Fleetwood Mac Album: “Tusk (Deluxe Edition)”

"Tusk" stands as the peak, shining moment in Fleetwood Mac's entire career, a truly special album that transcended commercial expectation and still demands close attention. With all three songwriters in full bloom, Lindsey Buckingham was able to fashion stunning arrangements for their creations which made them work as both catchy pop tunes and avant-garde experiments. Stevie Nicks would never sound better, as she expanded her witch-poet persona into full blown explorations of the heart and mind; "Sara", with its airy harmonies and lacey, intricate overdubs, manages to evoke the flavor of its lyric with disarming grace. An instant classic, it appears in edited form here, which is of course the one frustrating gripe with the CD. "Storms" and "Beautiful Child" quietly build their moods with a mystical subtlety and craftsmanlike precision, while "Sisters Of The Moon" is kind of a Rhiannon Part Two. Buckingham responds with songs that take on a nervous, almost manic tone ("The Ledge", "Not That Funny", "What Makes You Think You're The One"), and then he cuts back with intimate torch moments that will tear you to pieces ("Save Me A Place"--which has the finest harmonies on any Fleetwood Mac record--and "Walk A Thin Line"). McVie ocassionally treads water, offering up middle-of-the-road pop like "Think About Me" and "Never Forget", although she too contributes the exquisite ballad "Never Make Me Cry", the glorious harmony exercise "Honey Hi" and the atmospheric "Brown Eyes".

Mention must also be made to the unique percussion sounds achieved for the album: Mick Fleetwood attains new heights of drum god status on "Brown Eyes", "What Makes You Think You're The One" and the title track; there is a tribal feel to his playing that is tempered by modern recording ideas. The famous "bathroom tile" echo shimmers on "That's All For Everyone" and "Walk A Thin Line", which saw Buckingham on his knees in front of a toilet, Brian Wilson-style, to achieve his aims. It is a credit to his production techniques that the arrangements are incredibly elaborate and yet at no point do they overwhelm the songs--indeed, their strength often lies in what is hidden. Many of the songs are not as immediately appealing as those on "Fleetwood Mac" or "Rumours", but they end up far more satisfying in the long run (indeed, after hearing "Go Your Own Way" a zillion times on classic rock radio, a gem like "Save Me A Place" can sound especially fresh). The group's creativity was so intense at this period, actually, that several A-quality Nicks songs, including "Watchdevil", "Lady From The Mountain" and "Beauty And The Beast" were left as outtakes and survive only on bootlegs. In sum, "Tusk" found Fleetwood Mac in a unique position, still reeling from the runaway commercial success of "Rumours" but intent on creating sound paintings that expressed the aftermath of the relationship turmoil that created that moment. What is needed now is a deluxe double CD-issue of Tusk, remastered with bonus tracks of outtakes from the sessions, since it is clear that many of these songs underwent interesting drafts before they made the final product.

Like John said a few reviews ago, find this album on vinyl and burn your own cd. That's what I've attempted to do, but my burner is broken. Anyway there are at least two major problems with the CD. Most people know that Sara is edited, and that you can actually hear the edit when it takes place (ouch!). But then there is also a practically new version of I Know I'm Not Wrong, and its horrible. I'm sure there are other differences, but I only played the CD twice, and then immediatly sold it. However, on vinyl, Tusk is a masterpiece. Lindsey Buckingham proves to be an excellent producer/songwriter. Of the 20 songs, 5 are stellar Buckingham songs: Save Me A Place, What Makes You Think You're The One, That's All For Everyone, I Know I'm Not Wrong, and Walk A Thin Line. Despite a few extremely slow parts (Brown Eyes, Beautiful Child), the other 15 songs are great. Anyway, YOU WANT THIS. Look for the vinyl. Tusk is BY FAR the greatest FM album, and my #3 favorite album of all time.

