Say You Will [Vinyl LP]

Although SAY YOU WILL is Fleetwood Mac's first album without longtime singer/songwriter/keyboardist Christine McVie as a full participant (she appears only as a guest musician), the album nevertheless harks back to the frothy sound of 1982's MIRAGE, if not the '70s L.A. studio-pop glory of RUMOURS. Singer/guitarist Lindsay Buckingham's production still boasts pleasing quirks aplenty ("Red Rover," "Murrow Turning Over in His Grave"), and his trademark acoustic fingerpicking licks underpin many of the tunes in a winning way. Buckingham and Stevie Nicks share the songwriting duties, and their writing and singing styles still mesh as well as they did in their pre-Mac days as Buckingham /Nicks. SAY YOU WILL manages to sound fresh without resorting to anything as embarrassing as grafting hip-hop rhythms or electronica effects onto the group's classic pop tunes, and though it all sounds far from dated, you probably wouldn't blink twice if told this was the lost, unreleased follow-up to MIRAGE.