Fleetwood Mac

Mirage

FLEETWOOD MAC'S "MIRAGE" STARTED THE MAGIC WITH ME!!!!

Review Score:

(10/10)
I've been a Stevie Nicks / Fleetwood Mac fan for 22 years now, and it all started with purchasing the "Mirage" LP back in 1983 after seeing the "Gypsy" video on MTV. Perhaps this early experience made me biased, but in some ways, MIRAGE is the Fleetwood Mac album that I've always gone back to and listened to the most. TUSK may be their artistic pinnacle, but over-all this and RUMOURS are their most appealing records. I credit Lindsey Buckingham, as usual, for his sonic inventiveness and his brilliance with creating multi-layered textures and moods for these tracks, both instrumentally and vocally. I disagree with anyone who's written that MIRAGE was an album that was merely 'by the numbers,' or 'uninspired.' The craft and effort are all there - by all three songwriters.

Christine McVie offers two tracks on this album that are simply spell-binding - "Only Over You" and "Hold Me." I LOVE the harmonies and the languid, swoony mood of "Only Over You." "Hold Me" has a fantastic instrumental section in the middle of it, and the arrangement shows what Lindsey can do musically with such a simple, repetitive song. The tune was a huge hit, and deservedly so! I can see why the band doesn't perform it live - it's extremely dense.

"Love In Store" is a pleasant opener in that "Little Lies" kind of mode. "Wish You Were Here" is also a very pretty closer to the album.

Lindsey's rockabilly and early rock 'n' roll influences are revealed in "Can't Go Back" and "Book Of Love." Again, like TUSK, the vocal harmonies are brilliant and gorgeous. "Empire State" and "Oh Diane," don't do much for me, but "Eyes Of the World" builds to an awesome crescendo and shows the band in peak harmony.

I've longed for years for Stevie Nicks to do a full-out country record, and one only has to listen to "That's Alright" to figure out why. The song, written early on in her career, is absolutely stunning. Her voice was in peak form during this period (on record at least), and this song shows off her vocal chops. And again - gotta love those harmonies! "Straight Back" is definitely not one of her best - the mysticism in this tune seems kind of garbled. Finally, there's "Gypsy," which is perhaps her greatest song, and with the exception of "Sara" on TUSK, the bands supreme recorded achievement!!! There must have been some kind of magic in that studio when the band recorded this tune, because the result is sublime alchemy. Everything comes together in a flawless way. No live performance or demo of the song to date has even compared to the finished track on this album. It's the song that made me love Stevie Nicks and this band, and the 'glitter has never faded!'

I'm going to end this review on kind of a downer note, because I must bring up the fact that this CD is now the most awful sounding in my collection! Warner Bros. listen up - you need to remaster this album BIG time, just like the great jobs you've done this year with FLEETWOOD MAC, RUMOURS and TUSK!!! It's an awesome album that deserves a better reputation (and a better CD release) than it's been given.

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