Tampa Bay Tribune, September 18, 2008
http://www2.tbo.com/content/2008/sep...entertainment/
Were Lindsey Buckingham not a member of one of rock's most successful groups, he would likely be adored by a small but intense cult following, the kind of fan boys who wouldn't deign to listen to anything loved by the rabble, such as Fleetwood Mac.
But when Buckingham explicitly invokes Fleetwood Mac's "Second Hand News" on this album's "The Right Place to Fade," it's not just a reminder about his more lucrative day job. It shows that those irresistible pop confections he whipped up for Mac often had something strange, even disturbing, at their cores.
Like much of Buckingham's solo work, "Gift of Screws" plays like a Fleetwood Mac disc with everything askew and the intensity level peaking well into the red. Minus Mick Fleetwood and John McVie's grounding R&B-schooled grooves and Stevie Nicks' more mainstream influence, Buckingham gives free rein to his studio innovations and the more shadowy side of his psyche.
Listen to "Time Precious Time," the second cut here. It's almost unbearably beautiful and also scary as hell. Buckingham plays gorgeous ascending and descending finger-picked guitar lines throughout, then multi-tracks them into a gale-force cascade of notes, both heavenly and oppressive.
"Gift of Screws" is the first studio album on which Buckingham has truly unbridled his guitar the way he does live. He closes "Great Day" with a screaming solo that will have jaws dropping and builds "Wait for You" on a howling guitar line that's like barbed wire slicing through oleander. For all his studio wizardry, "Gift of Screws" also conjures the raw splendor of Buckingham live.
"Gift of Screws" gives free rein to Fleetwood Mac guitarist Lindsey Buckingham's studio innovations and the more shadowy side of his psyche.