Mick Fleetwood on TOP GEAR Tonight BBC Three + Jeremy Spencer Tour/Album News #FleetwoodMac

TOP GEAR with MICK FLEETWOOD

Today, January 7th at 19:00 (7PM) BBC Three

The team is on an epic road trip across the western side of the United States in three front-engined supercars. With Jeremy Clarkson in a Lexus LFA, Richard Hammond driving the new Dodge Viper and James May choosing the latest Aston Martin Vanquish a glorious soundtrack is guaranteed, as are furious arguments about which is best as the trio head from Las Vegas to Los Angeles and on to Palm Springs. Along the way, the three presenters take in racing circuits, airborne attacks and a race against the police before making a break for the Mexican border with a terrifying penalty for the last car to make it. Meanwhile, back in the studio, legendary Fleetwood Mac drummer Mick Fleetwood is the star in the Reasonably Priced Car.

MICK FLEETWOOD AT #CES2014 in LAS VEGAS

Mick Fleetwood, co-founder of Fleetwood Mac will appear in Monster's booth at 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday, January 7th at the Las Vegas Convention Center during the CES 2014 Tech Convention.  Fleetwood Mac headline Monster’s Retailer Awards Party on Wednesday, Jan. 8th in Las Vegas’ Paris Ballroom.

AMERICAN HORROR STORY with STEVIE NICKS

Since you're already sleepless with anticipation in the face of this week's American Horror Story Stevie Nicks episode, use the long, empty hours stretching before you to ponder specifically which tunes you'll get to hear. "Stevie Nicks is fantastic in this Wednesday's COVEN episode. Guess which TWO SONGS she sings?," Ryan Murphy tweeted Monday. When venturing your guesses, keep in mind that Stevie's songs are being used as part of a plan to suss out the coven's new Supreme, and that there is no way this plan will end in anything but a really fabulous funeral pyre.

Vulture

USA / Canada
American Horror Story: Coven
Episode 10 with Stevie Nicks
Wednesday, January 8th at 10:00pm ET on FX and FX Canada

Australia
American Horror Story: Coven
Episode 10 with Stevie Nicks
Monday, January 13th 9:30pm on ELEVEN

UK
American Horror Story: Coven | 10:00pm Tuesdays on Fox
Episode 10 with Stevie Nicks
Tuesday, January 14th 10:00pm on Fox

Jeremy Spencer, Founding Member of Fleetwood Mac and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Inductee, Announces US Tour & New Album "Coventry Blue"

Jeremy Spencer, legend of British blues, announced his 2014 US tour which will include a showcase at SXSW and appearances in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland and New York. Jeremy has launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund the tour and his new release "Coventry Blue".

This project will only be funded if at least $10,000 is pledged by Saturday Feb 15, 2:59am EST.

Check out the Full Press Release (PDF)

PRWeb

The 2013 Music Enthusiast Magazine Awards
Vote for "SAD ANGEL"

Fleetwood Mac's "Sad Angel" has been nominated in the Song of the Year catagory... Please vote! Currently in No.2 position, let's make them No.1. We can vote every hour from now until January 20th at Music Enthusiast Magazine.  Hit the link and scroll down.  Thanks!

Fleetwood Mac reasserts themselves as a still relevant and superstar band in 2013 http://twitpic.com/djvbii

Album Review: Fleetwood Mac, Extended Play
By Jackson Sinnenberg
Rating: 9.0/10

It seems like Fleetwood Mac make some of their best music in periods of great volatility. Rumours, the band’s 1977 masterpiece, was written and recorded during a time when the band’s personal lives were in the toilet. The Mac’s latest release, the four song EP Extended Play, was recorded in another bout of uncertainty, with multiples recording projects being derailed by Stevie Nicks’s and Lindsey Buckingham’s solo careers. Like during Rumours, the band somehow remains at their most focused during a storm, and has produced an incredible record.

One of the best things about Extended Play is that it sounds like Fleetwood Mac. In an era where the music industry seems to be pressing for more homogenization, it is great to hear a band that sounds like themselves. The EP’s lead, and best, track “Sad Angel,” is a classic Mac song of the highest caliber, reminiscent of many of the tracks from the beginning of the Buckingham-Nicks era Mac. Buckingham’s vocals effortlessly blend with Nicks’s, showing the potency of this long partnership. 

