelic hue and The Crystal Ark take on ‘Tusk’, which fails to out-weird the original, which was recorded live with a marching band in an empty football stadium. Keyboardist Christine McVie is given some love from The New Pornographers, who make ‘Think About Me’ sound dirtier than it is. Original guitarist Peter Green, meanwhile, has ‘Albatross’ taken on by Sonic Youth’s Lee Ranaldo and Dinosaur Jr’s J Mascis, but they can’t add to the magnificence of the chart-topping instrumental despite elongating it by a minute. Meanwhile, MGMT bring the vocoder weirdness on ‘Future Games’, written by Fleetwood Mac’s most underrated bod, Bob Welch. It swirls about in Benjamin Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden’s rainbow spirals before collapsing in a heap of bleeps and fuzz.

But in the main it’s all about Nicks’ 1975-to-’82 heyday. It’s hard to fault any artist who falls for her intoxicating songwriting, all romance, witchiness and self-mythology, but tapping into it is tricky. The Kills misread ‘Dreams’, and Karen Elson never owns ‘Gold Dust Woman’. But when someone gets it, the results are remarkable. Antony Hegarty doing ‘Landslide’ is heartbreaking, Craig Wedren and St Vincent spook up ‘Sisters Of The Moon’, and Washed Out do a remarkable job of making ‘Straight Back’ seem as if a hazy beach scene was what Nicks was going for all along. It’s not what Best Coast were going for on the piano plink-plonk of ‘Rhiannon’, which seems slight until Bethany’s vocal wins you over. But without doubt the album’s greatest moment belongs to Marianne Faithfull, whose own mythology is powerful enough to make ‘Angel’ her own. If you don’t already know the Mac, treat this as your way in. You won’t be coming out in a hurry.

Nick Levine

[BombaySapphire3]

Originally Posted by michelej1

NME Album Review
http://www.nme.com/reviews/various-artists/13561


But in the main it’s all about Nicks’ 1975-to-’82 heyday. It’s hard to fault any artist who falls for her intoxicating songwriting, all romance, witchiness and self-mythology, but tapping into it is tricky.

Nick Levine

I find it interesting that Stevie was usually singled out as the weak link by critics during the Rumours band's heydey .The span of the decades has acquitted her nicely though.

[michelej1]

The New York Times New Music
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/14/ar...pagewanted=all

17 Takes on Legacy of a Band

By BEN RATLIFF, August 13, 2012

With few exceptions, multi-artist tribute albums are irritatingly patchwork, too sympathetic or too perfunctory, overthought or underthought. They age badly or aren’t worth a second thought. (The producer Hal Willner has created more than his share of the exceptions.) Sometimes they want to be liked by the wrong people: those receiving the tribute, not the audience. The respecters move respectfully toward the respected, suggesting that they are — all in their own way, of course — carrying on a similar spirit for new ears. Too much of this makes you gag.

But here’s such a tribute album that might claim your attention for a little longer. “Just Tell Me That You Want Me,” with 17 tracks by 17 artists — mostly indie-ish, rock and electronic, many-striped, individually produced and organized into a whole by Randall Poster and Gelya Robb — has Fleetwood Mac as its subject. What’s the spirit there, exactly?

Fleetwood Mac was a strange entity. (Since sputtering out in the ’90s, the band has reunited a few times, but without forward purpose.) It changed lineups frequently, in big and small ways. It made about four and a half very good records — if you combine “Fleetwood Mac” and “Rumours” with the best of everything else — using dry, wakeful rhythm; grandiose emotional bloodletting; and rich long-tone vocal arrangements.

In the history of aesthetics the band’s music doesn’t represent a movement. It did grow into a kind of Los Angeles sound, though many of those songs were things in and of themselves, driven, decadent, argumentative, finely detailed in small spaces.

Anyway, which songs are we talking about? Fleetwood Mac started in 1967 as an English band playing black music, and through various mellow moves became an American band playing white music — the trebly, melodic, AM-radio slick mysticism of “Rumours” or the FM arty ramshackle of “Tusk.” How can all that be bowed to?

At its best, Fleetwood Mac was an intense, obsessive band. The last third of “Just Tell Me That You Want Me” is completely skippable, but at its best stretches, new obsessions complement those of the originals. Washed Out — the electronic artist Ernest Greene — takes “Straight Back,” a post-disco dirge from the 1982 album “Mirage,” and fills it with more hiss and sheen. (There could be an album of Fleetwood Mac covers by people like him: lovers of reverb and twinkle and the sound of the human voice singing, “Ahhh.”)

The New Pornographers claim “Think About Me,” from the super-pop phase, and replicate it closely, adding backward-sounding guitar phrases. The young, husky-voiced Trixie Whitley sings the early “Before the Beginning,” with Marc Ribot supplying clouds of slide guitar.

