Fleetwood Mac: Say You Will

By GRAHAM REID

(Herald rating * * *)

Hard to believe it may be, but this resurrected version of the Mac — without Christine McVie — here deliver something located between their classic late-70s period and a bright future.

Reason for that is guitarist Lindsay Buckingham, always the most musically adventurous of the group, who plays a real hands-on role, pens some tough-minded lyrics (the slightly hectoring Murrow has a Tusk-era crunch) and unpredictable songs (the snaky Miranda, the strange faux-folk of Red Rover, the explosive Come), and produces with an ear tuned to the sheen of their classic period but duffed up by his scouring guitars.

Stevie Nicks turns in a couple of slightly familiar tracks (Illume is a close cousin to One Wing Dove) and although none of her songs quite soars like Sara or Gold Dust Woman of years back they grow on repeat hearing (the classic-Mac hit-bound title track), as does this whole, slightly over-long thing. So 15 years on from their last studio album the Mac are back and, thanks to Buckingham, close to top form. Who woulda thunk it?

(Label: Warners)