\u201cIf your heart isn\u2019t in it, you shouldn\u2019t be here at all.\u201d<\/p>\n
One long-standing rock and roll parlor game that has always worked exceptionally well with Fleetwood Mac, is sitting around in a group trying to decipher the true meaning behind the lyrics. One might have hoped, with Time<\/i>, that the group would have just listened to even the surface meanings of the lyrics and gotten a clue.<\/p>\n
That opening line is from the first failed single off of this failed album, \u201cBlow By Blow,\u201d by new band member Dave Mason, formerly of Traffic (oh, how the mighty have fallen) and a solo career. I\u2019ll bet he\u2019s wishing he\u2019d paid attention to those lyrics back in 1995.<\/p>\n
Two things became excruciatingly clear with Time<\/i>. One, Christine McVie, John McVie and Mick Fleetwood are the foundation the Mac was built on and, two, no one — no one — will ever replace Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks as the heart and soul of the band. <\/p>\n
Oh, this disc is awful. When the band lost Buckingham on 1990’s Behind The Mask<\/i>, it was easy to think, \u201cOkay, this is not great, but it\u2019s not horrendous either. Give them another album and maybe they can work it out.\u201d But when Nicks decamped between that disc and this, there was no more Fleetwood Mac — only no one told the record company.<\/p>\n
In 1975, almost overnight, the commercial era of Fleetwood Mac was born. But that self-titled disc and Rumours<\/i>, which followed, defined the band for the rest of all time. If it wasn\u2019t those five people, it wasn\u2019t going to be Fleetwood Mac. I mean, it would be like trying to replace Mick Jagger or either Lennon or McCartney — can\u2019t be done.<\/p>\n
And, again, as with Behind The Mask<\/i>, Mason, Bekka Bramlett and Billy Burnette, the Buckingham and Nicks replacements this time around, are not inherently bad — mostly. One of the disc’s highlights, outside of Christine McVie\u2019s \u201cI Do,\u201d which could have been a monster hit on a real Fleetwood Mac album, is the opening number \u201cTalking To My Heart.\u201d <\/p>\n
But, this is lyrical junior high: \u201cBe careful what you\u2019re saying, you\u2019re talking to my heart.\u201d Why would the Mac revert to something so banal when the band was so well known for the rich undercurrent in their lyrics? <\/p>\n
On \u201cWinds Of Change,\u201d another decent song, there\u2019s no mistaking Bramlett for Stevie Nicks — a wise choice on her part. No swish of veils here. No twirling in ridiculously high stiletto-heeled boots. No faux witchie-woo. But what is it doing on a Fleetwood Mac album? This belongs on a Dolly Parton album — and Parton clearly has influenced Bramlett, vocally.<\/p>\n
Dave Mason\u2019s songs \u201cBlow By Blow\u201d and \u201cI Wonder Why\u201d are from another album altogether sonically, or so it seems. Listen to those songs and see if you don\u2019t hear 1980-era Alan Parsons Project. <\/p>\n
Fleetwood Mac was always about the drama in the songs as well as the songs themselves. Christine McVie tried, she really did. But I think she knew where this was going. Analyze these lyrics from \u201cAll Over Again,\u201d her last song on Time<\/i>, if you doubt: \u201cWell, it\u2019s time to say goodnight and finally turn out the light \/ I have to let you go, time to move on, don\u2019t you know.\u201d<\/p>\n
Oh yeah. We so <\/i>know after hearing this. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":28938,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5794],"rating":[5620],"class_list":["post-40442","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-fleetwood-mac","rating-rating-f"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40442"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40442\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=40442"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=40442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}