Review: Lindsey Buckingham Seeds We Sow "It is his most interesting and varied work since '84's “Go Insane"

LINDSEY BUCKINGHAM
Seeds We Sow
George Lang
NewsOK.com

Following two solo albums of gauzy beauty suggesting that placidity had settled upon Lindsey Buckingham's restless mind, “Seeds We Sow,” his sixth solo studio disc, indicates that the Fleetwood Mac guitarist still has demons to exorcise. Indeed, “Seeds We Sow” finds Buckingham alternating between moments of pop transcendence and exhilarating songs in which he sounds like he might come unglued. It is his most interesting and varied solo work since 1984's “Go Insane,” the last time he behaved as if he could take breaks from carrying the standard for Fleetwood Mac's musical legacy and just be a freak.

While “Under the Skin” and “Gift of Screws” sounded like the work of a rock god transitioning to indie singer-songwriter glory, “Seeds We Sow” is Buckingham's first truly independent record, released on his own Mind Kit label, and it sounds completely unencumbered by expectations. The opening title song growls at the ghosts in his past before he lets his fingers fly on “In Our Own Time,” picking wildly as drum machines and blasts of orchestral synths thunder in the background. “Illumination” and “That's the Way Love Goes” find Buckingham in off-kilter Mac mode, creating manic, multilayered pop music with a noticeable edge of menace.

“I can't see you anymore, but it don't mean I'm blind,” Buckingham croons on the soaring centerpiece “Stars Are Crazy” before the chorus finds him howling at the sky. But not all turmoil is internal: “One Take” finds Buckingham inhabiting the callous soul of a corporate raider who “won't be satisfied 'til the middle class is gone,” before ending “Seeds We Sow” with the shimmering “Gone Too Far” and a cover of the Rolling Stones' “She Smiled Sweetly,” a song about never being able to let the past lie. Buckingham might always be encumbered with an unquiet mind, but “Seeds We Sow” shows the artistic upside of living with a personal and professional history that curses as often as it blesses.


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