Continue to the full review at Musings on the Mediums

Extended Play is available at on iTunes or AmazonMP3

Stevie Nicks, still draped in diaphanous scarves and age-defying blond locks at 65

Fleetwood Mac: They may be paleolithic, but they have good bones
Oregon Live
by Michele Coppola

So you never got to see Queen with the incandescent Freddie Mercury, Journey fronted by Steve Perry, or U2 before Bono took himself so seriously. It's a loss, to be sure. But on Sunday at the Rose Garden, you'll have the chance to catch one of rock's legendary bands while they're mostly intact and can still bring it.

Fleetwood Mac is Paleolithic by pop music standards -- its first incarnation can be traced back to 1967 -- but recent reviews from previous stops on the band's current world tour attest to the fact that they're still more than the sum of their very individual, disparate parts.

Drummer Mick Fleetwood is the band's occasional manager and one of the Beatles-era originals, along with bassist John McVie. Fleetwood has also been described as the glue that's held the group together for decades, even back when they cycled through various members as a blues outfit in London.

In 1975, at a Los Angeles restaurant, Fleetwood hit the jackpot for the band's lineup, meeting the couple who would anchor the band's longest-running incarnation. Lindsey Buckingham and his girlfriend/partner Stevie Nicks brought pop and poetry to Fleetwood Mac, but like so many windfalls, they also brought more drama and turmoil to a group already rocked by substance abuse and the crumbling marriage of Christine and John McVie.

That drama eventually resulted in "Rumours," one of the best-selling albums in music history.

More telling of influence than album sales, however, is the number of 30-something women walking around today with the name Rhiannon. It's likely they've only seen videos of the person whose song inspired their name -- the band's enchanted front woman, Nicks.

There's an argument to be made that Nicks, still draped in diaphanous scarves and age-defying blond locks at 65, is the element that must be present in order for Fleetwood Mac 

to conjure magic.

And yet the creative process that resulted in some of pop's most enduring music rarely involved the band jamming together. "Rumours," as well as many subsequent Fleetwood Mac albums, came about through overdubbing and piecing together various bits and riffs recorded by the members individually, with almost all tracks written by Nicks, Christine McVie or Buckingham.

This dogged individuality has been both necessary to the band's success and nearly its undoing over the years; it's fitting that "The Chain" -- a song that the players themselves agree is the band's unofficial anthem -- is the only one in Fleetwood Mac's extensive catalog with a five-way writing credit.

It's a track that begins with one of rock music's most recognizable plucked-guitar intros, courtesy of Buckingham, Fleetwood Mac's youngest member. At 63, he remains the intense, guitar-shredding kid in the band who has always served as the catalyst for change.

Available on AmazonMP3 or iTunes

Buckingham is also the main reason Fleetwood Mac has a new four-song EP called "Extended Play," which landed in the iTunes Top 10 when it was released in April. 

At least a few of those tracks are incorporated into this tour's set, which has been running longer than 2 1/2 Hours.

While the new songs are unmistakably Fleetwood Mac creations, they are missing the sweet voice and polished keyboard work that Christine McVie brought to the mix. Retired to the English countryside since 1998, she was always the group's much-needed leavening agent. Some of her best-known songs are understandably absent from the current tour's playlist, and word is there's a thinness to the live show without her presence.

But there is still the drama of seeing Buckingham and Nicks trying to resolve whatever chemistry remains between them live on stage; lanky Mick Fleetwood hunched over a drum kit pounding out "Tusk"; John McVie's ominous vibrating bass lines; and the near-astral experience that is "Sara." Even after three decades, it's an alchemy that continues to produce gold.

Buckingham says the band's musicianship has not diminished with age, nor has the desire for most of them to make music together.

"After all this time you would think there was nothing left to discover, nothing left to work out, no new chapters to be written," he told Rolling Stone earlier this year. "But that is not the case." 

Tickets to Fleetwood Mac's Portland Oregon show are available at Comcast tickets

Review: Fleetwood Mac's 4-song EP 'Extended Play' hints of more good music to come

Fleetwood Mac has sold more than 100 million records worldwide, including almost 50 million in the United States.

The current tour, which features Saturday’s stop at The Q, celebrates the 35th anniversary reissue of "Rumours," the breakthrough album by the lineup that featured founding members Mick Fleetwood on drums and John McVie — the Fleetwood and Mac in the name — along with Christine McVie on keys, Lindsey Buckingham on guitar and Stevie Nicks on vocals.

