So… one thing has become very apparent while I’ve been attempting to talk about music in a critical manner. I have absolutely no idea what I’m doing! Well, that and I have genuinely found it quite hard to just sit and listen to a full album. That attention span my loving parents spent a good long time cultivating in me as a child? Yeah, that’s a thing of the past. But lack of knowledge my inability to concentrate has never stopped me from rushing headlong into new projects before, so I have got my biggest mug of tea, my chunkiest headphones and I have cobbled together a few things to say about Tusk by Fleetwood Mac.
Starting with the basics, Tusk is the 12th studio album by Fleetwood Mac, but only their 3rd after they formed the classic line-up of Lindsey Buckingham, Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Christine McVie and Stevie Nicks. It was released in October 1979 and after the success of Rumours (1977) the band was keen to produce an album that was completely different instead of just following on with something of the same formula. I’ve got to be honest, I’m not sure how successful they were in that. Going into this, Rumours was the only Fleetwood Mac album I had ever consciously listened to and all throughout listening to Tusk I was hearing shades of it everywhere. This isn’t to say that Tusk was derivative or identical, I think it’s more to do with the sound that is uniquely Fleetwood Mac. No matter how hard they tried to escape it there was no disguising Stevie Nick’s positively mournful vocals or Lindsey Buckingham’s sometimes bombastic guitar playing. That said, it is clear even to me that Tusk is an album created by many voices with no unifying vision, and in that, at least it does sound very different to Rumours which plays as a much more complete narrative arc.
I’ve tried not to delve too deeply into the history preceding the album, mostly because I started and very quickly got very overwhelmed by the sheer volume content I would have had to digest and I do want to sleep at some point in my life so… One thing I did read however, was bassist John McVie’s statement that Tusk “sounds like the work of three solo artists”, and yeah, I can really tell where he’s coming from. Many of the songs written by Buckingham (‘Not That Funny’, ‘The Ledge’ and the titular ‘Tusk’ among others) tend to be faster paced with catchy choruses, inviting movement on the part of the listener. In contrast, the songs by Stevie Nicks tend to lean more towards being soulful and passionate (‘Storms’ and ‘Sara’). Christine McVie’s songs are different again, often striking at the middle ground between the two styles (‘Over and Over’ and ‘Think About Me’ are pretty good examples of this).
I personally really love this mix of styles as it makes for an interesting listening experience. Calm songs are followed by those with a faster, more energetic pace which in turn are pulled back by a sweet minimalist ballad. It helps that I found a good number of the songs catchy and could hum/sing along after only a few re-listens. It’s also a very long album (a double), which means that there is a lot to focus on and makes it quite a good choice to have playing while doing other things (seriously, so much knitting got done while I was working my way through this). For me, stand out songs were ‘Storms‘, the title track ‘Tusk‘ (which despite not looking at the track list when it came on was immediately identifiable) and ‘Sisters of the Moon‘ which combines a driving, insistent beat with powerful vocals and a sweet melody.
So there we are, my thoughts on Tusk. Overall, I’ve really enjoyed listening to Tusk and it is prompting me somewhat to go listen to other Fleetwood Mac albums as I am now curious to see how their sound has changed as band members have come and gone, and as their sound has aged and matured. I can only view this as a good thing, as my usual trick is to find a song I enjoy and then listen to it on repeat until I hate it with a passion. Maybe this will help me add a little diversity into my (long) established playlists.
Back to Review 1: Citizen Kane
Review Thirty-Six 
One thought on “Review 2: ‘Tusk’ by Fleetwood Mac”