Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

God, it’s slight: Lindsey Buckingham’s new album reviewed

You yearn for a little grit in these pallid oysters

issue 25 September 2021

Grade: B–

The first time Lindsey Buckingham had a big falling out with Stevie Nicks we at least got some half-decent, if occasionally soporific, music out of it. That was Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours, a soft-limbed, coked-up AOR colossus that for many defines mid-1970s music. It contained Buckingham’s finest moment, ‘Go Your Own Way’ — the weird, awkward, staggered rhythm of the verse somehow enhancing the howl of rage in the chorus. A howl of rage directed at the ethereal and slightly irritating Nicks, of course.

Nearly 50 years later, they’re still at it. Nicks reportedly had him fired from the band’s latest tour because she couldn’t bear to be anywhere near him. Buckingham sued, they settled out of court and he went back to doing what he likes best, messing around in the studio by himself.

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