Sadly, Christine McVie, who was married to John when she joined the band, left the group in 1998, the year they were inducted into the Rock Hall.

Not so sadly, Fleetwood Mac is continuing to produce music. GOOD music. The band has a new EP out, appropriately enough called "Extended Play," that features four songs — "Miss Fantasy," "It Takes Time," "Without You" and "Sad Angel."

The EP has a rollicking, more acoustic feel to it that’s reminiscent of the days when Nicks and Buckingham were a duo, before they joined Fleetwood Mac. Which sort of fits, because "Without You" is actually a remake of a tune they recorded back in those days.

Buckingham sings lead on all four songs, and there are hints of Nicks on "Angel" and, obviously, "Without You." But John McVie’s voice is curiously absent, and the EP does suffer from the absence of Christine McVie, both vocally and on piano.

But that’s all relative. Comparing Fleetwood Mac’s sound to anyone else’s sound is like comparing Little League to the Majors. The foursome really is in a different league. That in mind, the worst thing about this EP is that it’s an EP, with only four songs, and the best thing is that its very presence portends the issue of a full album.

Cha-ching. 

By Chuck Yarborough

The Plain Dealer

Fleetwood Mac, Clear Channel Team on Groundbreaking Rights Partnership

Clear Channel Media & Entertainment has cut a deal to pay performance royalties to Fleetwood Mac for songs from its recently released “Extend Play” EP that are broadcast on its 850 terrestrial radio stations. According to Clear Channel, it’s the first rights partnership between a radio company and an artist.

Read the full article at Billboard

Fleetwood Mac's "Sad Angel" reflects on Lindsey and Stevie’s complex relationship

Going their own way
By Abhinav Kaul, Ranaditya Baruah, New Delhi
My Digital Financial Chronicle June 6, 2013

When I first heard Fleetwood Mac, they were already way past their prime. Their glory years were long gone but it never showed when Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham took the stage. Nicks’ voice has remained as sultry and phenomenal as ever and Buckingham’s mellow guitar licks have somehow managed to get cleaner over the years.

The British-American rock band was formed way back in 1967. The band has undergone numerous changes over the years, but most fans identify Fleetwood Mac with Mick Fleetwood on the drums, John McVie on bass, Lindsey Buckingham on the guitar and Stevie Nicks on vocals.

NEW Fleetwood Mac Single "Sad Angel" Gaining Traction at Triple A

"Sad Angel" Picking Up Steam

Triple A Radio Stats - May 25, 2013.

These Triple A indicator Radio lists show the single is gaining at radio.

A quick-hitting EP simply cannot contain the songwriting force that is Buckingham/Nicks/McVie

Album Review: Fleetwood Mac – Extended Play EP

BY JON HADUSEK
Consequence of Sound
3/5 Stars

Fleetwood Mac are restless. After dozens of songs, albums, tours, and RIAA certifications, you’d think they would’ve reached a point of satisfied complacency, like when a star athlete hits the twilight of his or her career and admits, “I’ve done it all it’s time to retire.” Maybe Fleetwood Mac did, in fact, reach such a point after 2003’s Say You Will. The band announced an indefinite hiatus — its members diverting their concentration to their personal lives and solo endeavors. The Mac’s future was in question…

But if Michael Jordan wearing a Washington Wizards jersey taught us anything, it’s that you can’t keep The Best at bay while they still have the ability to play … and make lots of money. So in 2009, Fleetwood Mac reunited for a tour (which — just like Jordan on the Wizards — put asses in seats and made tons o’ cash). During the tour, Lindsey Buckingham dropped this nugget: “The time is right to go back to the studio.”

But for three years that promise went unfulfilled as Fleetwood Mac rode the nostalgia train all the way to the bank. Another world tour, TV appearances, and album reissues — no new music.

Until now.

Full Review at Consequence of Sound

Album Review | Fleetwood Mac, 'Extended Play'

by Jeffrey Lee Puckett

Courier-Journal

Fleetwood Mac chose to release “Extended Play,” the band’s first new recordings in a decade, with a minimum of fanfare, as if too much hype might raise too many expectations. Good move.

