Lindsey Buckingham's last 20 years have been great.

From his Village Recorder sessions in 1995, his unreleased original Gift Of Screws solo album that got folded into Fleetwood Mac's Say You Will, through his last few solo albums: Under The Skin, Gift Of Skrews, Seeds We Sow, plus random soundtrack songs and appearances, Lindsey Buckingham has fairly quietly been churning out some of the most interesting, well-played, performed, sung, and written DIY Pop music around.

It seems like in the last 20 years he really found his voice and style - maybe "Ground Zero" being that stunning solo version of "Big Love" from FM's The Dance - and he's just been killing it.

I think Say You Will should have been left as a solo album instead of a FM album, but my Linsey Buckingham playlist has just all HIS songs from Fleetwood Mac albums mixed in chronologically along with all his solo albums and songs and Say You Will and Tusk both work as really great Lindsey Buckingham full solo albums that way.

Either way, although I admit he can get a bit wonky, arty and up his own butt at times, it also seriously sometimes seems like one of the few artists who actually keeps getting better.

 

i agree

 

I agree; totally respect Lindsey for following his muse.

 

He's one of the very few guys who can make "cheesy" 80's production work in his favor, even decades later.

 

I could not agree more, he has been in great form for many years. Another favourite live performance of his that I consider to be truly fantastic is the 1997 live version of Go Insane, an incredible rendition of that song.

 

I didn't care for Say You Will, but his solo albums from Out Of The Cradle on prove that he is who is responsible for FMs Rumors sound. -

 

I don't really think of his cheesy production as 80s.
He was doing the same thing that JJ Cale did in the early 70s only on a far grander scale.

 

I don't really disagree with any of the criticisms I hear about "Say You Will," but I actually had a copy of the earlier "Gift Of Screws" from which most of those LB songs were taken, and, I really like that body of work as LB solo.

I mean, I like Stevie Nicks just fine, but with the magic of playlists, I only listen to the Lindsey Buckingham songs from SYW and treat it like the solo album it should have been. It's much better that way, imo, though, yeah, still a bit sonically overbearing. His solo albums afterwards are more appealing.

 

I really don't like how his voice sounds as an older guy. Sure did love Law and Order!

 

You don't listen to Stevie's killer title track or her awesome Thrown Down from SAY YOU WILL? Lindsey's guitar has a lot to do with Thrown Down sounding as good as it does, but Stevie wrote some strong material on SYW also.

 

love his guitar playing

 

Again, I sometimes listen to Fleetwood Mac albums in full, and I really like those Stevie songs (like most Stevie songs, when she's great, she's GREAT), but just I'm a really big fan of Buckingham and will, more often, listen to just his stuff - especially on shuffle in one huge LB playlist.

 

I like the songs on SYW. It's the production I can't stand. In particular the sonics are HORRID. (The DVD-A Surround version is, however, much more pleasant, although still pretty shrill.)

 

The 1995-onwards Gift of Screws sessions sound amazing. The Say you Will recordings tickle the ears.

Out of The Cradle is still as brilliant and astonishing 23 years later.

 

It's a somehow strange phenomenon, what power a name has in this special case. If he offers the exact same songs under his name, only few fans will buy them. The same songs labeled as "Fleetwood Mac" - and he sells "a few more".
He is an amazing artist and most of all no one can copy his style. Maybe that's why he always remains in a niche, cause no one can cover his songs. Like for example Clapton or other famous players, who are easier to imitate.

 

Mmm, Thrown Down is delicious. As is the version they did during her TISL sessions (busy guy played on a song on that album, too, as well as going along to the first playback of the album) - the 'Wall of Sound' one. Regarding her songs on that album, love their work on Destiny Rules especially too, actually.

I adore Lindsey and do think he's been pretty consistently great from OOTC onwards. Whilst I sometimes have some issues with his production and vocal effects (and so prefer a number of live or acoustic versions of songs from the last three albums), most of his songs are fabulous. Lyrically, he's come a long way, even if it's amusing to count the number of times he can mention angels, crimes, lines, oceans, seas, walls, lies, underground, fires, and so on... I'm perfectly happy having SYW and GoS (both the demos and the actual album) as they are - I love me some Stevie, and some SnL together even more.

