Lyndsay Buckingham is arguably one of the premier songwriters of the last decade and a half. His work in the 70's with Fleetwood Mac proves that beyond the shadow of a doubt. When he left the Mac and recorded 4 solo albums they may not have garnered the attention and sales of his previous collaboration. Still they were further testimony to his prowess not only as a tunesmith but as a guitarist and producer as well.
Stevie Nicks possesses one of the most recognizable voices in the pop/rock genre. When she and Buckingham joined Fleetwood Mac the band's sound was transformed and a lot of that had to do with Nicks' singing and songwriting. Purists may lament the end of the old Fleetwood Mac sound, but Stevie and Lyndsay put the group on the map, gave it exactly what it needed. If not for them it's hard to say whether or not the band would have ever been the powerhouse it became. And though Buckingham deservedly gets his share of the credit for that, it should be remembered that Nicks' songs always seemed to be the fan favorites..."Rhiannon", "Sara". "Dreams", "Gold Dust Woman", "Gypsy", and on to a very successful solo album, "Bella Donna".
But you knew all that. You may even know the story of how "Say You Will" came about...at least the story that made the rounds at the time of it's release in 2003. It went like this:
Buckingham was of a mind to record a solo album. He had several songs written and some demos recorded. When it came time to lay down the tracks he was in the market for a good drummer and decided to call his old band-mate Mick Fleetwood. At some point during the early sessions the idea was tossed about to bring in the former members of Fleetwood Mac and turn it into a "second reunion" album (since there was no album of original material from the first reunion, the "Dance" tour). Christine McVie was not interested, as she had bowed out gracefully immediately following the last reunion, but her husband John was willing. Most importantly, Stevie Nicks was up for it (further testimony to how integral her role in the band was---if she had not agreed to do it, the project could never have been called a Fleetwood Mac album). The guys managed to get along long enough to finish the record and "Say You Will" was released.
So the question remains...why did Lyndsay opt for a Fleetwood Mac album instead of another solo album?
The cynical would point out that his solo albums weren't exactly selling like hotcakes, even though they generally received excellent reviews (my personal opinion is that they are as good as anything he's done with Fleetwood Mac). Maybe he decided a Mac album would be much more lucrative than a Buckingham solo album (and, of course, he would have been right).
The slightly less cynical would point out, with equal validity, that his new songs, on a Fleetwood Mac album, would get much more exposure than they ever would on a solo album. Everyone wants their music to be heard by the largest possible audience. A new Mac album would accomplish this and might even inspire a few people to check out his solo stuff, if they hadn't already.
On the other side of the coin, it could be exactly as the eternal optimist would point out...maybe they just felt like re-uniting, old friends with much history between them. Perhaps they wanted to see if they could conjure up the same magic that used to come so naturally to them. It's possible that another motive for getting them all in the same room together was as a healing process, a way to work out any old animosities that had strained relationships (especially between Buckingham & Nicks and, in a different way, Nicks & Fleetwood).
Whatever the reason for getting back into the studio together, the end result was the album "Say You Will".
Living up to their classic material of the 70's and 80's could not have been an easy task. Working without Christine McVie took away a certain dynamic that was, some would say, practically integral to their sound. But the main drawback would probably be the minimal songwriting collaboration done for the album. Basically Lyndsay had 9 songs picked out and Stevie came up with 9 songs to do and that was that. AMG is right when it says that the album sounds like a Buckingham solo album and a Stevie Nicks solo album stuck together. I'd go so far as to say that, because Buckingham does so many of the album's chores (guitars, production, arrangement, vocals and backing vocals on Stevie's songs), it comes off as what it was originally planned to be---a Lyndsay Buckingham solo album, with guest vocalist Stevie Nicks. Who knows if that may not have happened had it not been for Nicks' writing contributions along with her recognizable vocal talents. That's not meant to denigrate or take away from McVie's and Fleetwood's importance in the whole thing. They are excellent here, as they have always been a tight rhythm section, one of the best. But there are thousands of tight rhythm sections to be hired for high profile solo projects. If you didn't know it was those two, you would never know it was those two.
None of which tells you anything about the music.
