Fleetwood Mac - Say You Will
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Free Music Notes for Say You Will
Free Music Review: You must be joking........
Hit: 5 Stars
What an absolutely wonderful accomplishment this album is. I was really pissed when that turd Jimmy Kimmel made some joke about their age while interviewing them live over satellite during the American Music Awards. This is a case where experience produced top-level music that many many bands can only dream of ever achieving at any age in their career.
This album can easily be compared to any of the great stuff they ever did, which is just about their entire catelog from "Then Play On" on. The early straight blues stuff they did is relatively forgettable, but it undoubtedly helped permanently forge the top-notch skills of the world-class back-bone of the band John McVie and the inimitable Mick Fleetwood. When Christine McVie came into the mix her lovely and phenomenal writing and musical skills took them to a new level which only got better and better and better as they evolved through various personnel.
I recently bought all of the CD's from Then Play On up to this album, except for a couple in the 90's that I completely overlooked at the time and don't know at all. I think I will pick them up soon out of curiousity. They are Behind The Mask and Time. But all the other albums are just priceless. Future Games, Bare Trees, Penquin, Kiln House, Mystery To Me, Heroes Are Hard To Find, Fleetwood Mac, Rumours, Tusk, Mirage, and Tango In The Night. Each so different from the other yet having such a related feeling. They are so different because of the ever changing personnel, and in the later Nicks/Buckingham era because of the sheer genius at work among all the members of the band in creating ever new and diverse work.
I was devastated to see that Christine McVie was not part of this project, though she does make a cameo at some point evidently. Though she did some of my absolute most beloved Fleetwood Mac songs, her absence in no way detracts from this masterpiece. She is definitely there in spirit.
This album will just grow ang grow on you and there is so much you can sink your teeth into. You will give it many many spins indeed, and it never gets old. The opening guitar work on Thrown Down for example will gradually take it's proper place in your memory banks and become instantly recognizable whenever you ever hear it again.
This album feels like it was not really going for hits but was a magnificent expression of years of pent up creativity finally coming out and effectively captured. Yes, it definitely is Lindsey Buckingham who pulled this baby off. It's similarity's to Tusk, which is well-known to have been mostly a brilliant Buckingham production, clearly show he is to be given most of the credit for this gem getting made. But that is just purely for the trivia lover. It doesn't matter who is behind this lovely album. I'm just so delighted it exists, and it makes me wish they will just keep on going forever making wonderful albums.
During the satellite interview at the American Music Awards Buckingham said they feel more creative than ever and this is some of the best work they have ever done, and I couldn't agree with him more. This album, Tusk, Fleetwood Mac, and Rumours, are enough to put this man into the higest echelons of musical brilliance, along with the rest of the band. Kimmel should have shown them the highest respect instead of coming off as the typical ugly American.
An absolute must own.
Over and out.
(The Professor recommends: "Songbird" off Rumours)
Free Music Review: A well deserved debut at number 3 on the charts
Hit: 5 Stars
I love Christine McVie and will buy any solo album she releases in the future, but I didn't think of her at all while listening to Say You Will. There is too much wonderful music to focus on here to spend time thinking about what additional sounds could have been added. This album is loaded.As far as songs that might need to be skipped over, I only find one out of 18 tracks, and it's that last track. Every other song grabs attention through either brilliant guitar work from Lindsey Buckingham or the writing/singing of both Buckingham and Stevie Nicks. There is a lot to listen to in this album, and nearly every moment contained within is there to teach all the little teeny bopper pop stars what real music is all about.
Buckingham's songs do get a bit odd at times, but that doesn't bother me at all. There's nothing wrong with "odd" if it is quality "odd." Lindsey has been creating odd music since 1979, so it should be no surprise at this point. But his experiments in this album are infused with an incredible guitar style that was lacking in his earlier weirdness (except for perhaps some of his 90's solo album, Out Of The Cradle- which I highly recommend also). The acoustic guitar work in Say Goodbye alone is worthy of Buckingham's permanent ascension into the pantheon of guitar gods. Further accolades must also be given for the blistering guitar solos in Running Through The Garden, Come, and Murrow Turning Over In His Grave. If you miss rock music that takes a moment to kick tuckus every once in a while instead of trying to push over constant guitar noise from beginning to end, this album is a return to what you have been missing for years. Lindsey has refined both his acoustic and electric playing to a virtuoso level, and he shows it off as often as possible in this album.
Stevie's songs are as mystical as ever, and they are as wonderfully performed as ever. Stevie always seems to perform based on the quality of her company, and there is no better company for her music than Lindsey, Mick Fleetwood, and John McVie. The lyrics she unleashes in Illume, Running Through The Garden, Thrown Down, and Everybody Finds Out are vintage Stevie Nicks. Say You Will is a crafty pop tune that catches you with one listen and keeps you singing it for the rest of the day.
