As late-career comebacks go, this one’s respectable without ever being revelatory, and lord knows it isn’t succinct, running a minute longer than ‘Tusk’ when half of that would have sufficed.
After reuniting in ’97 and touring until their Hall of Fame induction in ’98, it was inevitable the most beloved version of Fleetwood Mac would make new music. With both Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham in the mix for the first time since ‘Tango in the Night’ it also isn’t surprising this behemoth obliterates the stale duds that preceded it.
But by the time they got ‘round to recording it, six years after ‘The Dance,’ they’d once again shed a member — and not one so easily replaced. For all its ballyhoo upon arrival, the detail most overlooked is that ‘Say You Will’ marks the first Fleetwood Mac album not to list Christine McVie as a member since ‘Future Games’ in ’71.
She would never record with the full group again, although as many are quick to note, the Buckingham/McVie collaboration of 2017 is a Mac album in all but name, lacking only Nicks. When this Chris-free incarnation issued the lazily-titled four-song ‘Extended Play’ in 2013, that marked the first time she hadn’t performed at all on an FM LP since the band’s debut with Peter Green way back in February ’68.
So, though there is a small handful of highlights* worth revisiting on this mega mediocrity (four songs longer in deluxe-edition form), we need focus only on two songs for the purpose of deep-dive completion.
Both are Lindsey tunes, and one of them (‘Bleed to Love Her’) had been introduced during ‘The Dance.’ Just as she did when it was done live, Christine blends into the background, detectable only among the panoply of voices in the chorus and bridge. Same story on ‘Steal Your Heart Away,’ which I prefer because McVie’s cooing harmonies can be heard a bit more clearly; her alleged keyboard work, less so.
What that ultimately means is Christine McVie appears as much on this record as Sheryl Crow does. ‘Say You Will’ amounts to nothing more than another cameo in her discography.
* ‘Murrow Turning Over in His Grave,’ a tempered Lindsey rant in the manner of ‘World Turning,’ has certainly aged well; I wouldn’t call it astonishingly prescient, but its sentiment sure applies lots more than it did 20 years ago, and more so than the similarly themed ‘What’s the World Coming To?’ ‘Miranda’ by Lindsey and three from Stevie — ‘Destiny Rules,’ ‘Throw Down’ and the title track — really recapture that old Mac magic. It’s in those moments when Christine is most missed.