It’s pretty egotistical of me of me to think I could “fix” an album that went double platinum, but the sequencing of Tusk really bugs me. It’s no secret that the songs were written and recorded in a couple different ways by different people, mostly under the supervision of Lindsey Buckingham. It’s a shame that his bedroom experiments didn’t push a little bit more into the other’s songs, as the transitions are quite jarring. At first I thought that a simple song sequence change could iron out the problems, but Lindsey’s songs just stick out too far. If his sound influenced the other’s compositions more, and if we had Nicks singing lead on one of Buckingham’s loud, experimental rockers, then this could be a perfect album. Walk a Thin Line and Tusk both come close to bridging the gap, but both are at the end of the album. It’s as if you are listening to two camps coming from either end of a spectrum to finally meet in the end. This sounds great in theory, but it feels like an unclear vision.

I’m pointing out the flaws, but what we do have here is two great albums, trying to live on the same two slabs of vinyl together. It’s like the Odd Couple, and in some ways they work, but I do plan on dividing the album up in iTunes, just to see if I can either I can make two great albums of these songs, or maybe just one that allows me to go on a journey with it, rather than having it boss me around in every direction.

I’m putting up two songs in sequence of the album (tracks 8 and 9) so you can hear both personalities of Tusk.

That’s All For Everyone

Not That Funny