Songs: Over & Over, The Ledge, Think About Me, Save Me A Place, Sara, What Makes You Think You´re The One, Storms,
That´s All For Everyone, Not That Funny, Sisters Of The Moon, Angel, That´s Enough For Me,
Brown Eyes, Never Make Me Cry, I Know I´m Not Wrong, Honey Hi, Beautiful Child, Walk A Thin Line, Tusk, Never Forget.
Type of
Music: Mixture
of New Wave and Pop-Rock.
Comments:
After the
overwhelming success of Rumours the Mac went back to the studio to stop
and think. I´m sure that Lindsey took the lead. He must have told the others
something in the line of “ Whatever we´re gonna do, it´s not gonna be a Rumours part II”. I´m not so sure if the others agreed right away. Whatever time it
took to resolve the issue is not known. It is known however that it took almost
2 years and a lot of cash to record their new album that was released in 1979.
Tusk is the name of the record. It´s a
double album but actually it´s not. What we have here is Lindsey´s Solo Album
that consists of 9 short rather experimental New Wave type of songs , some of
them recorded in one of the back rooms of his House.
I can
clearly see the faces of the other members of the Mac when Lindsey presented
them his new songs. They probably said something like “That´s all very nice
Lindsey Boy but who´s gonna buy this rather different material? “ .
Of course
Lindsey stood behind his songs and in the end the group decided to “ hide “
Lindsey´s songs between the more conservative material written by Christine and
Stevie. This way, they must have thought, both our audience and our artistic
leader should be satisfied.
The public
reacted more positive than Warner Brothers expected but Tusk´s sales
came nowhere near those of Rumours and the Album only boosted a few rather low scoring hit
singles. The best of them is the Album´s Title track recorded live at the
Dodger Stadium and featuring the Southern California Trojan Marching band.
So far as
history is concerned. Let´s look at the actual music now. For sure Lindsey´s
songs show original ideas. Sometimes that works fine like in That´s All For
Everyone and Not That Funny. For sure they indicate a possible
direction of future Solo and Mac material. But in other cases I'm less
impressed. Songs like That´s Enough For Me and a few others are too raw
to be really enjoyed.
Christine´s
songs are as pleasant as always. They do not match her songs on Rumours
in terms of hooks but they have won in terms of smoothness and fluency.
For me it´s
Stevie however who steels the show here and sets the basic mood for the Album.
Everyone knows the classic Sara. But everyone should know Beautiful Child , Stevie´s
favourite song that she performed Live during the Say You Will
tour.
Stevie is
also responsible for the haunting Sisters of the Moon, a song that I
view among the best that Tusk has to offer.
Many times, Tusk
has been compared to the White Album as it contains a number of different
musical styles. I wouldn´t go that far. But for sure it is the last Mac record
for some time to come that sounds as a Group statement rather than a collection
of songs performed by the individual parts. It´s not an easy record if you
listen to it for the first time. But it ages well like all good wine.
Rating:
*******( 7 out of 10)
Black
= Good Songs
Green = Great Songs
Red = Could Be Better
Who
should buy this Record:
It´s not the place to start your
Fleetwood Mac collection. But if you dig the
Mac, you will find Tusk a more than rewarding listen. It´s difficult to
find sometimes and it´s never cheap.