The four-song EP is a nice little Lindsey Buckingham record, without a single moment that screams Fleetwood Mac. Fleetwood Mac is certainly suggested, albeit gently, and that’s a pretty serious miscue after 10 years of silence.

Still, Buckingham records are always pretty solid, especially in small doses, and “Extended Play” has some fine moments. “Sad Angel” is the kind of adult pop that Buckingham does so well, with an insistent chorus that lifts off with a wistful rush and harmonies from Stevie Nicks that almost, but not quite, get us there.

“Without You” is an old Buckingham-Nicks track, pre-Fleetwood Mac, that sounds pretty enough but lacks the band’s famous drama. Even prettier is “It Takes Time,” a piano ballad that’s pure Buckingham (with a healthy dose of Eric Carmen’s sugary pathos).

The last song didn’t even register, and with a four-song record, that’s not good.

Fleetwood Mac "Extended Play" Enters Billboard Top 200 Chart at...

Fleetwood Mac’s Extended Play debuts at #48.

Albums:  Week Ending May 5, 2013

Fleetwood Mac's EP "Extended Play" will debut at #48 on the Billboard Top 200 Album Charts when Billboard publishes the chart on Thursday.  HitsDailyDouble estimated on Tuesday that the EP would come in at about #31 with sales of approx. 11,500. Actual sales haven't been confirmed yet, I'll post that info once I receive it - but it's likely not far off.

Yahoo.Music

"In 1979, the band released a double-disk, 20-song studio album, Tusk. Now, it’s putting out a four-song EP. Our attention spans are shrinking by the minute."

Stevie Nicks Says New Fleetwood Mac Songs "Came Out Great"

Last week, Fleetwood Mac released their first new recordings in almost a decade -- a four-song digital EP

titled Extended Play.  The collection features three new tunes written by singer/guitarist Lindsey Buckingham -- "It Takes Time," "Miss Fantasy" and "Sad Angel" -- as well as a Stevie Nicks-penned track called "Without You" that dates back to her and Buckingham's pre-Fleetwood Mac days, when they performed as a duo.

Nicks recently chatted with ABC News Radio about the new songs, and revealed why the band decided to release just a few songs rather than a full-length album.

"In this day and age, nobody really wants an album anyway, [and] we didn't have time to do a record anyway, because we were all working all last year," she explains.  "And…when you do a record, especially a Fleetwood Mac record, that means you rent a house and you're working for almost a year.  We didn't have that year.  So, this way, we have new songs."

Nicks also told ABC News Radio that Buckingham's new tunes were written in early 2012, and he initially recorded them with just drummer Mick Fleetwood and bassist John McVie.

"I didn't go because my mom had just passed away, and I really just couldn't go into the studio," she points out.  "So they went in basically without me, and that was fine."

Stevie adds that, although she didn't participate in the early sessions, Lindsey made an effort to come up with material that was well-suited for her.  "Lindsey just tried really hard to see through my eyes," she notes.  "He certainly knows me well enough to do that."

Nicks finally got the chance to add her voice to the new tracks late last year when she visited Buckingham at his home studio.  "He and I picked…two songs out of the several songs that they did that I like very much, otherwise I wouldn't have wanted to sing on them," explains Stevie.  "We did them, and we finished all the vocals and they came out great."

Nicks also brought in her old song "Without You," which she reportedly had rediscovered after coming across an old demo that had been posted on YouTube.

"We can't figure out for the life of us why it didn't go on the Buckingham Nicks album," says Stevie, referring to the 1973 album she and Lindsey recorded as a duo.  "But it didn't and it's just this amazing song…So we rerecorded it and it came out great."

Extended Play is available now at iTunes and AmazonMP3 for $3.96.  Fleetwood Mac has regularly been playing two songs from the EP, "Sad Angel" and "Without You" during their current North American tour, which is mapped out through a July 6 show in Sacramento, California.  The band also has a European trek planned for the fall.

2013 ABC News Radio

2 Impressive Reviews: Fleetwood Mac "Extended Play"

Album Review: Fleetwood Mac 'Extended Play'
by PushxShove
ign.com

The new Fleetwood Mac EP, aptly named "Extended Play", is a short but sweet taste of more from a band that has truly withstood the test of time. Though far too short for my taste, any new offering from my favorite band of all time is welcome. So, with that said, let's get down to business.

