New album reviews

[elle]

https://riffmagazine.com/album-revie...ckingham-2021/

REVIEW: Lindsey Buckingham tips his hat to ’60s pop on solo album
Sam Richards September 13, 2021, 12:32 pm
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Lindsey Buckingham, Fleetwood Mac

Track Lindsey Buckingham
on Bandsintown

After what nearly amounted to a Fleetwood Mac reunion album with 2017’s Lindsey Buckingham/Christine McVie, the first solo album from Lindsey Buckingham in a decade sounds as if it could have been the second disc of the fine 2011 solo release Seeds We Sow.

Lindsey Buckingham
Lindsey Buckingham
Reprise, Sept. 17
8/10

That isn’t a bad thing at all; far from it. The new self-titled album is full of songs that meld pop hooks ranging from pleasant to glorious with instrumentation—layers of acoustic guitars, in particular—that give the songs a subtle edge while maintaining, even magnifying, their sweetness.

Where Lindsey Buckingham/Christine McVie seemed to be striving for the sound of the late 1970s and mid-1980s glory years of Fleetwood Mac, the new solo album turns back inward. Lindsey Buckingham, like most of Seeds We Sow, is a true solo effort, with the guitarist playing all the instruments and doing all the singing. And if there’s a lack of the immediacy of his classics like “Go Your Own Way,” “Monday Morning” or “Big Love,” there’s a depth of musicality that hits just as fast, if not quite as hard.

Buckingham was always the Mac member most likely to tip his cap to classic pop radio. For example, “I Don’t Mind,” with its cheery vocal choruses and sprightly layered guitars, sounds somewhat at odds with his breathy, mysterious singing. But the overall effect is mesmerizing, especially if you’re a fan of ’60s-style radio-ready pop. It’s like that, but with a comforting bed of acoustic guitars. It’s the kind of music that he makes best.

Similarly, “On the Wrong Side” is like a Mac song Lindsey Buckingham would have written, only shorn of the influences of other band members. While your mileage may vary, this listener sees that as an advantage. The song is about the ups and downs of being on the road with Fleetwood Mac: “I’m out of pity, out of time/ Another city, another crime,” he sings, getting philosophical. “We were young, now we’re old/ Who can tell me which is worse?” This song also includes the only extended electric guitar solo on the album, and it’s fantastic.

“Blind Love” is perhaps the most blatantly pop song here, about never stopping the search for the perfect partner. It is as if Buckingham took a classic early ’60s song (think Ricky Nelson’s “Dream Lover” and its ilk), and modernized the sound in a tastefully acoustic way.

There are modern touches scattered here and there. Both “Swan Song” and “Power Down” are driven by jittery drum loops; appropriate especially on the latter, where “powering down” could mean either turning off your laptop or disengaging from a relationship. “Swan Song” is an outlier on this album; unsettled and nervous, even if a tasteful acoustic guitar floats in and out.

The other outlier is “Dancing,” the album closer. It’s slow and ethereal, with Buckingham’s breathy vocals playing against both a strumming guitar that sounds like a harpsichord and moments of silence. The song isn’t about dancing, per se, but rather the holding pattern of life between happenings dreary or worse: “Emptiness goes where supply meets demand/ Business and murder, they go hand in hand.”

Also here is a reverent cover of “Time,” as performed in the mid-’60s by the Pozo-Seco Singers, a folk trio in which Hall of Fame country singer Don Williams first gained fame. In a sense, this song is a left turn on an album populated with left turns, its unadorned simplicity in contrast to the textured songcraft of most of the rest of the material.

“Dancing” and “Time” aside, Lindsey Buckingham is an upbeat, frequently delightful album that, on the surface, may seem a bit quaint. But these songs are more complicated, musically and lyrically, than might be apparent on first listen. And with most of these songs, that first listen will suck you in, anyway.

[saniette]

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums...ey-buckingham/

Lindsey Buckingham
Lindsey Buckingham

REPRISE • 2021

7.0

BY: ALFRED SOTO

On his first solo album in 10 years, Lindsey Buckingham’s insistent, almost irritating knack for melody suggests a resurgent talent for making his insularity accessible.

In the blissful exile of the recording studio, Lindsey Buckingham dreams of a dozen music boxes tinkling beautifully in various keys without cease. His melodies yield to other singers with extreme reluctance; they and he need coaxing out of their often truculent self-reliance. Yet for three decades fans could count on Buckingham donating tunes to Fleetwood Mac from a mysterious solo album he was tinkering with on the side, or to release this album himself, confident he’d gotten the bug out of his system.

