Album Review: Lindsey Buckingham, Under the Skin

In short: good, if not the album I wanted him to do.

Lindsey Buckingham, if you didn’t know, was the guitarist for Fleetwood Mac in their glory days. You can’t really call him the brains of the bunch, as the rest of the members were quite talented in their own way, but he was the one who added that extra bit of artistry to turn them from a modestly popular band to one of the world’s most famous. In retrospect, his rise was astonishing: less than a year after he joined the band, they released the smash “Fleetwood Mac” album; “Rumours” came less than two years later and became the greatest-selling album of all time.

For my money, Buckingham is an absolute musical genius, with a gift for making excellent rock-pop songs. I don’t think he’s the greatest songwriter around, but he has that Midas touch of being able to take anyone’s songs, including his own, and turning them into gold with his performing, arranging, and producing skills. Unfortunately for me, he doesn’t seem that interested in exercising his gifts in conventional forms, no matter how good he may be at it. “Rumours” was followed up by the unconventional (but no less excellent) “Tusk”. But on his own, without the band to keep him honest, Buckingham’s work is much more uneven and experimental. His first two albums have a few good singles but in general fail to grab me. 1992’s “Out of the Cradle” was the album where he really reached his solo promise; I like that album very much.

I’ve listened to “Under the Skin” for about two weeks now. It reverts to experimental form, which is not necessarily a good thing in my book. For better or for worse, it’s not really a rock album. Not much in the way of electric guitar (or bass or drums, for that matter). Most of the songs are reminiscent of “Red Rover” from Fleetwood Mac’s last album, “Say You Will” – lots of finger-picking; muted and whispered vocals; most songs are a bit fragmented.

Songs: oddly, the album starts off weakly (in my opinion of course), and gets stronger song by song until two-thirds of the way through. My favorites are “Cast Away Dream” and “Down on Rodeo” which, probably not coincidentally, have the most conventional structure. Both are excellent; well worth the price of the album.

Overall, I’d say it’s about a solid ‘B’ – the best songs rate an ‘A’, but there are a few too many ‘C’s. I have to admit, the album gets a little better each time I hear it, but still I wish he had done something more straightforward.