jchertudi's cd collection.

This album feels like basically the warm-up for Rumours. Everyone is already doing more or less what they'll be doing on the next album, just not quite as good. Stevie has her sort of mystical soft rock going with Rhiannon. Lindsey is doing upbeat pop, Monday Morning, and rock 'n' roll, Blue Letter. Christine is doing her soft rock as well with Over my Head, and also catchy pop music with Say You Love Me. It's all already here. The difference is that all of these things mostly just get even better on Rumours. This album is a fine addition to Fleetwood Mac's repertoire, but it clearly pales to its successor.

The album that rightly made Fleetwood Mac mega famous. All the songwriters are firing on all cylinders. Fleetwood Mac's sound with Stevie and Lindsey was mostly defined already by the previous album; Rumours brings that sound to its peak. There's little to dislike on this one. I really detest Don't Stop, but I realize I'm in the minority here. Everything else is good, and there are an astonishing number of great tracks on this album. It really feels like a parade of hits sometimes. It's no surprise that Lindsey really felt like changing direction with the next album. Where else could he go when they're at the top?

Now we're treated to a huge, 17-song White Alb... I mean, Tusk. Like the White Album though, it has its ups and downs, but it's basically an adventure to listen to it just as it is. My main gripe is not the quality of the music, though, as most every track has some charm to it. Overall, Lindsey just dominates this album. He wrote a ton of short, punky, quirky type songs, and there are an astonishing number of them. It seems like a Lindsey solo album with Stevie's and Christine's normal contributions thrown on. The difference is incredibly apparent. It must have seemed like Lindsey was trolling when people first heard this record. It begins with Christine's soft acoustic ballad, Over and Over, which would be fine. But it's followed by The Ledge, this absolutely bizarre sounding punk thing by Lindsey. People were probably freaked out, even though it's actually a really catchy song. Anyway, I think Tusk is a great album, but I think many are divided on it.