Lindsey Buckingham's last 20 years have been great.

Buckingham indeed is having a strong run of albums lately. "Under My Skin" was not so much my cup of tea though, but the amazing "Gift Of Screws sessions" material lifts it above average.
And it's too bad that the actually released "Gift Of Screws" is mastered way too loud. I'm glad his other recent material is quieter than that.

 

For some reason, Lindsey in recent years has favoured a production style that puts his aging voice right up front and exposes every flaw in it. I would think he would know all the tricks available for disguising those flaws, but I guess he is going for honesty. I find it distracting at times, though.

 

I only listen to LB solo, never saw Mac, no interest. I bought Law and Order back when it came out and really liked it. I think he maybe took the deliberate quirky-ness too far on Go Insane, but it still was a very good album and had IMO some of his best lyrics. After that, he had a great run, though his last one kind of left me cold, it sounded familiar to the lps that preceded it. It seems to me that LB just loves top get in the studio and -um-self satisfy himself, but in the last 5-7 years he seems to have gotten over that and just concentrate on the end product and not about trying to make it sound 20 different ways and then finding it impossible to pick one. I still think he's a genius, especially at arranging, he could make the flimsiest McCartney track sound like an Abbey Road outtake.

 

I have Law And Order, Go Insane, Out Of The Cradle and Seeds We Sow as well has the live albums Songs From The Small Machine and the One Man Show... the latter was an iTunes only release.

Lindsey is very underrated and never seems to get the credit he deserves for his songwrititng talent, both in Fleetwood Mac and with his solo albums. He is also one of the greatest guitars players I've ever seen. Stevie Nicks is always the one that gets the credit and lime light for the success of Fleetwood Mac, but that success would've never been achieved without Lindsey.

He has produced or co-produced virtually all the Fleetwood Mac albums that he appears on. Even the FM songs sung by Stevie Nicks wouldn't sound like they do if it wasn't of Lindsey, for example, you wouldn't of got that excellent guitar solo at the end of Gypsy if it wasn't for him. He admits he's a studio freak and I believe that he made a lot of decisions regarding all the FM albums down the years. I dare say the same goes for his solo albums as well. I think he's a bit of a control freak as well in the studio, but that is a good thing IMO.

Lindsey is currently recording a new FM album with Christine McVie back on board. She's also very underrated. I much prefer her voice to Stevie's voice.

Now I would just like to hear Lindsey Buckingham's back-catalogue of albums in high resolution.

 

I don't care for SN at all. She does nothing that LB can't do by himself. I would just as soon like FM to do an album with Christine McVie being the principal songwriter and Becca Bramlett being the other chick singer.


Also, I think Mr Buckingham was an undiscovered artist that needed a name like FM to get him off the ground, then he couldn't shed the label once it was stuck to him. Fortunately he was finally able to do so with his solo stuff after getting airplay wasn't nearly as important as the internet media in getting exposure.
I really think he has outgrown FM and the only practical need he had for them was exposure.

Too bad Bob Welch is gone. I would rather see the FM of 1972 reassemble and LB stay on his own.

 

Love Buckingham. For a guy who could rest on his laurels putting out the occasional Rumours Part 12, he has instead consistently followed his muse...

As early as Tusk, be refused to just give the record company or the people what they want... And under his own name he has remained steadfastly uncompromising.

IMHO he's far and away more interesting than Stevie Nicks.

 

For somebody to come up with Tusk and Go Insane makes them a God in my book. I loved Lindsey since I was a small child and will support anything that he does. ANYTHING.

 

Weirdly, I don't see him cited by other guitarist/musicians as often as he should be - especially the younger generations.

I think he did the CMT crossroads with someone. I know the members of Metric are big fans but don't think they've mentioned HIM specifically.

His career is ripe for a RSD or box set of his solo albums. Break the stereotype that he makes all his money on FM tours then releases obscures albums to get his rocks off.

 

Under The Skin is an amazing album. Love LB!

 

I will agree LB is very underrated.
The most important member of the Mac in IMO.

 

Totally agree, all of his solo albums are outstanding. Such a great artist.

Special shout out to "Holiday Road". Still waiting for it to be available on CD:

 

I think the guy is a gem. I've seen a number of FM tours and saw him on his solo tour in 2011. Such an intense performer. I'm with the OP 100%. He's been great.