An ambitious and often misunderstood recording, TUSK is possibly the Mac's most rewarding effort - even if it's not as accessible as the band's other records. The critics hated it and after selling 18 million records and spending over 30 weeks at #1 with RUMOURS, TUSK's sales of 4 million copies and "only" hitting #4 on the Hot 100 was considered a big disappointment. Originally released as a mammoth, seventy minute-plus double record set, Tusk is anything but commercial. I will always argue, however, that this usual experiment is the best work that the members of any lineup of Fleetwood Mac were ever involved with. Heck, I will even go as far to argue that TUSK is one of the greatest recordings of the rock era, period.

Stevie Nicks turns in five of her very best compositions to the album, and, for the most part, she seems to have been in a highly introspective mood. She penned the set's biggest hit single, the nearly seven-minute mini-opus "Sara" (#7 Pop), which explores some very personal subject matter in a poetic and ambiguous manner - all while seducing the listener with an irresistibly hypnotic groove. Nicks also plays up her mystic persona on the intoxicating "Sisters of the Moon," which can send chills down the listener's spine like an unexpected gush of wind. Stevie even flirts with moderately hard rock on the intense "Angel," which works it's driving melody to the fullest extent in addition to laying down an instantly memorable refrain.

The best of Nicks' material, however, are the gorgeous, refreshingly unsentimental ballads "Storms" and "Beautiful Child." Stevie has commonly been described by fans and critics as a the perpetual woman/child, always just one the verge of reaching full maturity - she is destined to reach for the sky, yet is doomed to walk the earth. This unusual predicament has left Nicks with tremendous gift for crafting songs with universal themes that still manage to carry a unique edge. This is exactly what allows the very best of Nicks' to stand out from the compositions that other writers have been churning out for centuries. "Storms" and "Beautiful Child" are perfect examples of this, and both songs arguably remain her finest song-writing achievements.

Perhaps the stereotypical woes of sudden stardom are to blame, but, as with Stevie Nicks, TUSK also finds Christine McVie in a somber, soul-searching mood. Fortunately, this suits the longtime Mac muse well, and her dark husky voice has seldom sounded more beautifully pained. In fact, the McVie-penned opening number, the mournful "Over and Over," is actually what sets the pace for the entire double record set. The song, which is an extremely rare exception of a cry of desperation that never sounds pathetic or self-pitying, is an absolute tour de force for McVie, and lets listeners know that the band had no intention of simply recreating RUMOURS. It with some irony then that McVie also contributes the most RUMOURS-esque cut on the album. The blaring mid-tempo rocker "Think About Me" (#20 Pop) is the closest thing tusk has to bright AOR of RUMOURS, but even it has slightly dark edge that separates it from the polished pop of the previous record.

After those first two compositions, the bulk of the tracks penned by McVie are featured on the last half of the album. In addition to "Over and Over" and "Think About Me" (which are both sequenced near the very beginning of the record), Christine also delivers the intense ballad "Brown Eyes," the elegant folk of "Honey Hi" and "Never Forget," which plays like an homage to the very best pop of the Brill Building era. While all of Christine's material is remarkably solid (as is the rest of the disc's material), my absolute favorite McVie-penned track on the album (along with the aforementioned "Over and Over") is the heartbreaking piano ballad "Never Make Me Cry." The tender simplicity in the arrangement, melody, and lyrics combine seamlessly with the gorgeous melancholy in McVie's voice to create a haunting hymn to neglected love that resonates in the mind long after the track has ended.

Lindsey Buckingham really took control over the recording, with his name even signaled out from the rest of the band members as a "special thanks" on the production credit. In addition to creating amazing sonic landscapes for the material by Stevie Nicks and Christine McVie, Buckingham also delivers nine original compositions that are nervy, frantic, and fantastic. The lean, fist-thumping rock numbers "The Ledge," "What Makes You Think You're the One," and "Not That Funny" each have a primal energy that seems to radiate through the speakers. Each of these tracks have a stripped-down, blistering urgency that leaves the band sounding more like tried-and-true rockers rather than pampered MOR superstars who are recording the followup to a massive success.

