[dougl]

Record reviews

Pop

Christine McVie
In the Meantime
(Adventure Records/Koch **1/2)

As author of a handful of massive singles ("Don't Stop," "Everywhere") and a catalyst for the mellow Rumours-era Fleetwood Mac, Christine McVie gets the music industry lifetime pass. She can count on finding an eager label anytime she has new music, no matter how ordinary and cloying it is.

McVie comes close to abusing that privilege with the tiresome In the Meantime. She's an exceedingly competent writer, a master of ambling beats and lullaby guitar strumming who lets wince-inducing expressions of devotion ruin otherwise sturdy frameworks. The first five songs are about love: Four find her deep in thrall and one, the faux-funk "Bad Journey," describes in painful, unimaginative detail a botched tour down the tunnel of love. A few cuts return McVie to the mystery that once made her solo efforts so unusual, but most are perfunctory love narratives delivered in prim packages. Her stabs at earthiness - see the blue moans of "Anything Is Possible" - are especially overwrought.

The sparkling moments here ("Calumny," "Friend") make it clear that McVie's trembling voice and confessional style work best as a spice, not a main course. She was vital to the Fleetwood Mac dynamic, a grounding presence whose songs thrived because of their earnestness, and the contrast they offered to the ethereal billows of Stevie Nicks and the snakebite venom of Lindsey Buckingham.

- Tom Moon

Sounds like Tom has been regurgitating the old archives. Check out this blurb from the All Music Guide regarding Christine's last solo outing in 1984:

The record simply suffers from a rather predictable fate -- it's a little too sweet and laid-back to be consumed in one sitting, and its best songs would have sounded even better if they were balanced by Lindsey Buckingham's insular, paranoid pop genius and Stevie Nicks' hippie-folk mysticism.

Wha-la--another review in the can...