In the Meantime newspaper reviews

[blinker12]

I'm starting a thread for "Meantime" newspaper reviews. I found two (rather negative) ones, attached below:

Independent on Sunday (London)
June 20, 2004, Sunday
BYLINE: NICK COLEMAN
One liked to think of her has the sensible one in Fleetwood Mac - a bit self-absorbed but in a nice way: practical, wise, vulnerable, soulful and, like, y'know, real. Here she is, following last year's creditable effort by a Christine-less Mac, working with musoid nephew Dan and sounding about as engaged with contemporary musical values as someone who made the best-selling pop album of the '70s. It's not a bad record. In fact her voice is as warm and unmannered as ever. But the arrangements are shinily dull and the songs consider love as a fudge of banal metaphors. Sorry. NC

Sunday Times (London)
June 20, 2004, Sunday
BYLINE: Mark Edwards
Sanctuary SANCD280 **
No band better exemplifies the adage that you need conflict in a group to create great music than Fleetwood Mac, where a soap opera's worth of dysfunctional relationships and addictions created some of the best adult-oriented rock ever to grace the airwaves. Christine McVie left the bickering band some half-a-dozen years ago for a quieter, presumably happier, life out in the country, and well, you're way ahead of me, aren't you? -the result is a solo album of soft rock so soporific that you'd swear several of the session musicians fell asleep while making it. Which is a shame, because the one song where the album sparks into life -Anything Is Possible -suggests that McVie still has hits inside her, if only she had something a little edgier to write about. ME

[Claudia]

Here are more: (I don't know if they had been posted before)

-» Mojo (07/2004), Review: In The Meantime

*** (3 out of 5 stars)

Former Fleetwood Mac songbird flies solo for the first time in two decades.

Fleetwood Mac's cool-as-an-oyster chanteuse decided to pass on Mac's latest reunion efforts, prompting her former bandmates to insist the icy blonde was fed up with music business, and planned to retreat to her country home. But in seems Christine McVie was fed up with her erstwhile companions, and stealthily recorded In The Meantime, rather then participate in reconfiguring the '70s pop monolith. Just so we know she means business.

McVie not-so-cyptically tackles the invitaion on the vituperous Bad Journey, leaving no doubt that she's shut the door on her past for good. Most of In The Meantime finds the once-winsome musician with claws extended - penning songs that crackle with ire, indignation, and with none of the frothy self-deception of the past, be it on the casual hit-or-miss sex of Anything Is Possible or the chilly kiss-off of Sweet Revenge.

...and...

Q Magazine, July 2004

Christine McVie
In The Meantime
Sanctuary/ Adventure Records

* * * (3 out of 5 stars)

The ex-Fleetwood Mac vocal linchpin returns.
by Howard Johnson

McVie's voice is supremely confident, honed to perfection after decades in front of the mic. The price she pays for such quality, though, is a loss of spontaneity. The music is well played, but it doesn't seep down to your bones quite the way it should. Rumours, McVie's most successful venture, crackled with inter-personal tension, which added edge to the music's melodic inclinations. It sounds like McVie's a happier gal here, which is doubtless good for her, but maybe less so for her music.

[Gailh]

I wonder if some reviewers actually listen to the CD.

Mojo thinks the songs "crackle with ire and indignation" yet Q thinks she sounds like a "happier gal"

I think they've looked at the song titles and played it through maybe once skipping tracks they don't like the sound of (or have decided in advance what they mean)

Gail

[Claudia]

Mojo thinks the songs "crackle with ire and indignation" yet Q thinks she sounds like a "happier gal"

That's what I notice too. Some reviewers say that she sounds too happy, but I don't think so. And you can't review an album with a "quick listen or two". It takes a few listens 'till it actually grow on you.

[Aisling]

Originally Posted by blinker12

I'm starting a thread for "Meantime" newspaper reviews. I found two (rather negative) ones, attached below:

a bit self-absorbed but in a nice way

ummm, i've never, ever, felt that christine was 'a bit self-absorbed'. not even in a 'nice way', whatever that means.

what a bizarre thing to say!