 

I have never seen anyone else play a guitar like LB. Totally unique sound and incredibly talented artist.

 

I hate those v-drums too! I skipped his last show entirely due to that.

 

Yeah, but when they truly collaborate together it's magic. The guitar work and arrangements Lindsey did on "Silver Springs" (the studio version) makes it one of my top FM songs. I understand Stevie's fury that it was left off of Rumours.

I have seen Lindsey solo many times over the years and got to interview him a lot, but my greatest experience with him was seeing his first-ever solo show at the Coach House in Dec. 1992. It was recorded by Westwood One and is the commonly circulating boot. That boot is amazing, but being there with 400 other people to witness it was a highlight of my concert-going life.

 

well yeah its no trick, its banjo finger pickin on an acoustic guitar

 

Have you noticed that much of his solo music has the unique asset of being both exhilarating and relaxing at the same time?

 

It's on this comp:

http://www.amazon.com/Hollywood-Chr...406858534&sr=1-1&keywords=Hollywood+christmas

 

I love all his solo work but also love what he does to Christine's and Stevie's songs. I can't find Christine's demo of Hold Me on YouTube anymore, but see if you can find it somewhere - he took a pretty good song and made it great. Love what he added to Tom Petty's Walls (Circus) too. He's a worthy Brian Wilson disciple. Don't know if I'd call him underrated as a guitarist and as an arranger, but he's one of my favorites and glad to see others dig him too!

 

What's a bummer to me, though, is that the one Lindsey Buckingham/Brian Wilson collaboration, "He Couldn't Get His Poor Old Body To Move," on which they cowrote and coproduced (maybe Buckingham produced it alone?) from 1986 (around the time of Wilson's first solo album), is a let down. It's kind of an abrasive sounding, silly song that isn't really worthy of either artist or the potential of their collaboration. A missed opportunity, to say the least.

 

You do know it's on a promo cd, doncha? (with one Buckingham/Nicks song)

 

Christine has said that in interviews, that her songs came out twice as good after LB was done with them. I think that was one of the things that messed with his head after Rumours--it wasn't just that he was a great guitarist, a great songwriter, but the others said that their stuff wouldn't be great unless he worked on them. I said to the wife once 'imagine all that being thrown on your young shoulders, and all the while money is pouring the likes of which none of them had ever seen. Everyone was saying 'It all depends on you.'

 

That's manic depression in a nutshell.

 

I love Gift Of Screws, just love it. I think it's his best solo album. Seeds We Sow is pretty good also, but Gift is Lindsey at a higher level. Throw a Christine McVie and a Stevie song on it, and it would have been Fleetwood Mac's comeback or return-to-form album. No doubt in my mind. I mean, "Love Runs Deeper" is one of the best songs he's ever written.

 

Yup. It gives me hope that Fleetwood Mac seriously has a chance of releasing another truly great album. I don't know how Christine's writing chops are, but she's always been solid and might have a stockpile of good stuff she's been sitting on. Stevie Nicks can still deliver great material (although she's been digging into the vaults for older songs quite a bit recently) and, as discussed in this thread, Buckingham is at the top of his game writing-wise.

If he can just chill out a little bit on the pointy-pointy production and get a little human warmth back into the studio process, they have a real shot at a late career masterpiece. I think he can do it, too, because they're working specifically for a Fleetwood Mac album and he WANTS to do it. That hasn't happened since Tusk.

He wanted to work on his solo album, but was forced and bullied into writing and producing "Mirage" at the time, and those are probably his least distinguished set of songs for any album, though he did well producing the others' material. His songs for "Tango" were supposed to be for a new solo album that he was, again, talked into turning into a Fleetwood Mac album - and he quit the band before the tour, it was such a mess. "The Dance" was fabulous and he was all in on it. His solo work since has been suburb. The one thing that most agree isn't all it could have been since then is SYW, which was again supposed to be a solo album that he simply added a Lindsey Buckingham-produced Stevie Nicks solo album on to. So this is the first real Fleetwood Mac album since Tusk that LB actually wanted to do, meant to do and started to do AS a Fleetwood Mac album. That's pretty amazing and makes me optimistic that he'll approach it in a organic, cohesive way.