-Track By Track Analysis-

The first track on the short offering from the classic rock pioneers is an uptempo diddy entitled "Sad Angel". Ultimately and noticeably a Buckingham original, but Stevie throws in her beautifully rugged vocals for the perfect trademark harmony that we've come to expect from the duo. In some ways, it recalls the Self Titled and Rumours eras, while still sounding Say You Will-esk. Albeit, there's a kind of fluidity between Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham that can't be found anywhere on the Say You Will album. The track is solid, with Buckinghams electric guitar providing a good deal of momentum. Overall, the song writing is ace (as expected), the instrumentation is upbeat and superb, and the harmonies are as good as years passed. Judging by this track, one could say that life has been good to Fleetwood Mac, specifically Buckingham and Nicks. A bright spot and possibly the highlight of their musicianship from the past 15 years or so, though Nicks' last album was her best effort since Bella Donna in my opinion.

Great read... Continue to the original site for the rest

Fleetwood Mac Still Have Plenty of Gas in The Tank
Phoenixmusiconline

"It Takes Time leads on with a slow tempo and melody allowing you to listen to the eerie lyrical affair tracing Buckingham´s lips."

Fleetwood Mac are back with their first studio material in ten years, Extended Play-EP, Which was released last week. The EP shows off three new tracks, `Sad Angel´ `It Takes Time´ and `Miss Fantasy´ that are penned by Lindsey Buckingham and it also includes `Without You´ Which is a revamped track, That was originally written by Stevie Nicks from the Buckingham Nicks project.

Extended Play opens with Sad Angel, Which is an upbeat Country-esque ditty that will have you singing along after just one listen. A great tempo and melody sprinkled with the magic of Buckingham and Nicks on vocals, Who are still a force to be reckoned with and the track dances forward without missing a beat.  The Tempo gets stripped down in Without You with this revamped acoustic track from the early days. Its Buckingham, Nicks and a guitar, Keeping it simple, raw and real. There ´s nothing overworked about this Folk/Country inspired track, Which perfects it.

Continue to the original site for the rest

Fleetwood Mac "Extended Play" 1 Week Out... How did it do on the charts? Details here:

Early indications from Hitsdailydouble are that Fleetwood Mac's "Extended Play" EP will land at or around #31 Fleetwood Mac's EP "Extended Play" will debut at #48 when Billboard publishes it's Top 200 Album Chart on Thursday May 9th.  Sales for the week were approximately 11,500 digital units sold in the United States.

Although sales for the week weren't all that spectacular given Fleetwood Mac's stature.  Do I think the first week could have been a little better, or even huge?  Yes, I do.  But they could easily be forgiven for a number of reasons:

1. It`s only 4 songs and not a full album and although these 4 songs are, I think, really great, and I love them - some people have said there isn't enough Stevie on the tracks.
2. This was a digital download exclusive to iTunes for the first week only.  Not everyone has access to iTunes, or wants to.
3. Virtually no advertising except for a few really key on-line websites publishing about the release.  The band mentioning it was coming out during interviews and on the current tour helps, but there was no real hard date set as to when the EP would actually be released - until it was released.
4. The entire 4 song set could be streamed legitimately online at various websites as part of the promotion.
5. No hard copy available to purchase.

Whether the band believes this is a successful week is anyones guess... It all depends on what they expected, or wanted to achieve.  With this being the bands very first self-release, maybe things will be different when and if this happens again.

All I know, is I'm completely pleased with these 4 songs offered - and think they should continue to either put out a few more EP`s... Or work out a way to put an album together without it taking 2 years.

Onwards... and Upwards... 

Lindsey Buckingham Talks Fleetwood Mac Tour, New EP

Lindsey Buckingham Talks Fleetwood Mac Tour, New EP
'Stevie and I have probably more of a connection now than we have in years'

By ANDY GREENE
MAY 7, 2013
Rolling Stone

It's been exactly a decade since Fleetwood Mac released a full album, but that hasn't stopped a new generation of fans from discovering the band. "We're doing the best business we've done in 20 years," guitarist Lindsey Buckingham tells Rolling Stone a few hours before the Tulsa, Oklahoma stop on the band's latest tour. "There seems to be a cyclical re-igniting of interests, and there's certainly a lot more young people out there than three years ago."

