[dougl]

Heroes Are Hard To Find
Fleetwood Mac
Reprise MS 2196
Released: August 1974
Chart Peak: #34
Weeks Charted: 26

The Mac are back, having escaped the autocratic machinations of their sometime manager, and they're sounding really good. Penguin was poor, Mystery To Me was iffy, but Heroes Are Hard to Find is a solid piece of work. For one thing, they rock more and smoother on this album than they have since Future Games; for another, they've finally settled into a homogenous style of which the last two records had only tastes: Penguin's "Remember Me" and "Revelation," Mystery's "Hypnotized" and "Keep On Going." They've dropped Bob Weston, the competent but unnecessary second guitar; Bob Welch now handles all guitars, and the lyrical spirits of Peter Green and Danny Kirwan aare invoked on Heroes, with success. Those clear, linear guitar leads over busy rhythm figures, and high, simple vocals, have always been the Mac sound, though it's undergone certain shifts in emphasis to accomodate the artistic preferences of first Green, then Jeremy Spencer, then Kirwan, and now Welch and Christine McVie. Their sound is, to use an all-but-dead word, unique: there just ain't no other outfit that sounds remotely like Fleetwood Mac.

The title track roars in with a blast horns -- an uncharacteristic overstatement for this band, a change from their usually subtle mix. But it works well, giving the song a strong punch. Written by Christine McVie, it's built around two chords, like many of her songs, including this album's "Come A Little Bit Closer" and "Bad Loser" (written about that manager); it's to her credit and the band's that the arrangements and musicianship are so artful that you hardly notice how plain the songs are. A number of Welch's songs are, as usual by now, in that shifting, swaying "Hypnotized" bag, halfway between shuffle and samba. The standouts are "Angel," which manages to be diffuse, swinging, and funky all at once; "Bermuda Triangle," a second installment in Welch's catalogue of parascientific phenomena which began with "Hypnotized" (it's got a fierce, almost American Indian backbeat laced with choice acoustic guitar licks); "Born Enchanter," a Crusaders-style jazzer with Welch on vibes; and "Safe Harbour," a brief instrumental full of arpeggios and cymbal washes, which Welch has described as "Albatrossesque, a floater." There's no dreck anywhere on this record. The vocals are as beautifully harmonized and uncloyingly sweet as can be, and the bottom laid down by John McVie and Mick Fleetwood is Gibraltar-steady, hustling along, keeping every song right on the money -- these two guys have propelled their band through nine albums, and for my dough, rock hasn't got a better rhythm section. This is a classy band, and Heroes is a strong, mature, and rewarding effort.

- Gerrit Graham, Phonograph Record, 11/74.


Fleetwood Mac came over in the second wave of the British musical invasion and though the personnel has changed since then, the percussion/bass core of Mick Fleetwood and John McVie remains the same while keyboardist/vocalist Christine McVie and guitarist/vocalist Bob Welch have been members long enough to make them almost "originals." Though the band no longer plays the hard blues they rose to fame with, they remain one of the stronger rock entries in the pop sweepstakes. Ms. McVie is a superb singer with a bluesy voice, Welch is a top-notch guitarist and the band as a unit has learned to mix good blues with more pop oriented rock material. Good use of strings here does not interfere with basic sound, and group gets a bit more commercial each time out without losing the distinctive sound they have reached. Best cuts: "Heroes Are Hard To Find," "Come A Little Bit Closer," "Bermuda Triangle," "She's Changing Me," "Prove Your Love."

- Billboard, 1974.

The proof that their formula has finally trapped them is the pitifulness of their attempts to escape -- with string synthesizer, pedal steel, half-assed horns, and other catch-22s of International Pop Music Community. Bob Welch sounds bored, which is certainly poetic justice, and even Christine McVie is less than perfect this time out. Their worst. B-

- Robert Christgau, Christgau's Record Guide, 1981.