[macfan 57]

How many critics actually listen to ANY album more than once when reviewing it? I'll bet, very few if any do. Actually, the Q & Mojo reviews aren't really that bad. Both reviewers seem to basically like the album. I'll bet both reviewers would like it even more if they listened to it another time or two.

[blinker12]

ummm, i've never, ever, felt that christine was 'a bit self-absorbed'. not even in a 'nice way', whatever that means.

I was thinking the exact same thing. In fact, she may be one of the least self-absorbed songwriters ever.

[jbrownsjr]

I have found over the years, that as a fan it only matters what I think of her music.

As a musician, it only matters what I think of my music as well.

It's really difficult sometimes!

[jwd]

working with musoid nephew Dan

Anyone know what a musoid is?!

Ahhh, who really cares the critics say anyway. If we like the music, and I think we do/will, that's all that really matters. I think someone said somewhere in one of these threads around these parts, that all music critics are failed musicians with chips on their shoulders, or something to that effect. I liked the sentiment.

[Claudia]

Originally Posted by jbrownsjr

I have found over the years, that as a fan it only matters what I think of her music.

As a musician, it only matters what I think of my music as well.

It's really difficult sometimes!

Originally Posted by jwd

Ahhh, who really cares the critics say anyway. If we like the music, and I think we do/will, that's all that really matters.

Very well said you two!

[amber]

Originally Posted by Aisling

ummm, i've never, ever, felt that christine was 'a bit self-absorbed'. not even in a 'nice way', whatever that means.

what a bizarre thing to say!

Yeah, I think they may have been thinking of, say, one of 3 other members of the band?
Amber

[BLY]

oops...I meant to say, listen to the entire album several times before giving a review. You can't give a decent review listening to a one minute snipit.

[CarneVaca]

Originally Posted by BLY

oops...I meant to say, listen to the entire album several times before giving a review. You can't give a decent review listening to a one minute snipit.

That's why I didn't attempt to review it. Just a passing comment.

[blinker12]

Here's one from New Zealand. Again not too favorable, I'm afraid.

The Nelson Mail (New Zealand)
July 15, 2004, Thursday
HEADLINE: Rumours of a comeback are exaggerated
BYLINE: HUNT Stewart
BODY:
Christine McVie - In the Meantime (Sanctuary)

Christine McVie was Fleetwood Mac's George Harrison. The classically-trained pianist was the quiet achiever of the band, and played no small part in the histrionics that enveloped it, but also no small part in the creative fusion responsible for bruised classics like Rumours.

McVie penned some of the band's catchiest material, even if the likes of Don't Stop, You Make Lovin' Fun and Songbird were all largely designed to rub poor old John McVie's nose in it.

Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks came and went, but McVie stuck with the band almost to the stony end. They parted company in 1997, and she was the only one absent from last year's Say You Will reunion.

McVie was most likely unwilling to give up her fittingly quiet and dignified life in England to rake over old coals with her old muckers, but obviously she hasn't lost the creative urge.

In the Meantime is well insulated from Fleetwood Mac (although John comes in for another pasting on Bad Journey) but suffers the distance.

Piano ballads like Songbird stood nicely on their own but the rest of McVie's Mac work was bolstered by Buckingham's technical alchemy. Lacking that edge, her lyrics are badly exposed by the generic production.

There are a couple of passably warm and breezy tracks like Calumny and Northern Star, which make the most of McVie's plaintive vocals, but the rest is a mix of flaccid MOR and forgettable blues-rock tracks like Liar.

McVie's attempt to prove she can foot it solo and make as much of a fist of it as Nicks should have been far better than this. God knows she's got the talent; maybe she just left it a little too late. Grade: C

[Gailh]

Originally Posted by blinker12

In the Meantime is well insulated from Fleetwood Mac (although John comes in for another pasting on Bad Journey) but suffers the distance.

Wrong ex methinks! This would be more believable if they had done their research.


Gail