Antony quietly and carefully sings “Landslide” with spare guitar backing. Karen Elson, produced by Beck, with Cole M. Greif-Neill playing various instruments, roughs up “Gold Dust Woman”: Los Angeles revisionist auteurs wishing “Rumours” were more like “Tusk.”

A few of Fleetwood Mac’s contemporaries show up nicely. Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top remakes Peter Green’s “Oh Well,” from first-version Fleetwood Mac, dense and dirty, protecting and controlling his slow tempo. Marianne Faithfull does Stevie Nicks’s “Angel,” yielding to expanses of guitar, from Mr. Ribot and Bill Frisell, and vibraphone, from Kenny Wollesen.

This is all very tasteful. What’s needed is defiance, which is what Best Coast provides with “Rhiannon.” Like so many of these cover versions, it borrows Mick Fleetwood’s drum groove; the register and tone of Bethany Cosentino’s voice comes reasonably close to Stevie Nicks’s, minus some witchiness. But it uses no minor chords, which defined the song as it was. More often, we’re used to hearing somebody finding the moody shadows of a happy thing. This does the reverse, and transforms an almost official piece of American art.

[David]

Originally Posted by michelej1

The New York Times New Music
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/14/ar...pagewanted=all

By BEN RATLIFF, August 13, 2012

This is all very tasteful. What’s needed is defiance, which is what Best Coast provides with “Rhiannon.” Like so many of these cover versions, it borrows Mick Fleetwood’s drum groove; the register and tone of Bethany Cosentino’s voice comes reasonably close to Stevie Nicks’s, minus some witchiness. But it uses no minor chords, which defined the song as it was. More often, we’re used to hearing somebody finding the moody shadows of a happy thing. This does the reverse, and transforms an almost official piece of American art.

This guy read my post! http://ledge.fleetwoodmac.net/showpo...4&postcount=83

[michelej1]

A.V. Club C+ Rating
http://www.avclub.com/articles/vario...me-a-tr,83767/
by Noel Murray August 14, 2012

Various Artists
Just Tell Me That You Want Me: A Tribute To Fleetwood Mac

Even when Fleetwood Mac was one of the most popular bands in the world, its sound wasn’t always easy to pigeonhole. Hailed (and in some cases dismissed) as the epitome of laid-back SoCal soft rock in the mid-’70s, the Fleetwood Mac of Rumours and Tusk relied on three songwriters with differing visions. While Christine McVie delivered bright, AM-ready pop, Stevie Nicks served as McVie’s mystical, FM-after-midnight counterpart, and Lindsey Buckingham ranged toward the arty, trying to see if Brian Wilson, Donald Fagen, and David Byrne could co-exist within a song. And even before Buckingham and Nicks joined the band, Fleetwood Mac had Peter Green penning some of the fiercest blues-rock in a competitive English scene, and Danny Kirwan and Bob Welch (among others) filling in the gaps with solidly middle-of-the-road hippie soul.

So it’s not all that surprising that the Fleetwood Mac tribute album Just Tell Me That You Want Me fails to do justice to the diversity of the band’s output. Of the disc’s 17 tracks, 10 are Nicks songs, leaving only three by Green, two by Buckingham, and one each from McVie and Welch. The lineup of musicians on Just Tell Me That You Want Me is askew as well, with alt-rock superstars like The New Pornographers, MGMT, Best Coast, and Bonnie “Prince” Billy sharing space with veterans like Marianne Faithfull and ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons, and relative newcomers like Trixie Whitley (daughter of the late blues legend Chris Whitley). Nearly everyone on the record is worthy of inclusion, but their respective styles don’t exactly cohere. And no matter how eclectic Fleetwood Mac’s contributors could be, the band’s albums always sounded like the work of a single unit.

Granted, disjointedness is hardly unusual for tribute albums like these; what matters most is the quality of the covers. But even on that score, Just Tell Me That You Want Me falls a little short. If this record were a contest, the should-be-better-known band Gardens & Villa would win outright for a buzzy, synth-driven version of “Gypsy” that captures the wistful regret of the original without sounding like a slavish copy. The New Pornographers would be a close second for their exultant take on “Think About Me,” which could easily pass for one of their own songs. And Matt Sweeney and Bonnie “Prince” Billy deliver a gorgeously stripped-down “Storms” that’s more about mood than about making sure the notes all fall into the right place, or that the arrangements are sufficiently clever.

That ends up being the major problem with much of the rest of Just Tell Me That You Want Me: The tinkering these acts do with Fleetwood Mac’s songs is mostly on the surface, making them sound either more electronic and alien or more old-fashioned and rootsy, without really illuminating them in any significant way. With Nicks’ songs especially, there’s a fragility to the melodies and the lyrics that can be crushed if a band comes at them too hard or too mechanically. (Best Coast’s “Rhiannon,” Lykke Li’s “Silver Springs,” and Karen Elson’s “Gold Dust Woman” all fall prey to a kind of dogged monotone, which drains the songs of much of their nuance.) Most of the contributions to Just Tell Me That You Want Me sound just fine, and a few of them—like Lee Ranaldo and J. Mascis’ dreamy collaboration on the classic instrumental “Albatross”—are downright sublime. But Fleetwood Mac was a band with many facets, and too many of the people paying tribute here stopped at only one.