Not this time. Buckingham quit Fleetwood Mac in 1987, then came back a decade later to film The Dance and play in its subsequent world tour. In 2018, band manager Irving Azoff informed him that, according to Buckingham, Stevie Nicks had fired him (Nicks disagrees). It took Crowded House’s Neil Finn and no less than Mike Campbell to replace him in the band’s lineup; meanwhile, Buckingham returned to an album he’d completed before that year’s tour. He’s settled on an eponymous title for his first post-Mac album—a declaration of independence and defiance. Yet Lindsay Buckingham manages to be his best solo effort since 1992’s Out of the Cradle. No dilution of his composing or his production sorcery here: Buckingham, all by his lonesome, has recorded an album whose insistent, almost irritating knack for melody suggests a resurgent talent for making his insularity accessible.

Where once his furiously strummed guitars, multi-tracked harmonies, and plickety-plockety programmed rhythms toughened the one-dimensional plaints, the lyrics and music of Lindsey Buckingham are in congruence, terms settled like a prenup agreement. Nicks and Christine McVie’s contributions to his Mac material added impassioned and rueful complements, respectively; now he coughs up the ambiguities on his own. “If you’re playing a part/I’ve got to understand,” he coos on “Blind Love.” Lest there be a doubt, he offers the following on “Power Down”: “Lies, lies are the only thing that keeps us alive.” On “Santa Rosa,” he repeats “if you go” not as a request so much as a conditional, singing of a “you” who wants to “leave it behind” as his guitar summons the essence of Sonoma County with a couple dulcet tones. The Buckingham of Law and Order (1981) and Go Insane (1984) would’ve kept howling and shredding, but here the prettiness of the tune suggests he’s made peace with the separation.

Reliant on a tension between his need to confess a sense of hurt through psychobabble and the way his tunes eddy in place before surging forward, Buckingham has often come off as a producer stuck with the unforgiving mode of the pop song, instead of a singer-songwriter meeting his audience: The surly punk-influenced tunelets on Fleetwood Mac’s Tusk (1979), the undulant electronic suite on Go Insane, and the hermetic, forbidding grace of Gift of Screws (2011) use verbal tags as excuses for sonic experiments. But on the new album, Buckingham sharpens the familiar modes; its sheen is its own attraction. “I Don’t Mind,” with its touch-activated pitch experiments he mastered on Tango in the Night’s “Big Love,” is second nature to him. Because he’s Lindsey Buckingham, he includes a foil: the spare “Dancing,” in which he breathes the title cushioned by his own oohs, as delectable as a similarly arranged cover of the Rolling Stones’ “I Am Waiting” from 2006’s Seeds We Sow.

To weave exquisite aural curtains protecting his private life has been Buckingham’s métier since the late ’70s; he has presented himself as an artist who shuns the world and its messes. For too long, veneration of his studio mastery resulted in underrating, if not condescending to, McVie and Nicks—longtime Mac fans grew up reading accounts of Buckingham saving their material. So besotted as a culture do we remain with the Solitary Male Genius that we breeze past credible accusations of abuse. Fans endure defensive psychobabble. The reward? In its poise, Lindsey Buckingham is an offensive gesture: nothing seemingly at stake, no fleshed-out objects of desire to trouble daylong studio sessions. It is an austere, beautiful, cruel album, a polished sword.

[tango87]

Originally Posted by saniette

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums...ey-buckingham/
In its poise, Lindsey Buckingham is an offensive gesture: nothing seemingly at stake, no fleshed-out objects of desire to trouble daylong studio sessions. It is an austere, beautiful, cruel album, a polished sword.

Yes, but does he like it?

[aleuzzi]

Originally Posted by tango87

Yes, but does he like it?

Good question. It reads like a (positive) review until the last paragraph, where the writer suddenly critiques LB’s character. Is the final sentence sincere or ironic? Is it a prose poem?

[BLY]

I got my copy of the new disc today and listened to it 3x with the 3rd time reading lyrics and with high volume on my surround sound system. This will be my favorite solo album tied with OOTC. I’m digging every track as I do with OOTC and BuckMcVie. Blue Light as well as On The Wrong Side are the 2 songs that stand out as Fleetwood Mac songs that would have gotten major radio play back in the day. I have over played the first 3 tracks …..so I’m trying to pace myself with 7-10.

[bombaysaffires]

Originally Posted by saniette

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums...ey-buckingham/

Lindsey Buckingham
Lindsey Buckingham

REPRISE • 2021

7.0

BY: ALFRED SOTO

On his first solo album in 10 years, Lindsey Buckingham’s insistent, almost irritating knack for melody suggests a resurgent talent for making his insularity accessible.

