Gift of Screws Reviews

[michelej1]

Star Telegram, 9-17-08

http://www.star-telegram.com/enterta...ry/912325.html

Lindsey Buckingham

Gift of Screws

***

Any Buckingham solo project is rife with stylistic ying and yang: Gift of Screws features the ex-Fleetwood Mac-man’s guitar work running a gamut from flamenco-spiced runs to viciously serrated electric guitar solos. And Buckingham’s vocals seem purposely soaked in a distancing wash of reverb, or are whispery intimate. The effect places his alternately jaded or mantra-like lyrics across a great chasm, or right up against your earlobe. Those extremes make for songs that want to grab and repel you at the same time.

[michelej1]

Boston Globe, 9-16-2008, by Linda Laban

http://www.boston.com/ae/music/cd_re...his/?page=full

The Gift is His

Gift of Screws (Reprise)

ESSENTIAL "Great Day"

Beginning with Buckingham Nicks in 1973 and most famously with Fleetwood Mac, Lindsey Buckingham has made music professionally for 35 years. Yet "Gift of Screws" is only his fifth solo record. Perhaps that's why the singer and guitarist (who turns 60 next month) still sounds so vital and passionate, especially on the voluptuous, opening songs "Great Day" and "Time Precious Time," where his luminescent riffs and nimble finger-picking shine. (Conversely, the final songs, "Underground" and "Treason," are throwaway and perfectly placed for the stop-button.) Mostly, though, Buckingham doesn't stray far from his comfort zone of soft-rock (the engaging "Did You Miss Me"), blues rock (the infectious "Wait For You" with it's gloriously determined chorus), and arena-rock boogie ("Love Runs Deeper," a delirious, catchy stomp with Buckingham's straight-ahead guitar solo in just the place you'd expect to find it: the middle). That's the stuff that Fleetwood Mac's stellar "Rumours" and "Tusk" were made of, but, apart from the odd drum and bass part - notably, Mac's Mick Fleetwood and John McVie perform on a few tracks - the Buckingham single-handedly turns these screws.

Lindsey Buckingham performs at Berklee Performance Center on Oct 17.

[strandinthewind]

Originally Posted by michelej1

Like Underground .

Michele

I think so. LB and La Nicks used to sound very similar in the 70's, but that changed as they aged. Personally, I think LB loved the tight harmonies, which La Nicks gave him for years, to be woven in the looser musical structure of many of his songs.

[TrueFaith77]

Current Metacritic Rating: 81

[kak125]

If this has already been posted I am sorry. There are so many pages it would take forever to go through them all, LOL!

Lindsey Buckingham

Gift of Screws Hear it Now

RS: 3.5of 5 Stars Average User Rating: 4.5of 5 Stars

2008

View Lindsey Buckingham's page on Rhapsody

On this album's opener, "Great Day," there's an electric-guitar solo so blowtorch-hot, it seems specifically designed to bitch-slap anyone with the nerve to wonder if Lindsey Buckingham still rocks. Buckingham's 2006 comeback, Under the Skin, was largely a reflective, parlor-room affair, full of self-doubt and dazzling acoustic playing, and here, the mood is still darkly introspective: "Suicide days, suicide, suicide nights/In the wheelchair almost blind," he sings on "Wait for You." But the sound under him is a wild roadhouse blues with the signature groove of old bandmates Mick Fleetwood and John McVie. Fleetwood's drumming also powers "The Right Place to Fade," a classic Mac-style hook barrage with a strummy "Go Your Own Way" gallop and a head-kicking harmony chorus. Elsewhere, things are more subdued: "Time Precious Time" is a spiraling incantation that's nearly psych folk. Old rubberneckers may ponder whether songs like "Did You Miss Me" address Buckingham's former paramour Stevie Nicks. But who cares? What matters here isn't that he used to be in Fleetwood Mac — it's that he can still make music nearly as bright.

http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/...gift_of_screws

[michelej1]

Originally Posted by strandinthewind

I think so. LB and La Nicks used to sound very similar in the 70's, but that changed as they aged. Personally, I think LB loved the tight harmonies, which La Nicks gave him for years, to be woven in the looser musical structure of many of his songs.

The way he has used both Christine and Stevie's voices on projects outside of FM (his own and other artists'), I think he likes the contrast they both add, with Stevie singing similar to him and Christine singing fuller, very much.

Michele

[strandinthewind]

Not to mention the Stevie look alike he used in the Slow Dancing video

[michelej1]

Originally Posted by strandinthewind

Not to mention the Stevie look alike he used in the Slow Dancing video

I don't think she's a look alike, I just think we are all conditioned to think anyone about that height with blonde hair looks like Stevie. With the pictures in UTS I kept saying to myself, "Why don't we see Kristen's face? Why is she turned away from the camera? Why is she wearing a gypsy dress?"

Michele

[AliceLover]

Originally Posted by strandinthewind

I think so. LB and La Nicks used to sound very similar in the 70's, but that changed as they aged. Personally, I think LB loved the tight harmonies, which La Nicks gave him for years, to be woven in the looser musical structure of many of his songs.

Thats clearly Lindsey singing the background harmonies. Its such an amazing song.

