Tango In The Night

[tabruns]

Originally Posted by Ripley

First Impression.

I'm a fairly young FM fan (24) and although I've loved Rumours, S/T and Bella Donna for a decade I've actually never listened to Tusk, Mirage and TITN in their entirety before. Of course I'm familiar with most of the singles from these albums and the ones performed on The Dance though. So, I've decided to rectify this glaring omission and I've begun with Tango.

I'm sort of surprised that Christine McVie's contributions are the stand out of the entire album. Mainly because her 80's solo record is mostly unremarkable. On Tango, however, she gets in the best songs with Everywhere and Little Lies. Isn't It Midnight is a great jam and a very typical McVie song. Mystified is a bit odd with it's almost "Let's Get It On" mood and You and I, Part II is fun.

Stevie's songs lack the urgency that her material from S/T & Rumours have. Seven Wonders feels very much like a solo track and Welcome to the Room Sara is largely forgettable. When I See You Again is fantastic but far from a masterwork.

And Lindsey... *sigh*, I find his tracks on this album insufferable. I've always found Big Love to be a bit pretentious and jarring to listen to and Family Man has to be one of his worst songs. Caroline and the title track are both fairly boring. I like Lindsey but his work in the 80's is indulgent to a fault.

Overall it's a good album. I almost wish it was a follow up to McVie's self titled record because she seemed to be on quite a roll during this period. Unfortunately Nicks offers very little and Buckingham is still on a mission to prove how clever he can be.

B-

I hope I haven't made any enemies with my thoughts and welcome some observations from more seasoned fans of the band.

Hi Ripley,

Thanks for the observations. I've been a Mac fan since Rumours came out, and I bought every album of theirs since then (clarification: every album of theirs that had Stevie on it).

I have to say that I think your assessment of Tango in the Night is very similar to mine.

To me, all three songwriters were at the top of their form for 'Fleetwood Mac' and 'Rumours'. On the following three albums, one of the writers was "off":

Tusk - Lindsey and Stevie both turn in very creative, great songs. Christine's are very mediocre when compared to her output on the previous two Mac albums. "Think About Me" and "Over & Over" are decent album tracks. "Brown Eyes" is saved by masterful production. "Honey Hi", "Never Make Me Cry" and "Never Forget" are all kind of forgettable, IMO.

Mirage - Stevie and Christine turn in the best tracks here. Lindsey fumbles, frankly I think because of reacting to the blow-back he got from Tusk: "Oh Diane" is somewhat cute, "Empire State" has that rolling bass line to save it, but "Can't Go Back", "Eyes of the World", and "Book of Love" all lack any kind of gravity at all.

Tango In The Night - Here Lindsey rebounds, Christine shines, and Stevie is the culprit. The only decent Stevie song, "Seven Wonders", wasn't even written by her. Some fans find "Welcome to the Room...Sara" to be touching because its personal. I find it to be a meandering mess of a song. "When I See You Again" might have been salvageable except for the constant repetition of "whatsa matter baby" that Stevie thinks she has to sing a different way everytime.

The only album that they've all done together since then is The Dance, and on that one they all turned in solid songs. I always found it amusing what they wrote about:
Lindsey writes "My Little Demon" about himself and "Bleed to Love Her" about Stevie.
Stevie writes "Sweet Girl" about herself.
Christine writes "Temporary One" about the band.

[McTrouble]

Originally Posted by markolas

I've been listening to Tango a lot the last couple of days. I made a playlist for my ipod and added Ricky, Down Endless Street, Book of Miracles, Joan of Arc, and You and I, Pt. 1 to the end. I'd forgotten how much I love this album, and I actually think Welcome to the Room...Sara is a pretty good song.

I've always loved all of LB's songs from Tango. His songs from this and Tusk are his best work w/ FM, IMO.

Me too - LB's songs on Tango are very grown-up and very very sophisticated.

[cliffdweller]

Originally Posted by aleuzzi

The band that made TITN might as well have been a different band that made Tusk. Both albums are excellent in their own way, but Tusk has urgency, has genuine artistic vision. TITN sounds like a well-orchestrated albeit calculated bid for the charts.

And this is kind of the problem. After Tusk, the band (-Lindsey) wanted to go back to a more mainstream, commercial sound a la Mirage and Tango. I wish they would've kept with the Tusk ethos of experimentation and change, but I understand why they didn't, and I think there are some really great songs on both Mirage and Tango. But to me, the height of FM's genius came along with Tusk and god bless Lindsey Buckingham for having the cajones to push that sucker through. Yes, I'm sure making Tusk was the closest thing Lindsey Buckingham has ever experienced to giving birth and I'm sure it was just as painful.