TUSK also allows Buckingham to pay homage to many of his own early influences and musical heros. He seems to channel Buddy Holly on the rootsy rockers "That's Enough for Me" and "I Know I'm Not Wrong," while the lush, tight harmonies of "Save Me a Place" and "Walk a Thin Line" both rival even the very best of the Beach Boys. Impressive variety is present in all of Buckingham's tracks, which are all arranged and performed with a wide assortment of surprises and unexpected turns. On one end of the spectrum is the soft tones of the somewhat distressful "That's All for Everyone," while the thunderous stampede of the avant garde title track (#8 Pop) is on the clear opposite end.

Though commonly thought of as a failure, or at least a commercial disappointment, TUSK represents Fleetwood Mac taking a huge commercial and artistic chances and emerging with one of the greatest achievements of the rock era.

When I saw Bill Inglot's name attached to this remaster I thought, thank goodness they got somebody with a proven track record. I own at least a couple dozen discs remastered by Inglot, and while I suppose some could accuse him of having a heavy hand with the equalizer, I generally find the results spectacular. His Dionne Warwick hits CD from a decade or so ago is just stunning.

So imagine how disappointed I was when I popped this disc into my car stereo and heard the flattest, dullest sounding recording I've ever heard associated with the name "Fleetwood Mac". Now, granted, Tusk always had a hot high-end, even on LP. The original CD was delightfully bright throughout, but could certainly be accused of being shrill in spots. I expected any remastering to correct that occasional harshness. What I did not expect was for the remastering to dull the sound so dramatically.

Gone are the wonderful details formerly audible in the brilliant guitar work on this record. Gone is the sense of space and ambiance in the vocals. Gone are the high, airy harmonies in songs like "Sara" and "I Walk A Thin Line". Mick Fleetwood's wonderful cymbals have been defanged and deflated. Even the lowly triangle on "Honey, Hi" has been rendered a square.

All of that sonic goodness has been replaced by an awfully tubby, booming, intrusive and annoying mid-bass. It sounds like Tusk as played on the cheap Sears stereo my parents gave me in the early '80s. Horrid.

The only good thing I can say about this remaster is that the deep bass has been enhanced, which it probably needed to be - at least a bit - to compensate for the original's hot high-end. Unfortunately, with the high-end sanded flat, the deep bass now sounds entirely out of proportion with the rest of the material.

All this clumsy sonic tweaking has dramatically altered the balance of the vocals and instruments in the mix as well, resulting in weird artifacts. The block work in "Honey, Hi" for example goes from being a minor background element to becoming an intrusive annoyance, like there's a cricket loose in the room. Christine McVie's vocals are pushed right off the soundstage in several tracks - she ends up sounding like she's singing off in a distant corner of the studio, with the band drowning her out. The results sound nothing like any prior releases of Tusk - the LP, the tracks from the original Greatest Hits CD or The Chain boxed set. That's a sign something has gone terribly wrong with this remastering. You'd think *somebody* at the studio would have noticed . . .

I have to say, I've been terribly disappointed with a number of "remastered" discs over the past couple of years. Not only are these "remasterings" not correcting for obvious flaws, they're frequently introducing new flaws and end up sounding far worse than the original releases. Botched jobs like this are simply encouraging me to save my money and spend it on something other than records. The studios really need to get their act together if they want to continue cashing in on the remaster gravy train.

I once heard Stevie Nicks claim in an interview that "Tusk" was ahead of its time. How true. While not as emotional or fiery as "Rumours," this remains my favorite FM album because it is so non commercial. As much as I love FM, I've grown tired of "Don't Stop" and "Dreams." Nothing on "Tusk" sounds so contrived. Lindsey Buckingham does go a little wild, but his "Walk a Thin Line" is a great ballad. Christine McVie is superb on "Over and Over," "Never Make Me Cry," and "Never Forget." That leaves Stevie Nicks. I've always claimed that she hit her creative peak between 1979 - 1981, and her songs on "Tusk" are among her best. "Storms" shows her vunerability while "Angel" is upbeat and should have been released as a single. But the best is "Sara," on which Stevie spends over six minutes anguishing about a love she can never have atop soaring vocals. It is, simply, as classic.