Fleetwood Mac

Mirage

Fleetwood Mac Still Experiments, but album has less emotion

Review Score:

(6/10)
Fleetwood Mac's "Mirage" album was the second album to follow-up their landmark late 1970's release "Rumours". "Rumours" was a huge commercial success that was built on the raw emotion of the band members. . The story of Fleetwood Mac's "Rumours" is well documented. During this time, Christine and John McVie's marriage was falling apart - as was the long term relationship between Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham. One common thread I have noticed about the core members is that they tend to wear their hearts on their sleeve. When emotions ran high,Mac was at their best. The emotions that were running through the band were the catalyst for this effort. Following "Rumours", Fleetwood Mac went in a very different direction and released what was much more of an experimental album - "Tusk". "Tusk" did have its moments from an artistic standpoint, but didn't have the commercial sales of "Rumours". On "Mirage", Fleetwood Mac attempts to move back to the mainstream formula that worked in the late 1970s - however the band doesn't abandon all of their experimentation. This album does produce some good music - the only drawback is that this album lacks the raw emotion that "Rumours" had.

One thing why I feel the emotion might be lacking is that Fleetwood Mac brought in outsiders to collaborate with the songs that were written on this album. It's not that Lindsey Buckingham, Stevie Nicks, and Christine McVie are going to abandon all of their songwriting - one of the three members will collaborate on each of the tracks. However, there isn't one track in which there is a joint collaboration among the three. You can make the argument that the band was going through the motions of recording together. However, given the talents of Fleetwood Mac - they are still able to find a way to gel things together. It was during the early 1980s where the members of Fleetwood Mac were beginning to branch out as solo artists - and each was finding some level of success. It almost seems like Fleetwood Mac was already fragmented - and that this album was a bit "forced". It's also worth noting that Fleetwood Mac would not record together another studio album for another 5 years following "Mirage". The influence of the outside artists is not bad - but I think it does take away from the raw emotion. Songs that have the outside influence are: "Love in Store" (Christine McVie with Jim Recor); "Book of Love", "Oh Diane", and "Empire State" (Lindsey Buckingham with Richard Dashut); "Hold Me" (Christine McVie and Robbie Patton), "Wish You Were Here" (Christine McVie with Colin Allen).

As mentioned above, the band does not abandon the idea of experimentation. For starters - if you want to hear Fleetwood Mac with a bit of a country-edge, listen to the track - "That's Alright". Fleetwood Mac is able to pull this off very well - especially with Stevie Nicks on lead vocals. I've never thought that Lindsey was a very strong songwriter, he does have strengths in a lot of other areas. In particular, when it comes to background vocals, I feel Lindsey Buckingham is the best in the business. "That's Alright" is a great example on how Lindsey's background vocals blend in beautifully. It seems that on Stevie Nicks tracks, she finds a way to blend Lindsey's voice in - and does it very well.. There almost is a magic when this duo works vocals together. It's good on "Mirage" that we hear more of this.

Two Lindsey Buckingham and Richard Dashut tracks also show some more experimentation. The songs "Book of Love" and "Oh Diane" are retro-style tracks that aren't like anything heard from Fleetwood Mac before. While "Mirage" has a lot of 80s type tunes (i.e. "Hold Me" and "Gypsy"), it is good that it also has some tunes like these two tracks. Both "Book of Love" and "Oh Diane" sound like late 1950s tracks. In fact, I think Lindsey does a tremendous job on the lead vocals of both of these tracks. "Oh Diane" could easily have been a song played on 1959 radio and nobody would bat an eyelash. While not my favorite track "Empire State" sound like a tune that could have easily been played in early 1980s dance clubs. Finally, the Christine McVie penned track "Only Over You" 'gives inspiration to Dennis Wilson" has almost an R&B influence to it.

This is the album that contains two of Fleetwood Mac's biggest hits. There is "Gypsy" that features Stevie Nicks on lead vocals. Once again, Stevie writes a song and finds a great way to get Lindsey's background vocals in - listen to the end when Lindsey sings "Lightning Strikes - maybe once - maybe twice" - that's real good stuff. The other big hit on this collection was "Hold Me". This is a terrific duet between Christine and Lindsey - I wish there would be more duets like this. Other songs that are very good and worth a listen are "Eyes of the World" - this is a Lindsey penned track and he is in excellent form on his guitar. "Can't Go Back" is another Lindsey penned track and has a very catchy beat. "Love in Store" is the opening track and features Christine on lead vocals, but both Stevie and Lindsey will also contribute some vocals.

The CD liner notes feature all of the lyrics to all of the songs. Each song includes all of the songwriting credits. There are also all of the studio and engineering credits included. I think its also worth noting that Fleetwood Mac produces all of the sounds on this album - although they might have collaborated with outside songwriters, they don't bring in outside musicians. I think the serious Fleetwood Mac fan will like this album, but it will take a few listens before it grows on you. It's still not Rumours - overall I'd give it 3 1/2 stars.

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