FEATURE:
Vinyl Corner
Fleetwood Mac – Tango in the Night
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I have not included Fleetwood Mac…
IN THIS PHOTO: Fleetwood Mac in 1987
too much in this feature, but I have been listening back to Tango in the Night. It is the fourteenth album from the legendary band and, when artists release that many albums, there is usually a sag and sense of decline. Released in 1987, Tango in the Night follows from 1982’s Mirage. Both are exceptional records, but I think Tango in the Night is slightly stronger. The album was reissued in 2017, and it received a lot of praise. Produced by Lindsey Buckingham and Richard Dashut, and the album did start out as a Buckingham solo record, before turning into a Fleetwood Mac album. Tango in the Night contains some of the band’s biggest singles. Aside from the immense Big Love, Seven Wonder, Little Lies, and Everywhere can be found on this album. In fact, the one-two-three of Big Love, Seven Wonders, and Everywhere is one of the strongest opening trio of songs ever – with Buckingham, Stevie Nicks and Christine McVie (the band’s principal songwriters) with a song each. Although the album did have its share of complications, it has sold over fifteen-million copies! Tango in the Night took almost eighteen months to complete, and Stevie Nicks only spent about two weeks in the studio with the band – she was promoting her third solo album, Rock a Little, throughout the period.
When Nicks was in the studio, she felt flat and unmotivated. Because of Nicks’ addiction issues, she would often take a drink and a few shots and perform songs intoxicated – causing an issue for Buckingham who was producing. In fact, Buckingham recorded a few of Nicks’ vocals using a Fairlight. Fleetwood Mac were no strangers to disruption and conflict. Look at Rumours and the period from 1975-1977 (they released Tusk in 1977). I would advise people get Tango in the Night on vinyl, as it is one of the band’s best albums. Although most of the big songs are in the first half of the album, I think there is quality throughout. On the second side, we have Family Man, and Welcome to the Room... Sara – two of the best cuts from Tango in the Night. Although some critics did not show much love for Tango in the Night back in 1987, I think reviews since then have been kinder. Here is AllMusic’s assessment of a terrific album:
“Artistically and commercially, the Stevie Nicks/Lindsey Buckingham/Mick Fleetwood/Christine and John McVie edition of Fleetwood Mac had been on a roll for over a decade when Tango in the Night was released in early 1987. This would, unfortunately, be Buckingham's last album with the pop/rock supergroup -- and he definitely ended his association with the band on a creative high note. Serving as the album's main producer, Buckingham gives an edgy quality to everything from the haunting "Isn't It Midnight" to the poetic "Seven Wonders" to the dreamy "Everywhere." Though Buckingham doesn't over-produce, his thoughtful use of synthesizers is a major asset. Without question, "Family Man" and "Caroline" are among the best songs ever written by Buckingham, who consistently brings out the best in his colleagues on this superb album”.
I really love Tango in the Night, and I think the album gets overlooked when we think of the classic Fleetwood Mac releases. I think, as we have more time to listen to music, it is a perfect opportunity to revisit this classic. Pitchfork reviewed the Deluxe Edition that was released in 2017:
“Still, it’s McVie whose work is most realized by Buckingham’s impressionism. Her “Everywhere” is the best song on the record. Like “Big Love” it too is about encountering an idea too big to contain within oneself (love, again). But where “Big Love” apprehends it with icy suspicion, “Everywhere” responds with warmth, empathy, and buoyancy, describing a kind of devotion so deeply felt that it produces weightlessness in a person. Its incandescent texture is felt in almost any music that could be reasonably described as balearic. Elsewhere, “Isn’t It Midnight,” McVie’s co-write with Buckingham and her then-husband Eddy Quintela, seems an inversion of the values of “Everywhere,” a severe ’80s guitar rock song that gets consumed by a greater, more unnerving force by its chorus, as if it’s succumbing to a conspiratorial dread. “Do you remember the face of a pretty girl?” McVie sings, and Buckingham echoes her in an unfeeling monotone (“the face of a pretty girl”) while behind him synths chime in a moving constellation, UFOs pulsing in the dark.
This is the essence of Tango in the Night: something falling apart but held together by an unearthly glow. More of a mirage than Mirage, it is an immaculate study in denial (its most enduring hit revolves around McVie asking someone to tell her “sweet little lies”). It’s a form of dreaming where you could touch the petals of a flower and feel something softer than the idea of softness. In this way, Tango seems to emerge less from Buckingham’s pure will and imagination than from a question that haunts art in general: How can one make the unreal real, and the real unreal?”.
I am going to spin Tango in the Night again, as I have so much appreciation and respect for Fleetwood Mac. If you have some time on your hands, go and order Tango in the Night – or stream it – and show this huge work…
SOME big love.