First, and this may be the one thing that most casual fans should know...most of the album just doesn't sound like the Fleetwood Mac of the old days. Maybe that's due to the absence of Christine McVie's mainstream ballads that tempered Lyndsay's increasingly unorthodox songwriting and Stevie's White Witch mysticism. But the real reason may well be the one noone really wants to admit to---it's NOT a Fleetwood Mac album.
It's a very good record, albeit at least 25 minutes too long, but it's Fleetwood Mac in name only.
Which doesn't take away from just how good some of the material is. Lyndsay's guitar prowess is especially remarkable on "Bleed to Love Her" (if anyone knows what that song title is supposed to mean, let me in on the secret), "Red Rover" (the intricate intertwining acoustic guitar lines on this one are really nice), and "Miranda" (which, unlike the other two mentioned here, is one of my least favorites on the album). His guitar solos throughout are incredible, but these three songs (especially "Red Rover") are the ones that really show why he's considered such a great player (by those who know what a great player sounds like, that is).
A couple of his other songs reveal that Buckingham's solo career may be approaching a more eccentric, harder edged sound than what we're used to. "Murrow Turning Over In His Grave" is just...uh...it's just WEIRD. At least it's weird in the context of his earlier work and even of this album. It's enjoyable, especially the multi-tracked vocals on the chorus and the blistering guitar solo towards the end...but the lingering question of why Murrow is turning over in his grave is never explained or answered. Then there's "Come", with the "not quite discreet" sexual connotations of the title. Vibrato-laden guitars are joined by a melody half sung, half whispered, setting a calm yet haunting mood. 1:30 into the song the mood is shattered by the hardest rock stylings I can remember ever having heard from Buckingham, solo or otherwise.
Stevie Nicks sounds damned good here, even if her voice has not quite held up as well as her partner's. This is especially evident in her first song on the album, "Illume". The first minute of this song sounds like it might be a return to form, but the repetitiveness of the music soon reveals a similar repetitiveness in the melody which drags the song down, even though the lyrics are pretty good. Stevie sounds like she's trying too hard on this one, she winds up sounding old.
"Thrown Down", however, restores my faith in Nicks' talent and makes me feel a little guilty for saying that she sounds old. Nothing of the sort here. Great music, but the chorus is what makes this song so remarkable. "Thrown down/Like a barricade/Maybe now he could prove to her/That he could be good for her/That they should be together"...There you go, eh? Stevie finally lets her wishes known to Lyndsay, right? Or maybe she's singing to Mick? Most likely she's not singing to anyone, it's just that this kind of subject matter comes naturally to her. That may well be, but you can bet that the hardcore fans are reading between every line. And there are a lot of similar lines in her songs on "Say You Will" that invite such scrutiny. Indeed, it seems that almost every song she has written for this project contains some allusion to love long lost and the dream of recovering it. You have to wonder if it's all part of a concentrated effort to infuse a certain mystique into the album...after all, it is a reunion album, and could well be their last. Any dirty laundry that needs washing will surely be laundered on this record.
The lovely Ms. Nicks has a few other nice songs on the album, but it's the closing track "Goodbye Baby" that proves she still has what it takes to keep up with Lyndsay's solo career, if she so chooses. She seems to drop her signature vocal style for this one song, or at least she plays it down in deference to a more subtle sound. Lyrically it is the perfect closer for the album, but even more poignant, it comes off like her final farewell to Fleetwood Mac, almost a eulogy to the band. Or maybe the song is some kind of closure for her past relationships with Buckingham and/or Fleetwood. "Goodbye, baby/I hope your heart's not broken/Don't forget me/Yes I was outspoken/You were with me all the time/I'll be with you one day". It's a beautiful, touching song. Hopefully she has, within her, more of the same and that she hasn't completely abandoned hope for a new solo album.
All in all, "Say You Will" has enough good material that it's worth owning, even if it doesn't sound much like Fleetwood Mac. Despite that, even the softcore fans will still find something of value hidden in the 80 minutes of music presented here. It is too long, but that's why there's a "skip" button on your CD player's remote. The true test of any lengthy album like this is how many times you push "repeat track" instead of "skip" and I think Fleetwood Mac's reunion album will pass that test.