Months before they started tour rehearsal, the band cut a four-song EP titled Extended Play with producer Mitchell Froom. "When we finally decided this was going to be the year we were going to tour again, I thought it would be great to cut some new stuff," says Buckingham. "I knew we wouldn't have time to cut a new album. Stevie [Nicks] was still caught up in her solo thing, but I got John [McVie] and Mick [Fleetwood] over from Hawaii. They played their asses off. It was a great experience."

Stevie Nicks arrived at the sessions towards the end, and Buckingham presented her with "Sad Angel." "I wrote that song for Stevie," he says. "She always had to fight for everything. She was coming off a solo album and was in the process of reintegrating herself mentally in the band, and we're all warriors with a sword in one sort or another. She and I have known each other since high school. So I just wrote, 'Sad Angel have you come to fight the war/We fall to earth together, the crowd calling out for more.'"

Read the full interview at Rolling Stone

Review: Fleetwood Mac show they can still turn out catchy mid-tempo rock on the sublime, four-track “Extended Play.”

Available on iTunes $3.96
Available on AmazonMP3 $3.96
Also Available on Google Play

Fleetwood Mac "Extended Play"
By Will Hermes
Rolling Stone
May 7, 2013
★★★

"We fall to Earth together/The crowd calling out for more," goes a couplet on this four-track EP by the remaining Macs (Christine McVie sits out). Note to band: That doesn't mean y'all have to answer. But if their first release of new music in a decade isn't replacing any classics, the voices of Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks can still bring chills. The gem is "Without You," a breezy Nicks-written folk rocker from the couple's pre-Mac project Buckingham Nicks: Largely acoustic, with twined harmonies, its chords twist and resolve like a sun-dappled mobile on a breezy day. And we confess: Hearing the ex-lovers put words in each other's mouths remains as fascinating as ever.

Available Today at the Amazon MP3 Store

Music Review:
Fleetwood Mac “Extended Play”
By Hardeep Phull
New York Post May 6, 2013
★★ 1/2

AFTER 10 years of radio silence, Fleetwood Mac shocked almost everyone last week by issuing a four-track EP on iTunes. What may be even more shocking is that it’s actually pretty good.

Even with the obvious wear and tear in their voices, Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham still sound sublime when they lock together on “Without You” (a song dating back to their pre-Mac days) and the gorgeous chorus of “Miss Fantasy.”

True, those tracks are otherwise run of the mill, but there’s a real gem within their mini-set: the opener “Sad Angel,” a brisk and brilliant mid-tempo rocker with the kind of instantly singable hook that used to help them move records by the silo-full.

Fleetwood Mac show they can still turn out catchy mid-tempo rock on the sublime, four-track “Extended Play.”

Such gargantuan sales aren’t likely to be replicated these days, of course, but it’s reassuring to hear that Fleetwood Mac can still pull some magic out of the air when the fancy takes them.

Fleetwood Mac "Extended Play"
by Eric Pahls
EricPahls.com

Ten years after their last studio album, Fleetwood Mac (Lindsey Buckingham, Stevie Nicks, John McVie, Mick Fleetwood) is back with a brand-new 4-song EP, called, funny enough, Extended Play.

Extended Play features 3 brand new songs written by guitarist Buckingham.  It also hosts Without You, which was written by Nicks 4 decades ago in her pre-Fleetwood Mac days in her and Buckingham's band, Buckingham Nicks.  This is the only song Nicks wrote on the EP, as her mother died when the other 3 members began work on the recordings.

Extended Play starts with Sad Angel, which is an up-tempo rocker filled with repitition and the glamour of the 63 to 67-year-old supergroup.  This song is the crowning jewel of this EP, and it quickly signals what Buckingham has said, the band has chapters yet to be written.

Without You is a song rich with acoustic charm and laced with the sweet and rosinate harmony that has defined Nicks and Buckingham for the entirety of their tumultuous career together.  Nicks has called it the nicest words she has written about Buckingham, as most of their hits are the songs during and after their very ugly split.  The song was lost, and turned up on YouTube.  It seems to come out at a great time, as the duo seems to be getting along as well as ever.  Without You is a beautiful and simple love song that transcends from it's origin 40 years ago to its release this week with its meaning and voices perfectly intact.

