(Credit: Far Out / IMDB)
Every great album is usually sparked by some kind of tension within the band. Not every band has to go through personal pain to create a classic, but if they can pour all those emotions into a song instead of fighting each other, it usually brings some magic to the vinyl grooves. And while Fleetwood Mac was already one of the biggest bands of the late 1970s, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that Tusk was a mess before it even started.
Because Fleetwood Mac was already going through a lot of turmoil with each other in their prime. The path to production rumours saw all the band members fall out with each other romantically, and no matter how much “Go Your Own Way” or “Dreams” worked as AM radio staples, there was certainly a lot of pain knowing that the gory details one’s relations were there for all to see.
Now that they were on top, Tusk was the only real place they could go after that. After all, the last album was a total hit, so why not have even more of what audiences loved, with even more emotional baggage to go with it?
But that doesn’t mean that Tusk is an absolute train wreck from back to front. Somewhere in here is one of Fleetwood Mac’s best projects to date, and if only a few minor tweaks had been made in the studio, this might have been the long-awaited follow-up that everyone wanted, rather than something that would divide the room among soft-rock fans.
Why is it Tusk such confusion?
From day one, Fleetwood Mac’s songwriting chemistry was down to just three people. Although Mick Fleetwood and John McVie named the band, Lindsey Buckingham, Stevie Nicks and Christine McVie were the main reason their songs were on the hit parade. But somewhere along the way, Buckingham realized he could get the job done without his bandmates Tusk.
That’s not to say it’s a disguised Buckingham solo album. Some of his forays into new wave territory are charming enough for what they are, but half the time they seemed to compete with the classic Fleetwood Mac sound, especially when Stevie Nicks came in with anthems like ‘Sara’ and ‘Storms’ .
If anything, the entire record feels like three different albums competing for the audience’s attention, making it arguably the closest thing to a The Beatles album. The white album in their discography. If things were mixed up just a bit, they might realize they don’t need something so extravagant to make their point.
What could Tusk better album?
While it is easy to blame Buckingham for the big changes, the important change is this Tusk should be done is clear as day: Let this single be a project. The whole point was to fulfill everyone’s creative ambitions, but since Nicks was working on her first solo albums for several years after this one came out, it was clear that the rest of the band could just as easily walk that line. But what would you keep when you pair things up?
With Buckingham’s wild experimentation covering much of this record, hearing him get back in touch with some of his rockabilly-leaning songs like ‘What Makes You Think You’re The One’ would have worked much better than ‘Not That Funny’, which would have been much better suited to a David Byrne-produced solo album. And given that McVie has never written a bad song in her life, most of her material deserves to stay like ‘Over and Over’ and ‘Think About Me’, with songs like ‘Honey Hi’ perhaps reserved for B – pages.
On the other hand, Nicks may have benefited from keeping songs like “Storms” and “Sara” while perhaps adding a tune from Pretty Woman such as ‘After the Glitter Fades’, which could be a brilliant meta-commentary on where the band is going. And if they close with ‘Sisters of the Moon’, it would give the track list a final bow and leave the audience with the same punch as ‘Gold Dust Woman’.
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