[michelej1]

The Courier-Journal, 6:47 PM, Aug 13, 2012
http://www.courier-journal.com/artic...e-Rock-Country

The basic concept of tribute records goes back quite a ways, but they seemed to really start breeding in the 1990s. The things were coming out every two weeks, and a fairly fun idea soon turned into a cash grab and huge waste of time.

These days, they’re more spread out. It could be that everyone worth a tribute already has one, but it’s more likely that a burned-out nation stopped buying them. The result is that the ones that do get made are generally worthwhile, which brings us to “Just Tell Me That You Want Me: A Tribute to Fleetwood Mac.”

The cast of artists involved is genuinely engaging, including Bonnie “Prince” Billy and Matt Sweeney, Lykke Li, MGMT, Best Coast, Marianne Faithfull, The New Pornographers, Lee Ranaldo, The Kills, Washed Out and Antony Hegarty.

The songs chosen are often surprising, too, such as MGMT tackling 1971’s “Future Games.”

[michelej1]

USA Today, August 13, 2012
http://www.usatoday.com/life/music/r...bum/57041336/1

Fleetwood tribute album is less than Mac-nificent
By Elysa Gardner

2 1/2 out of 4 Stars

How do you bring fresh insights to some of the most accomplished, infectious pop recordings of the past 50 years? That's the main dilemma plaguing Just Tell Me That You Want Me, a new tribute album pairing mostly alt-pop artists with Fleetwood Mac songs.

While the collection aims to acknowledge the band throughout its evolving phases and lineups, it's worth noting that more than half of the 18 songs were written by Stevie Nicks, and the majority are drawn from the group's commercial and creative peak years, when Nicks, Lindsay Buckingham and Christine McVie were principal songwriters.

[Jondalar]

I really like this album, so many varied artists. My only complaint is too much Stevie. Where are the Christine songs. Hold Me sounds great.

Don't get me wrong. I totally understand why Stevie is an Indie Queen. In a way she was Indie. However, there are many Christine songs they should of done. I for one would of loved a version of Sugar Daddy, or Wish you Here or Mystified.

[michelej1]

Hit Fix
http://www.hitfix.com/news/review-fl...up-the-formula
Review: Fleetwood Mac tribute, 'Just Tell Me You Love Me' mixes up the formula By Melinda Newman Tuesday, Aug 14, 2012 6:35 PM

As is usually the case with such endeavors, “Just Tell Me You Love Me,” a tribute to Fleetwood Mac, is a total mixed bag.

Out today, it’s just the sort of album for which iTunes was invented. Fans of Antony (of Antony & The Johnsons) poignant, faithful rendition of the gentle, lovely “Landslide” may not want the fuzzy version of instrumental “Albatross,” delivered more than capably by Lee Ranaldo Band featuring J Mascis.

As a whole, the 17-song tribute breaks down into two specific camps: fans of the ubiquitous hits from “Fleetwood Mac” and “Rumours” will gravitate toward the songs they grew up with while followers of the band’s earlier bluesier, pre- Stevie Nicks/Lindsey Buckingham incarnation will dig the more experimental material provided by folks like ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons and his swampy take on “Oh Well” or MGMT’s nine-minute trippy version of “Future Games.”

This collection was curated for Concord by the same folks who put together the “Rave On Buddy Holly” last year and it is squarely aimed at the Pitchfork crowd with such artists as Lykke Li, on a haunting “Silver Springs,” and Karen Elson, who provides an echo-y, spare take on “Gold Dust Woman.” To their credit, it feels like the producers allowed the artists free rein to interpret these songs as they wished.

Some acts take the originals and turn them into their own creations: The Kills twist “Dreams” into a harder, darker, much more menacing tune than the original; Best Coast gives “Rihanna” a sunshiny bounce; The New Pornographers reinvent “Think About Me” as a power pop tune via Cheap Trick; Gardens & Villas’ spaced-out, dreamy take on “Gypsy” works better than it should; The Crystal Ark find a nice work around to the marching band on “Tusk” that still provided a full-bodied sound.

There are few flat-out disasters here, but, sadly, there are just as few home runs that make this collection feel like a must-have. It will appeal more to fans of the acts featured here who will want to see how their favorite artist reinterpret a track rather than to Fleetwood Mac fans. For them, this collection will just send them scurrying back to the originals.

[MikeInNV]

^^^^ Yet another reference to "Rhianna"