Bucking The System

by Chris Welch
Rock World Magazine, July 1992 

Ex-Fleetwood Mac man Lindsey Buckingham has branched off at a tangent with a serene self-confidence on his new solo album. CHRIS WELCH finds out why he left the safety of the Fleetwood family to emerge "Out Of The Cradle".

In the days when Fleetwood Mac were huge, the names Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks were inextricably linked, like Hale & Pace or Marks & Spencer, Their hits, their romances, made headline news. But it's been four years since he quit the Mac, and eight years since his last solo album and memories of that era have grown dim.

The singer, guitar player and song-writer has been working hard for the past three years on his new offering "Out Of The Cradle" with engineer Richard Dashut. The result is an irritating collection of fragments; some good songs, blended with moments of self-indulgence. An acoustic version of the standard "This Nearly Was Mine" is quite attractive, but his strumming often sounds more petulant than positive. And a bow to Fifties doo wap on "Say We'll Meet Again" is frankly, Muzak for the Stepford Wives. It would be hard to imagine any fans of the original Fleetwood Mac, back in the days of Peter Green, being able to relate to the pretty- pretty Pop harmonies of "Don't Look Down". But when Lindsey admits his favorite album is "South Pacific" and prefers Natalie Cole to R&B, his current musical draft is hardly surprising.

"Leaving the band was a tough decision, after all those years I really didn't want to tour anymore, and it was time for a change. On the solo record I wanted to play more guitar, even at the risk of being flashy"

After leaving the big Mac he says he didn't do much for a while, but let the dust settle, before easing back into work. "Part of making this record was in re-discovering music that seemed to be coming into its own again, with people like Natalie Cole and Harry Connick who have completely bypassed R&B."

"There seems to be a new audience for that kind of music. The soundtrack for "South Pacific" was one of the first albums I ever heard, when I was three years old. It was my father's favorite song, so it's personal. There's an element of family in this record, my personal history, that I think was important for me to get out into the open. I've spent three years relying on my own judgment and now I'm ready to find out what someone else thinks about it all."