Fleetwood Mac – Mirage (Violet Vinyl LP)

Fleetwood Mac’s streak of five consecutive multi-platinum albums began in the ’70s and continued in 1982 with Mirage, the follow-up to the band’s 1979 double-album, Tusk. During the summer of 1982, Mirage topped the album chart and added to the band’s already impressive canon of hits with “Hold Me,” “Love In Store” and “Gypsy.” It is every bit as fresh and accessible as Rumours, whilst its production sound (mainly courtesy of principal producers Lindsey Buckingham, Richard Dashut and Ken Caillat) is as lively and distinctive, as Tusk’s.

Each of Fleetwood Mac’s three resident composer/vocalists are represented here with some of his or her strongest contributions yet. Christine McVie’s four songs include the first single, “Hold Me” (co-written by Robbie Patton), as well as “Love In Store” (written with Jim Recor) and two ballads, “Only Over You” and “Wish You Were Here” (the latter with lyrics by Colin Allen). Stevie Nicks’ songs are “That’s Alright,” “Gypsy” and “Straight Back,” while Buckingham contributes five: “Can’t Go Back,” “Eyes Of The World,” and three co-written by Dashut, “Book Of Love,” “Empire State” and “Oh Diane.”

As always, the instrumentation features Buckingham’s guitars and McVie’s keyboards backed by the rock solid rhythm section of Mick Fleetwood and bassist John McVie. Some slightly more exotic instruments were used as well, including vibes and harp, both played by Buckingham. Meanwhile, the vocals of Lindsey, Stevie and Christine have never sounded so lush, lovely and completely together as they do on Mirage.

1. Love In Store
2. Can’t Go Back
3. That’s Alright
4. Book Of Love
5. Gypsy
6. Only Over You
7. Empire State
8. Straight Back
9. Hold Me
10. Oh Diane
11. Eyes Of The World
12. Wish You Were Here