[michelej1]

[Female vocal harmony shines through, huh]

The Austinist, 9-16-08

http://austinist.com/2008/09/16/new_..._tuesday_2.php

Lindsey Buckingham Gift of Screws (Warner Bros.)
Though originally slated for release in 2001 Gift of Screws is finally out, though its parts are very different from the original version. Most of the tracks from 2001's album (never released on Reprise) wound up on 2006's Under the Skin, and those that didn't might never surface again. Regardless, our official version of Gift offers bright, reflective and downright rockin' Buckingham tunes that sometimes dabble in the sunshine-y rays of Fleetwood Mac influence. Rightfully so: joining Buckingham on this album are old friends Mick Fleetwood and John McVie, and the time-tested duo offer their signature rhythm section bursting with galloping drums and full bass. "Right Place to Fade" is a highlight, and will be familiar to those acquainted with the bootleg of Gift's original version. We're glad it has survived this long: the guitar work, female vocal harmony and undeniably-Fleetwood snare and cymbal play take us right back to that first time we listened to Rumours. Moving out of the sensitive, nearly all-acoustic venture of Under the Skin, Gift of Screws offers electric anthems, trademark finger picking and exhilarating highs throughout. Kudos to L Bucks for maintaining such a diverse and gratifying palette, lucky for us those fingers are still nimble enough to put into practice what his mind invents.

[strandinthewind]

Originally Posted by michelej1

I don't think she's a look alike, I just think we are all conditioned to think anyone about that height with blonde hair looks like Stevie. With the pictures in UTS I kept saying to myself, "Why don't we see Kristen's face? Why is she turned away from the camera? Why is she wearing a gypsy dress?"

Michele

I think she looks and dresses just like La Nicks. I can't post the video right now though.

[michelej1]

Originally Posted by strandinthewind

I think she looks and dresses just like La Nicks. I can't post the video right now though.

Yeah, I've seen the vampire video many times. I don't thinks she's just like Stevie at all. I think an argument could be made that in the UTS picture, Kristen is dressed like Stevie (sort of) from the Tusk photo shoot, in her white dress. Then, we don't see her face either, to keep the illusion intact.

Michele

[michelej1]

New York Magazine, 9-17-08:

http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment...ited_solo.html

Long-Awaited Solo Work From Lindsey Buckingham

Gift of Screws, Lindsey Buckingham’s fifth solo album, has been a long-gestating affair. Some of its material dates back to the nineties, and it was completely derailed when the singer-guitarist gave up tracks for Fleetwood Mac’s 2003 album, Say You Will. But it’s here now, and it feels totally complete, from the ominous opening track “Good Day” and the anthemic “Love Runs Deeper” to the rollicking title track. A pleasant surprise in the late stage of the legend’s career.

[strandinthewind]

Originally Posted by michelej1

Yeah, I've seen the vampire video many times. I don't thinks she's just like Stevie at all. I think an argument could be made that in the UTS picture, Kristen is dressed like Stevie (sort of) from the Tusk photo shoot, in her white dress. Then, we don't see her face either, to keep the illusion intact.

Michele

I think K dresses like Stevie. She did on the T&C cover and in other pics I have seen her in. To be fair, the witchy look has been in for awhile now.

As for the video - I do not think she looks like La Nicks in the face, but she looks like her from a far, which mainly is whay they show. That and the fact that she is doing ballet and the higer harmonies sound exactly like La Nicks in that era just add fuel to the fire

As an aside, the intro of this song sounds to me exactly like the intro to Stand Back.

[vivfox]

Buckingham displays craftsmanship
Bill Robertson and Cassandra Kyle, The StarPhoenix

Lindsey Buckingham

Gift of Screws

Reprise Records

Rating 3 1/2

Lindsey Buckingham, one-fifth of the biggest-ever version of Fleetwood Mac, has long been known as a meticulous craftsman.

That could account for the haunted and pained looks he wears on the cover and in the CD booklet of his latest album, Gift of Screws. It's as if he hates to be dragged away from his work, even for a few quick promo shots.

Track one bears witness to that theory: Great Day opens with some quirky, oddly syncopated rhythms, over which are layered many, many guitars, all of them played by Buckingham. In fact, except for a bit of help from a few bandmates and a couple of appearances by Mick Fleetwood and John McVie, Buckingham, like studio/musical mavens Paul McCartney and Brian Wilson, does it all.

The overdubbed acoustic and Spanish guitars in Time Precious Time are meant to affect a waterfall, and they do a marvelous job. Indeed, the guitar work here is stunning. You can't make out a whole lot of what Buckingham is singing -- here or anywhere on the album -- but suffice to say there's a melancholy tinge to this reflections on modern life and love, and he does provide the lyrics.

For the balance of the album, Buckingham goes for a slightly more conventional pop-rock sound, sounding like Fleetwood Mac on The Right Place To Fade (try Second Hand News) and giving us a straight ahead rocker on the title track, with its wild guitar and drums and its maniacal vocal on the chorus.

Buckingham likes to take his time and make his own kind of music. This album bears the marks of a devoted and eccentric musical wizard.

--Robertson

http://www.canada.com/saskatoonstarp...c-56ded2b05d78