Now, 36 years after its release, Tusk has received the reissue it deserves. In fact, most of their songs here would fit right in on Rumours, as would Buckingham’s “Not That Funny” and several of his other tunes. While Buckingham provided nine of the 20 tracks, moreover, his songwriting contributions to Tusk are outnumbered by the combined efforts of Christine McVie (six songs) and Stevie Nicks (five) and their lilting, addictive melodies and magnificent vocals are just as inviting as anything on the earlier albums. While Fleetwood Mac and Rumours were terrific, the tracks on Tusk are more complex and adventurous, have aged at least as well, and are arguably just as accessible. As for “emotional heat,” you can’t get much hotter than Tusk’s “Sara” and “Storms,” both from Stevie Nicks, or Buckingham’s beat-crazy title cut, a gripping portrait of jealousy and paranoia that has garnered a whole lot more airplay than “Revolution 9” ever did. Though it sold fewer copies than those earlier LPs, the album did after all attract four million buyers, spend 37 weeks on the charts (where it reached number four), and spawn two hit singles. In fact, while Fleetwood Mac and Rumours were terrific, the well-sequenced tracks on Tusk are more complex and adventurous, have aged at least as well, and are arguably just as accessible. All Music Guide proclaimed that Buckingham “subverts pop-rock” on the double LP, which is “as weird as mainstream pop can get.” Rolling Stone, meanwhile, opined that “the bulk of Tusk sounds cold and fussy next to the emotional heat of Rumours” and that the title tune is Fleetwood Mac’s “Revolution 9,” a reference to John Lennon’s abstruse electronic track on the Beatles’ “White Album.”Ĭomments like these help to qualify Tusk as one of the most underrated records in rock history. The consensus was that Lindsey Buckingham had taken over the group and buried its shimmering pop under layers of less-accessible experimental music.įleetwood Mac’s label was reportedly not happy and, on Tusk’s atypical “The Ledge,” a New York Times essayist recently wrote, “you can practically hear the record executives shrieking in the background.” Critics did a bit of shrieking as well. Though Tusk received generally positive reviews when it appeared in 1979, the prevailing view seems to be that it paled alongside its huge-selling immediate predecessors, 1975’s Fleetwood Mac and 1977’s Rumours.
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