Time Fleetwood Mac

In the years following Lindsey Buckingham's departure, Fleetwood Mac began to slowly slip down a slope of obscurity. While "Behind The Mask" garnered a hit single in 1990 with Christine McVie's "Save Me", nothing else on the album had much staying power or really any impact at all with an audience. To make this even more of a confusing time, Stevie Nicks and Rick Vito departed from the band in 1992. Needless to say, "Time" was up against a lot. Does it succeed in meeting expectations? Well...

The addition of veteran guitarist Dave Mason is a nice touch. Mason turns in a few notable guitar licks here and there, but nothing to write home about. Bekka Bramlett plays our Stevie Nicks for the evening. Despite obviously being a Nicks replacement, Bramlett does establish her own identity very early on in the record with the albums opening track "Talking To My Heart". In fact a few more songs from Bramlett could have benefited the album. The only returning member of the "Behind The Mask" line-up is Billy Burnette, who becomes a much better harmonizer with Bekka Bramlett than he is with Stevie Nicks. His presence is much more cameo like here, which is a shame because his voice had matured quite a bit. I was starting to get used to his voice!

Finally, Christine McVie returns with arguably her blandest batch of songs on any Fleetwood Mac album ever. Believe me, Christine McVie is a great singer and songwriter. Her harmony vocals can light up any room. But, without any rougher edges to play off of (I.E. Buckingham and Nicks) her songs become more like tuneless gelatinous molds than anything else. However, McVie ultimately claims the best track on the album with the sweet "I Do". With it's driving beat and chirping keyboard line, it's a nice break from the rest of the records attempts at country music and adult contemporary.

While "Time" isn't the worst album in existence, it's definitely the least noteworthy of Fleetwood Mac. Tracks like "Blow By Blow" or "Nothing Without You" seem to overstay their welcome, putting listeners to the test of Mac. However, the album shows a decent bit of potential between Bekka Bramlett and Billy Burnette, who later collaborated on the duo album "Bekka and Billy", but their genuine energy can't save anyone from the bland tuneless mess that is "Time".

Final Rating-3/10

Stand-Out Tracks-"I Do" and "Talking To My Heart"

Unlike previous incarnations of the Mac, the bar was way too high for fans to accept another version of the band. If you can disassociate with the Buckingham-Nicks Mac, it's not a bad recording. But it was too much to ask of the FM fan base, and they did the right thing, pulling the plug on this group and reuniting the previous group.

Well, I made it through another Fleetwood Mac album. On the heels of the mediocre Behind the Mask I had originally planned to just sample Time and move on to their last album but ended up listening all the way through to the end. And yes, it is another FM album with no cohesiveness as if FM lacks an identity. They brought in Bekka Bramlett as a nominal replacement for the departed Stevie Nicks, perhaps not a bad thing, and the immortal Dave Mason, who both bring in personal material and place their stamp on the band's sound. I am not really a fan of Bramlett's country & western takes but her songbird voice is definitely a step up from Nicks'. Mason's compositions Blow By Blow and I Wonder Why are perhaps the band's strongest points, although Christine McVie's songs are still good here, especially I Do, Sooner Or Later, and All Over Again. But the takeaway from listening to this record is that it seems Mick Fleetwood and John McVie just bring in any old artist that drives the style and sound of their songs and Fleetwood and McVie just provide a solid rhythm section backing. Again, these songs do not form a cohesive whole and the album could have been from any regular, generic pop and rock band. It makes for nice enough music but sorely lacks the soul of their earlier releases.

Eliminate the dross (granted, an endeavor!) and you have 5 solid Christine McVie songs that would make up the first half of a decent solo album. I use her 5 tracks as filler on a "Say You Will" mix tape and they integrate very nicely with the Buckingham-Nicks contributions. So, "Time" has some worth after all.

Time is Fleetwood Mac's least typical and worst selling album since the mid-seventies. Fans could not get over absence of Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, even though Dave Mason was an alum of Traffic, one of the best groups ever. Although fellow new member Delaney Bramlett's parents recorded with Eric Clapton, her delivery here is a bit too "country" to mesh with FM's British sensibilities. However, this album does contain some remarkable gems.

Christine McVie's single "I Do" would have fit well on any album from the band's "classic" lineup. Dave Mason's "Blow by Blow" is a fantastic tune, that is a worthy addition to his significant canon. The album's opener, Billy Burnette's "Talkin' to my Heart" is one of his best contributions to Fleetwood Mac on the two albums on which he appeared. I'm not sure there is anything else here worth keeping, but three new fine Fleetwood Mac songs (even though two of them don't particularly song like FM) ensure that this album was worth making. Fortunately, these days you can download the good songs and avoid the chaff.

Pretty much a disaster. The penguin hatching out of the egg on the cover, I suppose, was supposed to be symbolic of the "rebirth" of the band. However, I'm afraid that a dead penguin would have been more to the point.

The record has a lot in common with the last album which featured a penguin on the cover. This is even more disjointed than "Penguin". The band members don't sound like they are working together much (note that there isn't one photograph in the CD booklet that shows all six group members together at the same time), except for Burnette and Bramlett. They don't create the same sparks as Buckingham and Nicks did. Bekka is quite fetching, but her soul/R&B influenced voice wasn't entirely compatible with FMac. It's not too surprising that one of her lead vocals, "Winds of Change" was written by a totally unknown outside songwriter.

Dave Mason joining the Max on paper was a good idea, coming from the same generation as Mick and John. Unfortunately, his songs sound like the same totally generic and boring rockers he was coming up with in the Seventies. Burnette's could have been written by any Nashville songwriter. Chris's are totally uninspired, especially compared with her winners on the last album. For all practical purposes, these sound like mediocre tracks from her solo albums. They were recorded in entirely separately with a session guitarist. Mason and Burnette didn't play the guitars on them, while she didn't contribute to the other songs, replaced by touring keyboardist Steve Thoma. Mick Fleetwood's first solo track, "These Strange Times", a spoken word tale of his travails and redemption, concludes the album with something arty, but especially out of place.

The most fractured album release ever from the group. Even though the band brought back producer Richard Dashut (who had worked with them since "Rumours") for most of the tracks, there is almost no sonic continuity. The band had toured without Christine, but they played only a few more dates after the album's release. Extant video shows the band was good live, but they had become just a Fleetwood Mac tribute band.

The absolute bottom for the Mac. If there's even one positive review for this somewhere, I'd be amazed. The album was the only FMac release to never make the US charts. Warner Brothers never promoted it, and the band, once again, split during 1996. But the determined Mick Fleetwood STILL didn't give up.

The problem with the Macs is they have reached such high standards. But this is no way a bad album.

One Word: HORRIBLE. Mick has no business "singing", and the McVie's failing personal lives would have been the ideal movie that this sad excuse of a Fleetwood Mac album could be the soundtrack for...

this is what happens when you don't airplay you get this cd however, the best song on here wasn't even released as single and that was Hollywood or some other kind of town which stands strong with excellent Christine's vocal talents and Eddie's writing.

This album came out of nowhere. When I first listened to it, I thought it was a cover band using the band name or a tribute band trying to sound like Fleetwood Mac. Unfortunately it wasn't. By now, the band was pretty much hollowed out and this album sounds more like a jam session more than a polished band.