Hardtail Clothes
Site map Welcome to the American Music Scene Collections

The rain’s coming down today, and I got to thinking that Fleetwood Mac’s “Tusk” would be the perfect listen as I drove around town running errands today. It’s a recent addition to my list of favorite albums of all time. I had blown them off for years, like a lot of folks, figuring they were bland classic rock, parent music, and “Tusk” had this reputation for bloatedness that somehow I didn’t realize was another word for weirdness. Weirdness is one of the most underappreciated qualities of great albums, and the strange, commercial-radio-be-damned attitude that went into obviously coked-out tracks like “Not That Funny” or “What Makes You Think You’re the One?” is exactly what most records so desperately need. Anyway, I finally picked up a copy a year or two ago and realized it’s wonderful, the perfect problematic symphony of three distinct songwriting voices. Christine McVie’s tunes have never been more bland and beautiful – “Honey Hi” and “Brown Eyes” are standards-to-be, in fact – while Stevie Nicks waits out most of the double album’s A-side, emerging late, like the diva she is, with the showstopping “Sara.” It’s like the opera star emerging with that killer first note in the lead role of “Otello.” By the time she’s through – “Sisters of the Moon” is witchy-woman nonsense of the highest order, and “Beautiful Child” explains why everyone used to lust after her so – she’s almost wrestled the record away from Lindsey Buckingham. But it’s all about Lindsey here, sounding palpably alone in the studio for much of the disc, like he has so many ideas that he can’t wait for his bandmates to show up before hitting the record button. “The Ledge,” for instance, is a notoriously misguided but ultimately not-unsuccessful stab at new wave, and just try not to be oddly unnerved by the MOR evilness of the record’s title track. Sometimes the greatest discs are the most flawed, and though “Rumours” is obviously a superior piece of artistic completeness, “Tusk” is the disc to listen to once you’ve gone through the easy Fleetwood Mac courses and feel up to a graduate class.