Fleetwood Mac - Mirage (Super Deluxe Edition) (2016) [Hi-Res]

Completing the trilogy begun by Rumours (1977) and Tusk (1979), Fleetwood Mac recorded Mirage between 1981 and 1982 at the famous Château d'Hérouville. The acoustics of the venue have been compared to Abbey Road studios and the likes of Bowie, Iggy Pop, Cat Stevens and a bunch of others have all passed through. After a hiatus where they followed their own personal ambitions, the quintet returned to the studio. In the meantime, Stevie Nicks, Mick Fleetwood and Lindsey Buckingham had set off on their solo careers. And Nicks' Bella Donna, released a year earlier, produced by Tom Petty and Jimmy Iovine, was at the top of the charts, selling 8 million copies. Enough to overshadow this Mirage... However, there was no way she was leaving Fleetwood Mac. The beautiful girl whose voice had been roughened by dope signed off on two songs: Gypsy, a nostalgic ballad which she dedicated to her friend Robyn Snider Anderson, and Straight Back. Christine McVie composed Hold Me, Love in Store, one of the hits on the opus, as well as Wish You Were Here and Only Over You. In fact, it was Buckingham, in the same vein as Tusk, who wrote most of the songs.


Less experimental than Tusk but less obvious than Rumours in its melodic writing, Mirage closes Fleetwood Mac's golden period. Dominating the work, McVie's kitschy synthesizers print an antiquated eighties sound onto the intros of Can't Go Back and Oh Diane, giving the work a flaky pop varnish. It was not until Tango In The Night, five years later, that the FM sound was back. Within this Deluxe version, we find a live performance at the Los Angeles Forum in 1982 where we hear Buckingham's bluesy guitars, unpublished versions, B-sides and a cover of Fats Domino's Blue Monday. © Charlotte Saintoin/Qobuz