In the blissful exile of the recording studio, Lindsey Buckingham dreams of a dozen music boxes tinkling beautifully in various keys without cease. His melodies yield to other singers with extreme reluctance; they and he need coaxing out of their often truculent self-reliance. Yet for three decades fans could count on Buckingham donating tunes to Fleetwood Mac from a mysterious solo album he was tinkering with on the side, or to release this album himself, confident he’d gotten the bug out of his system.

Not this time. Buckingham quit Fleetwood Mac in 1987, then came back a decade later to film The Dance and play in its subsequent world tour. In 2018, band manager Irving Azoff informed him that, according to Buckingham, Stevie Nicks had fired him (Nicks disagrees). It took Crowded House’s Neil Finn and no less than Mike Campbell to replace him in the band’s lineup; meanwhile, Buckingham returned to an album he’d completed before that year’s tour. He’s settled on an eponymous title for his first post-Mac album—a declaration of independence and defiance. Yet Lindsay Buckingham manages to be his best solo effort since 1992’s Out of the Cradle. No dilution of his composing or his production sorcery here: Buckingham, all by his lonesome, has recorded an album whose insistent, almost irritating knack for melody suggests a resurgent talent for making his insularity accessible.

Where once his furiously strummed guitars, multi-tracked harmonies, and plickety-plockety programmed rhythms toughened the one-dimensional plaints, the lyrics and music of Lindsey Buckingham are in congruence, terms settled like a prenup agreement. Nicks and Christine McVie’s contributions to his Mac material added impassioned and rueful complements, respectively; now he coughs up the ambiguities on his own. “If you’re playing a part/I’ve got to understand,” he coos on “Blind Love.” Lest there be a doubt, he offers the following on “Power Down”: “Lies, lies are the only thing that keeps us alive.” On “Santa Rosa,” he repeats “if you go” not as a request so much as a conditional, singing of a “you” who wants to “leave it behind” as his guitar summons the essence of Sonoma County with a couple dulcet tones. The Buckingham of Law and Order (1981) and Go Insane (1984) would’ve kept howling and shredding, but here the prettiness of the tune suggests he’s made peace with the separation.

Reliant on a tension between his need to confess a sense of hurt through psychobabble and the way his tunes eddy in place before surging forward, Buckingham has often come off as a producer stuck with the unforgiving mode of the pop song, instead of a singer-songwriter meeting his audience: The surly punk-influenced tunelets on Fleetwood Mac’s Tusk (1979), the undulant electronic suite on Go Insane, and the hermetic, forbidding grace of Gift of Screws (2011) use verbal tags as excuses for sonic experiments. But on the new album, Buckingham sharpens the familiar modes; its sheen is its own attraction. “I Don’t Mind,” with its touch-activated pitch experiments he mastered on Tango in the Night’s “Big Love,” is second nature to him. Because he’s Lindsey Buckingham, he includes a foil: the spare “Dancing,” in which he breathes the title cushioned by his own oohs, as delectable as a similarly arranged cover of the Rolling Stones’ “I Am Waiting” from 2006’s Seeds We Sow.

To weave exquisite aural curtains protecting his private life has been Buckingham’s métier since the late ’70s; he has presented himself as an artist who shuns the world and its messes. For too long, veneration of his studio mastery resulted in underrating, if not condescending to, McVie and Nicks—longtime Mac fans grew up reading accounts of Buckingham saving their material. So besotted as a culture do we remain with the Solitary Male Genius that we breeze past credible accusations of abuse. Fans endure defensive psychobabble. The reward? In its poise, Lindsey Buckingham is an offensive gesture: nothing seemingly at stake, no fleshed-out objects of desire to trouble daylong studio sessions. It is an austere, beautiful, cruel album, a polished sword.

oy this again

[DownOnRodeo]

Originally Posted by BLY

I got my copy of the new disc today and listened to it 3x with the 3rd time reading lyrics and with high volume on my surround sound system. (...) I have over played the first 3 tracks …..so I’m trying to pace myself with 7-10.

Looking forward to getting the album. The first 3 tracks are stuck in my head. He should have called the album Lindsey Buckingham - Ear Worms.

[elle]

https://www.nme.com/reviews/album/li...l-album-review

Lindsey Buckingham – ‘Lindsey Buckingham’ review: Fleetwood Mac visionary’s stellar return
The artist's first solo album in a decade sticks to the world-beating path he’s mastered, drawing on love and lost relationships along the way

By
Rhys Buchanan
15th September 2021

Lindsey Buckingham. CREDIT: Lauren Dukoff
Recent world events have proved deeply frustrating for musicians of all levels – even those once central to one of the ​​best-selling groups of all time. The long dark tunnel stretches further back for Lindsey Buckingham though; after being fired from Fleetwood Mac in 2018, the visionary then faced life-saving emergency open-heart surgery in 2019 before the pandemic even hit.

