Tusk

Fleetwood Mac | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 25, 1990)
• Original Release Date: 2000
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: WEA/Reprise
• ASIN: B000002KKC
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Music
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (192 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,043 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

A liner portrait of the big Mac, then coming off the commercial bonanza of Rumours, shows them looking anxiously at guitarist, singer, songwriter, and de facto auteur Lindsey Buckingham, a moment given weight by the sprawling ambitions behind this 1979 double album. Buckingham's superb sense of pop craft had catapulted the once blues-based rockers into multiplatinum ubiquity, and he responded not with a safe return to form but with an invitation for his songwriting partners to chase their respective muses. Comparisons to the Beatles' White Album abounded and remain apt: Stevie Nicks twirls dreamily through extended variations on her crystal visions, Christine McVie turns in a reliably fine set of sunny pop-rock cruisers and tender ballads, and Mick Fleetwood and John McVie sustain their reputation as one of rock's most powerful yet deft rhythm sections. Buckingham provides the wild cards, in largely self-recorded plunges into his own skittish psyche, culminating in the massive title song, beefed up by the University of Southern California's marching band, but more cannily in dreamy music-box exercises ("That's All for Everyone") and sudden bursts of gonzo, fuzz-toned rock ("That's Enough for Me"). Better than its detractors thought upon release, Tusk was a brave platinum "failure" that actually charts where subsequent Mac and Buckingham projects would go. --Sam Sutherland

Product Description

1979 album, follow up to the billion selling "Rumours" fts "Sara". Original single CD issue (also available as an expanded 2CD remaster)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

44 of 45 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally Remastered! March 30, 2004

By R. M. Ettinger VINE™ VOICE

Format:Audio CD

I have been waiting years for this album to be remastered and re-released. It's still an album ahead of it's time (at least Lindsey Buckingham's songs). A hint of what was to come peeked out on 'The Very Best of Fleetwood Mac'. The sound quality is great - and I am glad the original album still holds up (the original cd version doesn't). I've been listening to this music since the original 1979 release date and I am sure I can hear things now that I never could before (some backing vocals on "Honey Hi"). Buckingham's music really stands out sonically ("I Know I'm Not Wrong", "Ledge"). But Stevie Nicks and Christine McVie have their moments.

The second disk of outtakes, demos and unreleased is nice - but not essential. You get a glimpse into what Buckingham can do production and arrangement-wise. The bass and drum lines on "One More Time (Over & Over) are great and stand out here vs the originally released version. It's nice to see how editing a piece of music not only doesn't compromise the song, but enhances it ("Sara"). At first I thought I wanted to hear "Sisters of the Moon" in its entirety and original arrangement. I was wrong. Buckingham did an incredible job w/Nicks' song. It's also nice to hear the cover of the Beach Boys' "Farmer's Daughter". Almost completely identical to the version on "Fleetwood Mac Live", but still good.

It's also nice to see the original album art included w/the cd. It definitely loses something from lp to cd - but whatta gonna do?

My original review gave the music 5 stars and the sound quality 3.5. I'm happy to say this is now a solid 5!

32 of 33 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Get it in spite of the edited "Sara" March 1, 2001

By Michael Topper

Format:Audio CD

"Tusk" stands as the peak, shining moment in Fleetwood Mac's entire career, a truly special album that transcended commercial expectation and still demands close attention. With all three songwriters in full bloom, Lindsey Buckingham was able to fashion stunning arrangements for their creations which made them work as both catchy pop tunes and avant-garde experiments. Stevie Nicks would never sound better, as she expanded her witch-poet persona into full blown explorations of the heart and mind; "Sara", with its airy harmonies and lacey, intricate overdubs, manages to evoke the flavor of its lyric with disarming grace. An instant classic, it appears in edited form here, which is of course the one frustrating gripe with the CD. "Storms" and "Beautiful Child" quietly build their moods with a mystical subtlety and craftsmanlike precision, while "Sisters Of The Moon" is kind of a Rhiannon Part Two. Buckingham responds with songs that take on a nervous, almost manic tone ("The Ledge", "Not That Funny", "What Makes You Think You're The One"), and then he cuts back with intimate torch moments that will tear you to pieces ("Save Me A Place"--which has the finest harmonies on any Fleetwood Mac record--and "Walk A Thin Line"). McVie ocassionally treads water, offering up middle-of-the-road pop like "Think About Me" and "Never Forget", although she too contributes the exquisite ballad "Never Make Me Cry", the glorious harmony exercise "Honey Hi" and the atmospheric "Brown Eyes".

