Lindsey Buckingham - Go Insane
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Free Music Notes for Go Insane
Free Music Review: Raw
Hit: 5 Stars
This album is not for everyone. Having said that, anyone who appreciates an artists willingness to experiment should love that aspect of "Go Insane." It is no holds barred Lindsey. While it may not display his brilliant guitar talent like "Out of the Cradle" does, it stands alone a work of art.Free Music Review: It's not the best, but it is interesting
Hit: 3 Stars
If you like the singing or guitar stile of Lyndsey, this is an interesting record for your collection. I prefer the record called "out of the cradle" it is a more evolucionated record into the style of Lyndsey. This record have the typicall sound and produccion of the 80's, and today perhaps sounds little rare. Free Music Review: Unknown Classic
Hit: 5 Stars
About a year ago, I discovered that I liked a number of Fleetwood Mac songs, so I went ahead and bought their "very best of" collection. I fell in love with it and proceeded to obtain the rest of their catalog (only the ones with Buckingham). I then found out that Buckingham had some solo cds, so I got "Law and Order" and "Out of the Cradle," and I loved them. I then searched every music store in Philadelphia, and then every music store I could find in Pittsburgh, for "Go Insane." Failing in all my efforts, I turned to Amazon, and finally was able to get the cd in just a couple of days.
At first, I thought the cd was just weird. The production is very off-kilter, and it basically felt like he'd taken the quirkiness of "Law and Order" to the next level. Which I suppose he did. If "Law and Order" is the album of an isolated, mad-folkie cutting loose in the studio, "Go Insane" is more the album of an isolated mad-scientist cutting loose in a studio.
I then listed to the cd again. And again. And again. While I still slightly prefer "Law and Order" to "Go Insane," I've become entranced by this cd. So few people seek out (or even know to seek out) Buckingham's solo work, sticking with his big-time Fleetwood Mac work, and they are just plain missing out.
"Go Insane" is an art-rock masterpiece, particularly if seen as a companion-piece to "Law and Order." The few of us who have pursued obtaining these cds are indeed a lucky group. I recommend this album wholeheartedly to anyone interested in Buckingham in a different light. (Highlights "I Want You," "Go Insane," and "I Must Go" in particular are equal to Buckingham's best individual songs with Fleetwood Mac.)
Free Music Review: Buckingham cuts loose & hits the jackpot
Hit: 5 Stars
With his 1984 solo album "Go Insane", Fleetwood Mac's Lindsey Buckingham delivered an album that ingeniously combines hard-hitting songwriting with bracing, thrilling production and great arranging.
The problem with Buckingham tends to be that he doesn't have the raw materials to justify all of his "insanity", and his work ends up sounding badly forced and at times grating; however, this extremely cathartic album is a huge exception. Aside from the first track, Buckingham composed every track here himself, and he also does all the vocals/ plays all the instruments on all but 3 tracks (and of those 3, he still sings/ plays nearly everything), and track after track oozes confidence and brilliance.
Don't let anyone fool you into thinking this album has a "generic '80s sound". Actually, this album strikingly foreshadows a considerable amount of what George Michael did on his 1987 "Faith" album which is widely hailed as a masterpiece. Compare the layered, seemingly vari-speed vocals of Lindsey's "I Must Go" with those on George's "I Want Your Sex (Part 1)", both of which are extremely edgy tracks, and you'll have a good idea of what I'm getting at; plus, both Lindsey & GM played all of the instruments on their respective tracks.
The back cover of the "Go Insane" album shows Buckingham staring at a naked woman, which is a perfect complement for the music inside. The delirious carnival-from-hell style opening track "I Want You", the stomping title track, & "Slow Dancing" each have richly harmonized, irresistibly catchy choruses. The romantically/ sexually-obsessive "Slow Dancing" is absolutely brilliant--masterfully detailed and executed, it makes great use of a characteristic Buckingham bass line, featuring his ingenious "music box"-style instrumental breaks, and a fade-out that gives way to a lone waltzing acoustic guitar; this track is a great example of the kind of terrific details/ hooks that are packed into track after track. The explosively funky "I Must Go" is another uncanny, ultra-catchy, intricately arranged gem of a track (good grief, just listen to the VOCALS); and "Play In the Rain"/ "Play In the Rain (Continued)" are a cool mix of sound collage with Oriental-ish influences & effective use of a simple guitar progression (though the former is marred a little by the annoying panting sounds).
Fans of Buckingham's guitar playing will finds lots to sink their teeth into here. Also, over the course of the album, Buckingham gets a ton of mileage out of various techniques including crashing electronic percussion, methodologically placed sound effects, and stereo tricks such as having each syllable of the lyric alternating between each stereo channel. The one track where he goes relatively easy on the stereo tricks is the bluesy "Loving Cup", and Lindsey's vocals on this track are kind of buried in the mix as well--but even this is a wild track that totally gets under your skin.
The "ballad" "Bang the Drum" is a track you could accurately describe as a disorienting "updating" of 1950's style doo-wop. Quite intriguing stuff.
The album closer is the 3-part "D.W. Suite" (D.W. standing for Dennis Wilson, of the Beach Boys, who died in 1983)--the first part, "The Wish", starts it off as a gorgeously-melodic, emotional ballad before working its way through "The Prayer" & "The Reflection" sections--Buckingham's reach did exceed his grasp on these last 2 which slip over into obnoxiousness.
Despite the flaws, this is an overall brilliant, fully-realized, mind-blowing album, and if you're curious/ confused as to why Buckingham has such a huge reputation, this is the ideal album to get, because he truly lives up to his reputation on this wild masterpiece.
Free Music Review: Beneath the sheen, it shines
Hit: 5 Stars
This album was, when it came out, a work of sheer wonder for me. 18 years on that wonder still holds.I understand the criticisms of the production style; the production, very state-of-the-art at the time, is quite "in your face." But this is key to what renders this album so magical.
On the first few listens this album will sound cold and icy-- like those gum commercials where they show cold winter scenes accompanying the chewing of said stick or chicklet. You almost feel the harsh winds blow. But after you listen a few times, you start to find yourself penetrating the icy veneer, and you find the white hot passion and raw emotion juswt beneath the surface--passion that makes so much of Lindsey's best work so powerful and enduring.
Listen to "Bang the Drum." Pure ice. Listen to it again. And again. Hell, listen to it on headphoines. As you penetrate the shell, you begin to picture this tiny Lindsey, in the face of the female protagonist's "deep down feeling that won't let go", her fears that "I just don't think I'm tough enough", urging her to "bang the drum! Play it loud!" It is a profound message, a message of transforming pain and fear to hope and self, a message all the richer for the way it rrequires that unwrappping. I generally think albums that improve with subsequent listens end up being the best albums.
You can also, by the way, hear the sonic seeds for Tango In the Night, a Fleetwood Mac album comprised largely of songs lifted (in some cases intact) from an aborted Lindsey solo project (much as Say You Will rises from the ashes of the unreleased Gift of Screams). The vocal effects Lindsey uses on the Tango track "Big Love" to emulate Stevie singing-- fooling most listeners who thought she was actually on that track, including at the time David Letterman, who nightly played the song and made fun of "Stevie's" love grunts-- can be found all over Go Insane.
Ultimately, I found this little gem to be one of the best releases of the 80s. It doesn't sound dated at all to these ears (let's face it, this isn't Men Without Hats or Duran Duran we're talking about here). If you can go with it, give in to the synthesized icy production sheen that is the hard exterior, you will be amply rewarded when the thing explodes with color and flavor inside your head and heart.