In the Meantime newspaper reviews

[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

[jbrownsjr]

Originally Posted by CarneVaca

I actually think the reviews are dead on. After listening to all the song samples, I was unimpressed.

nothing impresses you

[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.

[CarneVaca]

Originally Posted by jbrownsjr

nothing impresses you

Occasionally something comes along. I'll let you know.

[jbrownsjr]

Originally Posted by CarneVaca

Occasionally something comes along. I'll let you know.

(actually i'm the same way!) My mom used to say my middle name was "salt". LOL!


I will post a review soon. The first seven songs are solid. after that I get a little bored with it. Dan P is a gifted guitar player. He is like his aunt, very pleasantly subtle about his beauty. One song that really confuses me is "Forgiveniess" Love the chorus but don't understand the verse. It ends completely differently than it starts as well. Sort of like Christine does Aretha Franklin.

Overall I have more problems with the arrangements, than the singing. She doesn't sound 61 years old.


But some of the arrangements are a little to predictable. For instance "So Sincere" is a killer song great progressions for most of the song, (so why end on the I chord) The only thing i can think of is the lyric "so sincere" so she wanted it to be a simple ending. But man that song cooked so good for 3 minutes you almost have to end on a jazzier more beefy chord instead of a triad! Oh well I'm a poor piano player and Christine McVie is a keyboardist that can say "I think I'll make an album this week".

A nice surprise is backing vocalist David Issacs. His voice is really cool. Almost LB with a dash of Stevie.

[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

[jwd]

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.

I'm not sure I understand that remark. Rub his nose in it? Maybe "You Make Loving Fun", which I think was written about Curry Grant. But both "Songbird" and "Don't Stop" are very positive and loving songs.

[ThePenguin]

>>I'm not sure I understand that remark. Rub his nose in it? Maybe "You Make Loving Fun", which I think was written about Curry Grant. But both "Songbird" and "Don't Stop" are very positive and loving songs.<<

Yeah, they are sweet, loving songs...but I guess maybe they were rubbing his nose in it in a 'Yeah I still love you, but I'm still leaving you, so get over it' sort of way. Songbird had to have been devastating for him to hear esp in those difficult days.

I guess i can see how someone might see YMLF to be 'rubbing his face in it' though.

-Lis

[Johnny Stew]

Originally Posted by CarneVaca

I actually think the reviews are dead on. After listening to all the song samples, I was unimpressed.

Admittedly though, you've never been a fan of Christine's music, and I'm sure that makes a big difference.

[Johnny Stew]

Originally Posted by jbrownsjr

nothing impresses you

That's not true... he's endlessly impressed by Lindsey. Fleetwood Mac's ladies have to work overtime to please him though.

[David]

Originally Posted by Johnny Stew

Admittedly though, you've never been a fan of Christine's music, and I'm sure that makes a big difference.

I don't know whether Carne feels the same way about these songs (or the songs from 1984) as I do, but I just don't dig these Christine McVie solo albums. I love listening to her sing -- I always have -- & I think her vocals on this new one are excellent: she's experimenting a bit with her lower register. But the performances are stuck in some boring gray area between totally structured & improvised. So what you get is essentially jamming -- off-the-cuff riffs & licks -- within a constrained, structured arrangement. And I think that's what creates the monotony. The reviewer who called it all "flaccid MOR & forgettable blues-rock" is spot on, I think.

Chris has always benefited from a little weirdness, the little left-field touches that illuminate Hold Me & You Make Loving Fun & Never Forget, & she doesn't get that from her solo producers. If you replaced her vocals on these tracks with, say, those of Olivia Newton-John circa 1980, I don't think any of us would give this music a second listen. Running Through the Garden would fit right in here.

[macfan 57]

Originally Posted by Johnny Stew

Admittedly though, you've never been a fan of Christine's music, and I'm sure that makes a big difference.

Exactly. It all depends what someone's biases are. That reviewer admitted a bias against Christine's songs anyway. He claimed that her Fleetwood Mac songs weren't that great, just that Lindsey made them listenable. Obviously someone like that isn't going to like a Christine McVie solo album. You could find another reviewer with a different perspective who'd come up with a completely different review.

By the way, "Songbird" is not about John. According to Chris in that Rumours Classic Albums DVD, "Songbird" was for everyone in the band, not for just John specifically. "Don't Stop" is a loving, hopeful song for John. But, I do agree that YMLF is kind of a dig at John since it was about Curry Grant, her boyfriend at the time. Imagine how John felt hearing that song played live show after show, especially during the Rumours tour.

[ThePenguin]

She has never outrightly said Songbird is for John, that's true. But in the Japan 1977 backstage stuff, where she is 'interviewing herself' while sitting next to Curry-the guy keeps asking her who it's about, and she stubbornly evades the question. Back then she never said 'it was for everybody.' ....She said 'it's a love song, it's just me and the piano'-- and that it was 'intensely personal'. The guy presses on, "It's you and...?" and she laughs and says "It's me and my dog." To which you can hear Curry mutter in the background, "Thanks." (That comment is actually quite funny. :-) ) She says "I really don't wanna get into more than that, I really don't."

If I were John I would want to think that song was for me. But I'm a romantic sap. :-) He has said several times that hearing Chris do it live makes him cry, that it 'evokes memories.' If it affects strangers in such a powerful way, imagine what he felt hearing that. That's the magic of this band, their little real life stories that affect the way WE hear the songs. Am I making sense? let me shut up. :-P

-Lis

[Johnny Stew]

Originally Posted by David

The reviewer who called it all "flaccid MOR & forgettable blues-rock" is spot on, I think.

If you replaced her vocals on these tracks with, say, those of Olivia Newton-John circa 1980, I don't think any of us would give this music a second listen. Running Through the Garden would fit right in here.

You think "Running Through The Garden" is "flaccid" and "forgettable"?
I find it to have a nice bit of quirkiness to it. Of course, the demo is somewhat quirkier than Lindsey's production of it, and oddly so.
But even as it is on 'Say You Will,' it doesn't strike me at all as the kind of song you might find Olivia Newton-John singing.

At any rate, I don't own Christine's new album yet (I'm trying to patiently wait for the American release, to help insure respectable sales here on this side of the Atlantic), but from the tracks and snippets I've heard, I think it has more substance than her 1984 album.
I guess I just don't expect edginess or quirkiness from Christine McVie... that's not her style... so I don't miss it if it's not there.