I pulled out Tusk<\/i> with no real intention of reviewing it for this site.\u00a0 It already has two other reviews and there is plenty of material on this album elsewhere on the Net.\u00a0 But my take on this album seems different than any of the reviews I have seen out there. The long knives will probably be out for me on this review \u2013 but here goes.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
I consider myself a Mac fan, both pre- and post-Buckingham\/Nicks arrival.\u00a0 But I was always far more immersed in the Bob Welch period Mac, as well as Fleetwood Mac<\/i> and Rumours, <\/i>than with this double album, so when I pulled it out for a listen I really had no expectations.\u00a0 Now, reviews of this album tend to revolve around a few themes, namely — 1) Fleetwood Mac was following up on the monstrously successful Rumours <\/i>and could never have lived up to expectations, 2) Lindsay Buckingham in the role of producer used this album for experimentation of Brian Wilson\u2019s Pet Sounds<\/i>-style layering and 3) looking back 30 years later, this album isn\u2019t so bad. <\/p>\n
I\u2019m sorry, but I just don\u2019t see it.<\/p>\n
It is indeed true that Rumours<\/i> was a gargantuan success.\u00a0 But the argument that Tusk<\/i> was never going to live up to expectations is essentially transferring the \u201csophomore slump\u201d argument onto Mac. \u00a0Yet this would have been their third album with this line up and the 12th<\/sup> album from the band since its inception.\u00a0 With this logic, Rumours<\/i> should have been the sophomore slump album for this lineup, since 1975\u2019s Fleetwood Mac<\/i> was actually a monster in its own right, selling 26 million copies worldwide and reaching number one when previous Mac albums had only moderate success. And internal strife within the band was what fueled the excellent songwriting and emotional performances that propelled the band to ever-increasing heights during that period.\u00a0 Why could that not be duplicated on Tusk<\/i>? Certainly, the group was able to pull it together for Mirage<\/i> and Tango In The Night<\/i>, and while those discs did not reach the heights of Rumours<\/i>, they did more or less match Fleetwood Mac. <\/i>Looking at the material from each disc, it is easy to see why Tusk<\/i> fared so poorly.<\/p>\n Many reviews note the experimental nature of this album in its defense.\u00a0 I\u2019m all for groups experimenting and expanding their musical horizons.\u00a0 But there are successful experiments and there are failed experiments.\u00a0 The material on Tusk<\/i> falls into the failed category. \u00a0And just because it was an \u201cexperiment\u201d does not elevate the quality of its contents.\u00a0 Furthermore, this album was the first to cost a million dollars to produce (three million in 2011 dollars).\u00a0 You have to ask yourself, \u201cdoes this sound like a million dollar production?\u201d\u00a0 <\/p>\n Tusk<\/i> was mostly a Lindsay Buckingham product.\u00a0 Out of 20 songs, nine were his, while six were Christine McVie\u2019s, and five were from Stevie Nicks.\u00a0 Much is made of Buckingham\u2019s production work on this album, and something could be said for the layering of sounds on some of the Nicks and McVie numbers, but his own songs are egomaniacal, paranoid and seem oddly cluttered and half-finished at the same time.\u00a0 \u201cSave Me A Place\u201d is an interesting song with thick acoustic instrument and vocal layers, and \u201cWhat Makes You Think You\u2019re The One\u201d has the possibility of greatness if only it had a bit more to it.\u00a0 The title track is the only track worthy of the \u201cexperimental\u201d moniker, with tribal rhythms and vocalizations to accompany Buckingham\u2019s paranoid lyrics.\u00a0 But compared to the live version of this song on \u201cThe Dance,\u201d the original seems thin and in need of more.\u00a0 Lay all of Buckingham\u2019s other tracks end to end, and you will find that they are sonically the same and could better serve as outtakes released in a box set.\u00a0 And was there some prohibition on using any other part of the drum kit besides toms on a Buckingham song for this album?\u00a0 <\/span>With the exception of \u201cTusk\u201d the wheels come off of the fabled John McVie\/Mick Fleetwood rhythm section on this album on most of Buckingham\u2019s songs.\u00a0 It just sounds like Fleetwood is bored stiff and beating on cardboard boxes and the bass has gone on vacation for several recording sessions.\u00a0 <\/p>\n McVie\u2019s contributions to Tusk<\/i> are scattershot. \u00a0\u201cOver & Over\u201d and \u201cThink About Me\u201d have that classic Mac sound to them and tie the record to previous work, but the rest of her contributions are unremarkable.\u00a0 If there is a bright spot on this album, it is the Nicks songs.\u00a0 I am no Nicks fan \u2013 I have always found her songwriting obtuse and her voice limited \u2013 but no one can say that \u201cSara,\u201d \u201cAngel,\u201d and \u201cBeautiful Child\u201d are not solid songs.\u00a0 However, the sound of the Nicks songs stand in such stark contrast to the rest of the album that they hold up much better when played back to back (or put on a Nicks solo album) than when scattered amongst Buckingham\u2019s beatings.\u00a0 <\/p>\n I could go on, but I think there is a desire among reviewers to find some redeeming quality to this album because the whole of the Fleetwood Mac catalog is generally good and holds up well after all these years.\u00a0 However, most material on this album pales in comparison to the rest of the catalog. \u00a01978 to 1982 was a dry spell for Fleetwood Mac and should be acknowledged as such. \u00a0Tusk<\/i> hardly sounds like a million bucks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":26733,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5794],"rating":[11205],"class_list":["post-42546","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-fleetwood-mac","rating-rating-d-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42546","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\/88"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42546\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=42546"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=42546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}