Mention must also be made to the unique percussion sounds achieved for the album: Mick Fleetwood attains new heights of drum god status on "Brown Eyes", "What Makes You Think You're The One" and the title track; there is a tribal feel to his playing that is tempered by modern recording ideas. The famous "bathroom tile" echo shimmers on "That's All For Everyone" and "Walk A Thin Line", which saw Buckingham on his knees in front of a toilet, Brian Wilson-style, to achieve his aims. It is a credit to his production techniques that the arrangements are incredibly elaborate and yet at no point do they overwhelm the songs--indeed, their strength often lies in what is hidden. Many of the songs are not as immediately appealing as those on "Fleetwood Mac" or "Rumours", but they end up far more satisfying in the long run (indeed, after hearing "Go Your Own Way" a zillion times on classic rock radio, a gem like "Save Me A Place" can sound especially fresh). The group's creativity was so intense at this period, actually, that several A-quality Nicks songs, including "Watchdevil", "Lady From The Mountain" and "Beauty And The Beast" were left as outtakes and survive only on bootlegs. In sum, "Tusk" found Fleetwood Mac in a unique position, still reeling from the runaway commercial success of "Rumours" but intent on creating sound paintings that expressed the aftermath of the relationship turmoil that created that moment. What is needed now is a deluxe double CD-issue of Tusk, remastered with bonus tracks of outtakes from the sessions, since it is clear that many of these songs underwent interesting drafts before they made the final product.

47 of 51 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars WOW!!! February 1, 2005

By Steven Callaghan

Format:Audio CD

Wow!! This is an awesome, beautiful album. The second disc is worth twice the price. I remember all the criticism about this album when it came out. Everyone compared it Rumors which had been the number one album in the country for 52 weeks. No other album before or since has been number one for as long a time, so can you really compare anything to Rumors? I don't think so.

In my opinion, Tusk was a landmark album, one that only comes about every once in a while. It had the power to change the way we listen to music. Like many people, when it came out, I did not like any of the songs. Well, that's not exactly true since I was one of the members of the USC Trojan Marching Band that recorded Tusk with the band. I even got to play five nights at the Forum in LA on the Tusk Tour. But even though I was that into the album, I still didn't like the music. It was difficult to listen to. It wasn't what I was used to listening to.

On top of all that, it was an expensive album with two twelve inch discs, yes, before CDs. It was competing with the past success of Rumors and with the Eagles Hotel California which was just a single album. Lots of people considered Tusk to be a failure.

Because I was on the album, I played it from beginning to end over and over. It took me about three months before I realized that I was beginning to like the songs, then I started to really love the songs. That's the first time I understood the concept of "ground breaking" music. Fleetwood Mac had not just given us more of the same, which they could have done and we all would have loved it. They had given us something that had never existed before, which is why it was difficult to listen to at first. We'd never heard anything like it before. It was different. We couldn't instantly like it. We had to grow. Our ears had to change. It evolved us, and there was no going back.

If you've never listened to Tusk, I hope you give it a try. If you're a fan of Tusk, I hope you buy this new version and listen to the second disc which contains new versions of the old songs. It's hard to believe that this album is 26 years old. I've definitely crossed over to being an old timer, because it seems like yesterday that I was first listening to these songs. Thank you Fleetwood Mac.