Fleetwood Mac - Mystery To Me

Penguin > Mystery to Me > Heroes Are Hard To Find.

but maybe I should go back. these albs were on Rhapsody and got dropped, maybe the Mac are disowning their transitional yrs?

what think ye of Kiln House, Stormy?

Would easily rate this ahead of Penguin, which still strikes me as the weakest FM album, pretty much period. On some days I like this about as much as Bare Trees...hate to get hung up on production, but M2M sounds seriously amazing compared w/what preceded it (and a lot of what followed).

Lovebug -- man I haven't listened to Kiln House in ages but I've been meaning to pull it out. especially after watching that clip of the LB-era band performing "Station Man" (!) that was posted on one of the Youtube threads...

and put "oh well" on repeat ;)

<3 Christine

RIP both Bobs :(

'Ashkan' album is like 75% great

there is one real dumb blooze-y track toward the end of Ashkan, iirc, otherwise, sure, solid Deram Brit hard rock

but anyway, Welch is all time

my memory was fucked in 2006 cause Mystery to Me is waaaay better than Penguin.

anyway Stormy otm, Bob Welch is all time.

damn – "Believe Me"!

Had the headphones up real loud and the first snare shot made me jump about 3 feet in the air

Though they're all probably excellent musicians with talent coming out of their ears, the fact still remains that ever since Fleetwood Mac lost its three guitarists extraordinaire they've become increasingly less interesting. Things that are better felt than expressed have brought Fleetwood Mac to a point where the band just doesn't seem to matter much anymore.

Though performed with great proficiency and occasionally enlightening subtlety, the first side of Mystery To Me turned out to be so abysmally dismal that I gave serious consideration to just stopping it right there and chucking the damn thing out the window at a passing bird. All the songs were the same faceless blend of tired, low-key English rock. Things proceeded at a funeral pace, and whenever Christine McVie assumed the vocal chores she could be counted on for the same old bland-as-sand mood mouthings.

Side two turned out to be considerably better, though hardly comparable to the fire associated with the name Fleetwood Mac during the residencies of Messrs. Green, Spencer and Kirwan. At least the flip side could be said to have a little life, and in fact several of its songs might be said to be a trifle on the invigorating side. "Miles Away" flat out moved, propelled into the domain of the current Savoy Brown by compelling, solid rhythm work and Bob Weston's enticingly electric musings on lead guitar. And "Somebody" turned out to be compatible with the group's earliest work, a bluesy shuffle with hefty helpings of boogie bite.

"For Your Love" was a patent example of a successful exercise in extrapolation, with the band turning the Graham Gouldman/Yardbirds original around and doing it their own way. Weston's lead guitar was again the star, punctuating vocal phrases, leading the rest of the band through updated instrumental changes. A true lead guitarist at work. His bottleneck intro into "Why" also proved to be on the interesting side—showing that he, too, has listened to Blind Willie Johnson's "Dark Was the Night."

Unfortunately, Weston just can't do for this group what his predecessors accomplished. In the long run, he wisely chooses not to even try. As for Mystery To Me, uhm, it's sad that four songs that should have been average turned out to be the best the album had to offer. Mediocrity really is a drag.

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GORDON FLETCHER
(Posted: Jan 3, 1974)

That reviewer must be running for mayor of Wrongtown. Gave me a new DN though.

How did I not know until TODAY that The Pointer Sisters recorded "Hypnotized"?!?!?!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXGARoJ8bBg

i really dig "keep on going"? super funky, great string riffs, christine all bluesed-out, love it.

ha question mark there is a typo