The drama is still present in the writing as well. Both Buckingham and Nicks are STILL writing songs about each other, mentioning both the pain of their breakup and reflections on the times that are still being cherished. When Stevie sings, "You're not like other people... You do what you want to..." or "You can sit outside his door and wait... Well, you can dedicate your pain to him..." you know she can only be talking about Lindsey. She has been dedicating her pain to him in song since 1977. And music fans have benefitted from that pain ever since.
This album is a welcome return to quality music in an industry that has been very disappointing for about 6 years now. There are only a couple of albums in the last decade that compare to the brilliance of Say You Will. It isn't Rumours II, but no album has ever been or ever will be. The band has always refused to even try to duplicate the sound of that album, instead always attempting to move forward creatively. In Say You Will, they succeed totally and perfectly in forging new ground for themselves while still retaining the quality of their classics.
If only they wouldn't wait so long between albums...
Free Music Review: A new opus for the new century
Hit: 5 Stars
Fleetwood Mac has had a long and varied history, with lineup changes, legendary classics, legendary 'flops', love triangles, blessed reunions, and internal disentigration. After 16 years, the "golden duo" of former lovers Nicks and Buckingham are reunited on this disc, with the unfortunate omission of Christine McVie.
However, even with her absence, the Mac makes one of their most solid later albums, and definitely the most experimental since 'Tusk' closed out the '70s. Buckingham is INVOLVED, and it's undeniable. He hasn't displayed this much passion probably since his early opus 'Tusk'. For evidence of this, check out the 'making of' dvd, 'Destiny Rules.'
A lot of other reviewers are remarking that this disc is good, but falls short of being an important FM work. I have to disagree, if for no other reason than the fact the group could come back together in their "original" lineup (not exactly, but the original 'Rumours' lineup at least) after a decade and a half and produce a solid, sturdy, meaningful album is a stunning feat in itself. The songs here are good, with Nicks providing some of her best pieces in years (and continuing on her 'Trouble In Shangri-La' sound) and Buckingham showing, yet again, why he is probably one of the most gifted (albeit perhaps somewhat underrated) musical geniuses of his time.
Originally his concept called for this to be a double-album, and while that would have been a hard sell, at a steep sale price, and a LOT of material for the first album in so many years, fans may have found it difficult to fully sink their teeth into such a glut of work all at once. Perhaps some of what wasn't included in 'Say You Will' will make it onto future records. Let's hope so. The trimmed down version, at 18 tracks, is a beast of an album, and while stylistically "uneven" (I prefer diverse) it WORKS.
The tracks are strong, some graceful, some anxious, some thought-provoking...and there is often the familiar pang of Nicks' and Buckingham's former love affair, most notably when, on "Thrown Down", she sings, "You've shaken your faith in me, no...you've shaken my faith in everything else...a decision no one makes, and now you're going home...Faith is a hard thing to hold onto, something inside you says 'I don't have to'...you're not like other people, you do what you want to..."
Wow, you can FEEL that sting, after all these years, and feel the kind of deep bond, pain, and anguish that would provoke such songwriting, so obviously about Buckingham, some two decades after their breakup. This is the stuff Mac is good at, blisteringly solid music, experimentation, mysticism, and mood. One of my favorite Mac albums, without a doubt.
"Rumors" was an unforseen fluke, a leviathan of a record that steamrolled past all expectations. We can't compare everything they release to that...that would be like comparing every Prince song to 'Little Red Corvette' - it was a different time, a different era, a different world, and these people have 30 years more experience and are STILL producing music better than pretty much anything on corporate radio today. And THAT, my friends, is a triumph, and that is why FM are one of rock's most remarkable and storied bands. This is the stuff of (and by) legends.
Free Music Review: Say You Will Resurrects Buckingham
Hit: 5 Stars
"Say You Will" Resurrects Buckingham, Exhumes NicksBy Dan Lambert
It was in the year 1973 that a pair of struggling singer-songwriters, having met and fallen very much in love as teenagers, released their first album. "Buckingham Nicks" is now a coveted artifact to fans of Fleetwood Mac, the British blues band that ex-lovers Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks helped to steer toward pop stardom.
Thirty years later, Fleetwood Mac's new CD, "Say You Will," represents a kind of Buckingham Nicks reunion. Newly-absent is Christine McVie, but drummer Mick Fleetwood and bassist John McVie are still present and accounted for, making "Say You Will" sound like "Buckingham Nicks" with an improved rhythm section.
Advanced press has compared this latest offering from the warhorse of 1970's supergroups to their 1979 critical failure (but creative high-water mark) "Tusk," but, sadly, the comparison is superficial: "Say You Will" is not quite as innovative or cohesive as the Mac's earlier effort.
