Rumours of a comeback are exaggerated
by Stewart Hunt

Christine McVie - In the Meantime (Sanctuary)

Grade: C

Christine McVie was Fleetwood Mac's George Harrison. The classically-trained pianist was the quiet achiever of the band, and played no small part in the histrionics that enveloped it, but also no small part in the creative fusion responsible for bruised classics like Rumours.

McVie penned some of the band's catchiest material, even if the likes of Don't Stop, You Make Lovin' Fun and Songbird were all largely designed to rub poor old John McVie's nose in it.

Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks came and went, but McVie stuck with the band almost to the stony end. They parted company in 1997, and she was the only one absent from last year's Say You Will reunion.

McVie was most likely unwilling to give up her fittingly quiet and dignified life in England to rake over old coals with her old muckers, but obviously she hasn't lost the creative urge.

In the Meantime is well insulated from Fleetwood Mac (although John comes in for another pasting on Bad Journey) but suffers the distance.

Piano ballads like Songbird stood nicely on their own but the rest of McVie's Mac work was bolstered by Buckingham's technical alchemy. Lacking that edge, her lyrics are badly exposed by the generic production.

There are a couple of passably warm and breezy tracks like Calumny and Northern Star, which make the most of McVie's plaintive vocals, but the rest is a mix of flaccid MOR and forgettable blues-rock tracks like Liar.

McVie's attempt to prove she can foot it solo and make as much of a fist of it as Nicks should have been far better than this. God knows she's got the talent; maybe she just left it a little too late.

Thanks to blinker12 for posting this to the Ledge.