Fleetwood Mac

Tango In The Night

Highly Underrated

Review Score:

(8/10)
A decade after RUMOURS, Fleetwood Mac released what would be there last studio record with Lindsay Buckingham, TANGO IN THE NIGHT. The streak begun with RUMOURS continued here, and while it was highly undervalued by critics, all in all it's quite a good record. The first distinguishing mark here is the immaculate production, co-handled by Buckingham, which relied alot on synthesizers and other production tics often found in '80s music. The record begins with Buckingham's sterling 'Big Love'(probably his best contribution to the group during the 80's), and the aforementioned production is immediately noticeable, sounding not unlike something you would hear on a Kate Bush album--'Big Love', in particular, sounds alot like the Bush classic 'Running Up That Hill'. The second distinguishing factor is the general absence of Stevie Nicks, who contributes two serviceable but not particularly great songs and gets a credit on a third(and best of the three),'Seven Wonders'. As is generally the case(particularly during the 80's), Christine McVie is the saving grace of the group, supplying the albums's two best cuts, 'Everywhere' and 'Little Lies', and also writing in tandem with Buckingham on several others good ones. The third factor is the absence, for the first time, of any sense of this group working as a band. The harmonies usually present among the three leads are barely discernable on many of the tracks, making it sound like they came in to the studio, sang their part, and left. It makes the group sound like a collective with rotating vocalists rather than the cohesive unit we know them to be. These are just observations rather than gripes, because,again, overall, this is a great record, and unjustly dismissed by many at the time of its' release.

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