Stevie is happy to agree that his most recent solo album was EXCELLENT, however, saying this in 2011:

"Lindsey's finished a record that is, I think, amazing. I think it's the best thing he's ever done. And it's so interesting because last November when he came up to work on Soldier's Angel - which is the last thing that we really did - we played him my record, and he played the Dave and Stevie world his record. So we listened to both records in a row. At the end, Lindsey was sitting on one side of me, I was in the middle and Glen was here, and Dave was walking around with his guitar around his neck. And Glen just jumped up and said, "Oh my god, you guys are on fire! You have both made an amazing record in the same year!" Of course, I'm going like 'Please god, let me love this record'. Because I'm sitting here next to Lindsey, he knows me so well... If I don't love this record, I'm gonna go like 'Well, I...' you know? And I swear to god, I think that Lindsey likes swallowed some melody pills and some lyrical pills because all of a sudden along with his amazing bombastic guitar that he plays are these really beautiful words and beautiful melodies. I'm so very proud of him."​

As she always has been.

"I love Lindsey. I love him very, very much and I wanted this album to be as successful as... If this album is more successful than my album, I would be so glad. You know, when 'Trouble' came out, I was saying, let it go straight to the top. Because it only makes my life easier when Lindsey is happy. Cause when Lindsey is happy, he's really in a good humor and he's wonderful and he and I really get along and we're close. For me, when you love somebody, you want them to be the best." (February, 1982)​

 

I agree though, to my ears, Seeds We Sow was starting to repeat himself a bit. I think the same thing that makes his work so great is exactly what keeps him from being more successful in the mainstream. Gift Of Screws is a running joke with one of my friends, very very quirky to his ears. He's a true artist....

If I have one small criticism, I wish he'd let his live drummer use a real kit not those damn V-Drums.

 

I would actually agree with your take on his last album, but instead of feeling he was "repeating" himself, I look at it more like the last three solo albums are like one huge triple album body of work. They are sonically very similar, but, within that, there is a huge diversity in songs and more hooks than.. something with a lot of hooks - what, a closet, a Peter Pan movie, what has a lot of hooks? Man, I went into that sentence with such confidence!

I would also agree that it would be nice to see him, once in while, return to the organic warmth of his Mid-Late 70's recordings. Things have been a bit sterile since the 80's, so those saying his many recent live albums are a bit more appealing to them is understandable, as they still capture virtually everything of what his great about his recent work, with a more organic, human feel.

The criticisms that people have are all very valid, imo, too, but they don't take anything away from the remarkable achievement of his body of work. For me, maybe only Buckingham and Nick Cave have arguably gotten actually better as they've gone on (in the big picture, more or less).

 

Would love to hear original Gift Of Screws(I have "Red Rover" and "Bleed To Love Her" downloaded).
Also, would someone please reissue Out Of The Cradle on vinyl.

 

That is very sweet. I love reading stuff like this.

 

The cd does not sound good to you? In my top ten best sounding albums

 

i've long held a slightly different perspective on lindsey. while i love the guy's work and will continue to purchase every new release etc, i think he's a great example of an artist who has finally found the exact sound he was always looking for...and i've found that i much preferred the sound of him SEARCHING for that sound. evrything he did up until the mid-90's sounded like he was trying whatever method he could find while REACHING for a particular way to make records, and afterward he'd FOUND that particular way.

there's still something undeniably enjoyable about putting on any of the guy's recent work, but there's a certain...woodiness? tapiness? something missing. it's like the records no longer have any air, or sense of space.

(now here i am sounding all critical--under the skin was one of my favorite records of the last 15 years, i swear...)

so i'll continue to follow the man's work, and eagerly so, but i'll continue to lament the FEEL of earlier parts of the journey.

smitquest

 

I love his work! Out of the Cradle on any given day can rank as one of my favorite albums!

 

I'm not a musician but one listen to "Time Precious Time" from Gift of Screws is all the proof I need to rank Mr. Buckingham near the top. I had the chance to see him perform the song live, it's not a pro-tools trick, it really is amazing!

 

CD does sound decent just would prefer vinyl if possible.