You’ll probably remember about a year ago when I was yammering on about my disappointment with Fleetwood Mac’s Say You Will, the first studio album in some 15 years with both Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham on board – but also the first studio album in many more years without Christine McVie. When I heard Friend, the first single from McVie’s first post-Mac solo album, I thought to myself “Ah, so that’s where the real Fleetwood Mac sound went – Christine took it with her!” After listening to the entire album from which that song springs, though, one wonders if that train of thought doesn’t run in both directions.
First off, let’s talk about what’s good on this album. Christine’s still got that voice, that husky voice that’s been sending shivers up and down my spine since I was young enough to have no business having those kind of shivers. Everything’s pretty much mid-tempo, pleasant adult-contemporary fare.
On the downside…everything’s pretty much mid-tempo, pleasant adult-contemporary fare. Christine gave us (or gave Fleetwood Mac) such songs as the rockin’ “Isn’t It Midnight” and the stately and beautiful “Songbird”. And she herself has had some knockout uptempo numbers like her best solo hit to date, “Got A Hold On Me”. When the only standouts from this collection I can think of are “Friend”, “Easy Come”, “Easy Go”, “Liar” and the just-about funky “Bad Journey”, maybe there’s a hint that a lot of the material on In The Meantime sounds very similar. There are few tracks that jump out and grab you, and arguably the song that has the best chance of doing that is right at the beginning of the album.
Ultimately, it’s interesting. One could probably take a few select tracks from In The Meantime, put them back to back with a few select tracks from Say You Will, and almost have the makings of the best Fleetwood Mac album since Mirage. Numerous tracks on both albums hold their own as they are right now, but the magical interplay is missing, and both projects seem somehow diminished. That said, I’m willing to say that McVie solo is more cohesive than Mac minus McVie, and In The Meantime is on the lower end of my three-star range.
- Friend (4:31)
- You Are (3:35)
- Northern Star (5:22)
- Bad Journey (4:29)
- Anything Is Possible (3:15)
- Calumny (4:55)
- So Sincere (3:40)
- Easy Come, Easy Go (4:32)
- Liar (3:53)
- Sweet Revenge (3:50)
- Forgiveness (3:45)
- Givin’ It Back (4:43)
Released by: Koch Records
Release date: 2004
Total running time: 50:33
