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In retrospect, it seems preposterous that this album flopped in 1973, but then fate had other plans for Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks. Recorded while Nicks was still working day jobs to support them both, it looked like disappearing altogether, until Mick Fleetwood, shopping around for recording studios, heard glorious album closer Frozen Love – and his future opening up before him – at Sound City in Van Nuys. He swiftly brought the couple into Fleetwood Mac, and all worries were soon over.
Long deleted and widely bootlegged, Buckingham Nicks is finally restored to its rightful place in the Mac story, and it’s plain to see why this was a no-brainer for Fleetwood. The sound that would soon seduce millions was already here.
There’s Buckingham’s unique Flamenco-tinged guitar sound, evident throughout, for a start, as well as Nicks’ already assured songwriting. The Mac would re-record her Crystal (and should have had a go at sure-fire hit Crying In The Night) but the version here is the stronger one, with those now familiar voices melding to perfection.
Pretty much everything here could have slotted onto the more famous records that followed – Buckingham’s guitar solo emerging out of Nicks’ Long Distance Winner, his country/blues picking on Lola (My Love) – but it’s Frozen Love that’s the real prize. A distant precursor to Mac’s The Chain, it has the voices dancing around each other, and Buckingham’s acoustic break gives way to an orchestral swell and stinging electrics. A superb album rescued from the dustbin of history at last.
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