Say You Will ()

From the opening Whats the World Coming To to the ending Goodbye Baby, I find Fleetwood Macs new record Say You Will a collage of vintage Mac, Lindsey Buckinghams solo experimentation, and Stevie Nicks narcissistic lyrics and flowery melodies, all bound together by the hypnotic, and gorgeous rhythm section of Mick Fleetwood and John McVie.

Buckingham definitely pushes the envelope again in his production, and for the most part it works. Murrow and Come rock harder than anything weve heard from this band in a long time. Lets hope it puts a dent in the bands current adult contemporary status. Whats the World Coming To, Miranda and Peacekeeper prove that Buckingham is capable of writing thought provoking lyrics with classic pop/rock melodies. Theres only one brush we need, its the one that never leads a trace.. Peacekeepers lyrics are among the best on this album. Bleed to Love Her is reborn with a wonderful ending making the songs inclusion worthy, and Whats the World Coming To is classic rockin Fleetwood Mac at its best.

Unfortunately, his intrusive experimenting with some of Nicks songs miss the mark. Illume is near perfection as it provides an eerily insight into Nicks vision of the 9/11 tragedy, but is flawed by Buckinghams computer generated voice tricks that come from nowhere and stop the flow of the song. Say You Will is definitely the most catchy pop song from Nicks that we have heard in a while and is a nice tribute to Christine McVie - the former Pop star of the band. Buckinghams hankering with Nicks voice at the end is horrible. Some songs just dont need to be tampered with for the sake of being edgy. Fortunately, his tinkering with the majority of Stevies songs work masterfully.

Unless she lets you... see her soul.... Although Nicks lyrics tend to wander all over the place, she still has her moments. When love starts out in the darkness.. It doesn't do well in the light.. Affairs of the heart.. Start out in the dark.. Usually stay with the night.. Buckingham lets her rock on this record, and you have to appreciate his solid guitar work on her songs. He still knows how to bring a freshness to her sometimes, stale and rehashed melodies. The banjo/country feel to the ending of Destiny Rules is perfection. Buckinghams guitar solo on Running through the Garden is a pure rock and roll and among the records best riffs. Nicks bittersweet voice on Goodbye Baby is pure heaven. The sparse down gypsy feel given to Thrown Down puts the original demo to shame. The tango vibe going on in Everybody Finds Out is a perfect blend of rock, reggae, and pop. Buckinghams hypnotic chorus to the once angry Smile at You is exactly what the track needed. The nine Nicks songs are some of her best Fleetwood Mac tracks since Tusk. Nicks fans will find a nice solo album from Stevie within the confines of this new record. Ive already burned the 9 tracks to cd - my first unofficial Buckingham produced Stevie Nicks solo record.

What keeps me from giving this record 5 stars are the two songs Red Rover and Say Goodbye, and Buckingham's miscalculation on a few of the Nicks tracks. Red Rover is a disaster with its heavy-laden instrumentation. I cant listen to it. Say Goodbye would have worked better if Lindsey had followed the same format he used on Stevies beautiful Goodbye Baby. Less production and more focus on letting the vocals and lyrics tell his story of heartbreak would have worked better. Somewhere in the muddle of the music is a beautiful song, but unfortunately, Lindsey couldnt capture the beauty of the melody and lyrics of Say Goodbye.

As the producer behind this new Fleetwood Mac record, Lindsey Buckingham has always, for the most part, done things his way. Even Stevie Nicks thinks so as she writes -youre not like other people, you do what you want to.. With a few exceptions and a few skipped tracks, Lindsey Buckingham did get it right with Say You Will.