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The Bob Welch years of Fleetwood Mac often get lost between the blues power of the Peter Green years & the pop power of the Buckingham-Nicks years. But in 1972, this was one of my favorite albums … and nearly 50 years later, it's still one of my favorites.
While not promoted as a concept album, it sort of is, with its emphasis on winter, ghostly melancholy, and warmth against the encroaching cold (both literal & emotional) — not that it lacks for some exquisite guitar playing from Danny Kirwan & Bob Welch. But the overall tone, even on the upbeat songs, is a little haunted & reflective. It's not a flashy album, but one that lingers with the listener.
The three songwriters — Danny Kirwan, Bob Welch, Christine McVie — all contribute fine songs, with Welch's original take on his "Sentimental Lady" being a standout that's better than his own later remake. But Kirwan's songs, which make up half the album, are all excellent, with no two alike. The instrumentals "Sunny Side of Heaven" & "Danny's Chant" both make me wish they were longer; and his last song, "Dust", is the most haunting & haunted song on the album. If Nick Drake had been an electric guitar player, I could easily imagine him coming up with something similar.
That's last song is followed by "Thoughts On a Grey Day", a poem written & recited by an elderly neighbor of the band's, Mrs. Scarrott. Some find this track indulgent — the days of spoken word pieces on rock albums had faded by 1972, and such experiments didn't always succeed anyway — but in this case, they couldn't have found a better way to close the album. The sincerity of the poem & its reader, as well as the sentiments expressed, sum up the tone of the album to perfection.
Of course, gold & platinum albums were waiting just a few years down the road for Fleetwood Mac. But for me, this remains one of their best works, one that really speaks to me. Most highly recommended!
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One of their Best Ever!
Review by Stewart MasonArguably the first consistently strong album Fleetwood Mac ever recorded -- all the way back into the Peter Green/Jeremy Spencer era, the Mac's albums had previously consisted of individual moments of brilliance in a sea of uninspired filler -- 1972's Bare Trees is also the album where the band finally defines its post-blues musical personality. Low-key but less narcoleptically mellow than 1971's sleepy Future Games, Bare Trees is a singer/songwriter album in the traditional early-'70s style, backed up with just enough musical muscle to keep from sounding like weedy soft rock in the manner of Bread or Cat Stevens. This is the one Fleetwood Mac album on which singer/guitarist Danny Kirwan is the dominant figure, writing five songs to Chistine McVie and Bob Welch's two apiece. Impressively, all three writers get off a small masterpiece on side two; McVie's "Spare Me a Little of Your Love" sounds like a dry run for the string of hits she would start writing with 1975's Fleetwood Mac, and it's her first really good pop song. By comparison, Kirwan and Welch's best songs are all-time career highlights. Kirwan's "Dust" combines a gentle, gliding melody with resigned, melancholy lyrics and his most memorable chorus. Welch's "Sentimental Lady" was, of course, his first solo hit in its 1977 re-recorded version, but this original take is far superior, and one of the great lost pop songs of the early '70s. Outfitted with a terrific vocal melody, hooks galore, and an impressive tremolo guitar solo, "Sentimental Lady" is perhaps a little trite lyrically, but it's a heartfelt and lovable tune regardless, and the best thing Fleetwood Mac did in the years between "Albatross" and "Over My Head." The rest of the album is less magical, but the instrumental "Sunny Side of Heaven" and the downright funky "Danny's Chant" are impressive in their use of atmospheric arrangements and so point toward the subtle but effective production choices that would make Fleetwood Mac and Rumours among the most listenable albums of their time. Bare Trees isn't in that league, but it shows that after five years of false starts and failed experiments, Fleetwood Mac were finally on their way.
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jose l. perezReviewed in Spain on November 9, 2021
Buen precio para un excelente disco
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