Like "Tusk," "Say You Will" gives the lyrically- and musically hard-hitting Buckingham more room to flex his creative muscles than the Big Mac's more pedestrian efforts (such as 1977's overrated "Rumours.") Weighing in only two shy of "Tusk's" generous twenty tracks, "Say You Will" provides plenty of bang for the buck. Half of these tracks showcase Buckingham's gifts as a guitarist, producer, and writer. "Steal Your Heart Away" and "Bleed to Love Her" evoke Buckingham's sonic celebrations from the eighties: "Trouble" and "Holiday Road." "Red Rover," Peacekeeper," and "Say Goodbye" are brilliantly-conceived, endlessly-listenable odes to hope and forgiveness.
Unfortunately, "Say You Will" plays it safer than the artistically-superior "Tusk." Christine McVie's overly-sunny, Clinton-campaign jingles are happily absent, but Nicks' lyrical treacle drips from this disc like a musical Ebola virus. Even in "Illume," her tribute to the victims of 9-11, Nicks masks her meaning in metaphor. If the violent deaths of 3,000 of her countrymen can't spur Nicks to get to the point, what can?
At its worst, "Say You Will" is like a collision between a solo Buckingham album and a solo Nicks album, Lindsey's brilliant but commercially-inaccessible water trying unsuccessfully to mix with Stevie's musically-tuneless, lyrically-gaudy oil. Many of Buckingham's songs were originally planned for a now-defunct solo project. The marked contrast between these tracks and Nicks' efforts made me feel like I was listening to two albums simultaneously.
At its best, "Say You Will" represents the welcome reunion of two gifted musicians. The title track is proof that Buckingham excels at giving Nicks' songs a much-needed sonic polish. The track joins "Angel" and "Gypsy" as one of Nicks' most listenable songs, making you want to get up and join her dance of whirling chiffon. Be sure to listen to the song's closing few seconds: Either Nicks is joined by a chorus of children at the end, or Buckingham is performing another delightful feat of sonic sleight-of-hand.
This album won't help us find Saddam's weapons of mass destruction or oust the Bush administration, but it may motivate you to call Bill Clinton and thank him for bringing the Mac back together.
Free Music Review: THE greatest Fleetwood Mac album...ever
Hit: 5 Stars
Say You Will is an awesome CD. It's also a tribute to Stevie and Lindsey's incredible talents and abilities as singers, songwriters and musicians. Say You Will is a tribute to coming full circle. FM's popularity shot through the roof when Stevie and Lindsey joined the band and now Say You Will is a return to those days. This album is awesome for Stevie's songwriting and singing talent and for Lindsey's incredibly inventive and experimental musical approach. Combined, Stevie and Lindsey's talents result in 18 expertly crafted songs.
I think Say You Will is the best FM album for many reasons. This album is a testiment to the fact that Stevie and Lindsey haven't gotten stuck in the past. They have evolved gracefully and they have changed. Say You Will IS NOT Rumours and I say thank God for that. Rumours was great, but that was 25 years ago.
... Say You Will surprises me in it's richness and it's depth. It surprises and pleases me with its anti-war statements and social commentary. It surprises me with the clarity of Stevie's voice. It surprises me by proving once again that Lindsey really does know how to produce Stevie's songs.
All of Stevie's songs are excellent. I'm sitting here trying to decide how I would rank her songs on this CD and the honest answer is that they are all great. "Everybody Finds Out" is noteworthy for its emotion and anger and for its instrumental arrangement which shows a sophistication not usually found in FM songs. "Goodbye Baby" is all about Stevie's incredible voice, as is "Silver Girl". "Destiny Rules", "Thrown Down" and "Say You Will" all have infectuous melodies and lyrics. "Running Through the Garden" is a great rock song. "Smile at You" is a song known to many Stevie fans because it's been circulating as a bootleg. It is so good to hear a production version of the song that is all polished. And "Illume"...what can I say. This is a beautifully crafted song about the raw emotion of being trapped in NYC during the events of 9-11. Stevie is a talented storyteller!
Lindsey opens Say You Will with "What's the World Coming To?". From the first few drum beats, I could tell the Mac was back. The social commentary of this song along with "Ed Murrow Turning Over In His Grave" and "Peacekeeper" are truly timely with the war in Iraq and the news coverage of the war. "Miranda" and "Come" are great examples of Lindsey's talent. I have to admit I'm not sure what "Red Rover" is all about but I'll assume it is political with it's references to red, white and blue. "Steal Your Heart Away" and "Bleed to Love Her" are both wonderful love songs.
The bonus live tracks are great for the simple fact that as much as I like Lindsey's production of this album, I happen to believe that the sign of a great group is their live performances and FM has always been great.
So, in closing...there is no such thing as too much Lindsey or too much Stevie. FM has changed and evolved over time and have proven just one more time that this is not a test...this is real. Rumours was not a fluke...because FM has done it again.
Say You Will is every bit as great as Rumours...only different.