He described the three life-changing punches as “a trifecta of events that were completely off the charts.” It’s no wonder then, that Buckingham finds himself picking through the rubble as well as seeking light on his seventh solo studio album ‘Lindsey Buckingham’. On his first solo studio effort post-Mac, he’s intent on staying grounded musically and emotionally.

The buoyant opener ‘Scream’ feels a fitting way to kick things off – the swift and sweet track gleefully casts those difficult and stormy days away. A sense of abandon cuts through the driving acoustic melody with innocent simplicity through the lyricism: “Lost in the language of your touch / Just like you’re wakin’ from the dream / Oh, I love you when you scream.”

One of the record’s most enchanting moments comes early on with ‘I Don’t Mind’. A figure who has been embroiled in drama and heartache throughout his career, it’s no secret that Buckingham can pen an impacting love song. The track floats with masterful melodies as the lyricism elegantly picks apart the struggles and compromise of a long-term relationship.

He’s just as effective when dealing with the more notable long-term relationship that came crashing to an acrimonious end. The rhythmic anthem of ‘On The Wrong Side’ deals with the feelings of his split with Fleetwood Mac: “I’m outta pity / I’m outta time / Another city, another crime / I’m on the wrong side”, he sings before cutting loose with a soaring emotionally charged guitar solo. There’s definitely some healing going on here.

Even the most casual Fleetwood Mac fans won’t have to look hard to uncover the band’s classic hallmarks, which are dotted all over the listen. ‘Swan Song’ packs the deep velvety guitar textures once heard during the ‘Tango In The Night’ era; elsewhere ‘Power Down’ showcases the effortless grandeur of the timeless finger-picking behind their biggest hits.

The album bustles with defiant spirit while leaning heavily on deeply catchy songwriting and production. And with Mick Fleetwood having reconciled with Buckingham back in March, it’s exactly the kind of triumphant return that could give his old band food for thought.

[wilsonmac]

I'll just repost what I put on the Hoffman forums, what an album...

I've heard the album as well. I try to be as objective as possible being a fan, but it's really remarkable; best work since Out of the Cradle. Beautiful melodies, with each song just softly touching many of the genres that have influenced him through his career. Sounds of folk, R&B, rock(50's and 60's), country, techno, that don't copy the past, but build on it and pay respect to it through his own creativity. Some really cool and inventive electronic textures, and great tones we know from him. An intentional thread to his past... Even one of the songs On The Wrong Side uses the title of a song he wrote years ago. Just a beautiful album with lots of stuff to dig into as I listen on repeat through the years. Can't wait for my Blue Vinyl to get here this weekend!

[elle]

Originally Posted by wilsonmac

I'll just repost what I put on the Hoffman forums, what an album...

I've heard the album as well. I try to be as objective as possible being a fan, but it's really remarkable; best work since Out of the Cradle. Beautiful melodies, with each song just softly touching many of the genres that have influenced him through his career. Sounds of folk, R&B, rock(50's and 60's), country, techno, that don't copy the past, but build on it and pay respect to it through his own creativity. Some really cool and inventive electronic textures, and great tones we know from him. An intentional thread to his past... Even one of the songs On The Wrong Side uses the title of a song he wrote years ago. Just a beautiful album with lots of stuff to dig into as I listen on repeat through the years. Can't wait for my Blue Vinyl to get here this weekend!

oh that's you? i love your posts on there!

[TrueFaith77]

I’m so upset the blue vinyl sold out

[elle]

Originally Posted by TrueFaith77

I’m so upset the blue vinyl sold out

amazon has it ("sky blue vinyl").

[wilsonmac]

Originally Posted by elle

oh that's you? i love your posts on there!

Thanks! Well, I always love your twitter posts. You are one of a handful who always promotes and tells the truth that everyone needs to hear. Patience has really paid off, being a Lindsey fan!

[wilsonmac]

Originally Posted by TrueFaith77

I’m so upset the blue vinyl sold out

Honestly, the vinyl is the only way to hear the mix and mastering the way Lindsey intended it. With CD and streaming they compress it to death. I'm sure you can find one, and if not the black vinyl should still be available.

[TrueFaith77]

Originally Posted by elle

amazon has it ("sky blue vinyl").

Thanks! Ordered. Gonna take longer than I hoped (was gonna be a bday present) but I will find other uses for it