The real surprise of this EP is It Takes Time, which is a solo with Buckingham on piano (whaaat?!) and a touch of orchestration in certain points of the song.  It is a sad ballad that takes an introspective look at his place in what we assume is the failure of he and Nicks' relationship, and the healing that follows.  It is a quiet and gentle song with an intense amount of emotion.  It is uncharacteristic of most of Buckingham's more punk-rock work, but can be looked at as an unexpected and refreshing change of pace.

Miss Fantasy is another upbeat jam with Buckingham covering the verses and Nicks coming in on the harmony in the chorus.  It is a slightly upbeat acoustic quirky rock song that wraps up the EP with the classic Buckingham style of going just outside the norm.

This EP is a great sign towards hopes of a new album, and continued productivity of one of the greatest bands of all time.  Lindsey is still the guitar hero and musical mad genius he always has been, John McVie still lays into stirring bass lines, Mick Fleetwood can get you on your feet and moving with a killer rhythm, and Stevie Nicks can floor you with that low, rosinate and nearly indescribable voice that remains a treasure for adoring fans.  Fleetwood Mac lives on, and I strongly encourage you to check out the new EP, Extended Play, right now!    

A new Fleetwood Mac track finds the group as lively as ever
By Noah Cruickshank May 6, 2013
A.V. CLUB

In Hear This, A.V. Club writers sing the praises of songs they know well—some inspired by a weekly theme and some not, but always songs worth hearing.

Fleetwood Mac’s announcement that it was making an EP was surprising: The group hadn’t released new music since 2003’s underrated Say You Will, and its current arena tour seemed more like another back-catalog cash-grab than a chance to road-test new material. Likewise, the band hasn’t done much publicity behind the new music, keeping the release date secret and only playing two of the new songs live. But there’s no reason for Lindsey Buckingham and company to be coy: Extended Play’s opener, “Sad Angel,” is everything a fan could want from latter-day Mac. With frenetic guitar from Buckingham, expert harmony from Stevie Nicks, and a chorus that’s catchy as hell, the song is a great reminder of how well these folks can craft pop music. Buckingham has been making quality albums on his own for this past decade, but he’s livelier than ever on “Sad Angel,” drawing parallels between the bombast of war and rock music. Even Mick Fleetwood’s drumming is more energetic than it’s been since the ’80s. If Fleetwood Mac has more tracks like this in them, here’s hoping another album surfaces soon. 

Reviews x 2: Fleetwood Mac's New 4 Track EP "Extended Play"

Fleetwood Mac: Extended Play – EP

by Simon Sweetman
Off The Tracks

Though you could argue it’s phoned in by the title alone, I really like this four-track EP by Fleetwood Mac, the band’s first release in a decade and their second set of recordings sans Christine McVie. Once again her presence is missed – because it’s now just The Stevie and Lindsey Show and her counterpoint was (always) crucial.

Where Say You Will, the band’s last album, was far too long (some 75 minutes) Extended Play is probably just a bit too short – six tracks might have been nice. But it’s a move I applaud. For two (crucial) reasons. Firstly, Fleetwood Mac is a hits-act, running the nostalgia circuit, giving its fans what they want, delivering shit-hot performances, still white-hot with Lindsey’s guitar prowess front and centre, that oh-so-capable rhythm section, Nicks still playing the twirling white-witch bogan-fantasy to the hilt and – yes – The Stevie and Lindsey Show is a big part of the sound and look and story of the band’s tours – as it has been since 1975 (with just a slight break). So fans want to hear the hits and a new album would be a waste of time but a new EP allows them a fan-souvenir and a chance for the band to slip in just a wee bit of new material. A nice touch, I say.

But the other great reason for a four-track EP at this stage in their career – far more important, I say – is this idea of simply offering all you have to say at any one moment and nothing more. Or, put another way, offer up your best work – avoid the filler. So Fleetwood Mac only has four songs they want to share right now. So be it. See reason one above – no one is going to a Fleetwood Mac show for the new material.

I don’t see this move of releasing an EP as misguided, I think it’s smart that a band like Fleetwood Mac releases an EP over an album; that they’ve done so at this stage in their career pleases me. More bands should be releasing just the good material.

So, all that said, is the material on the EP good enough?

Continue to the original site for the full article

For the most part, yes. And – it has to be said – thanks to Lindsey. Three of the four songs are from Buckingham, who really has been doing the heavy-lifting since Tusk. And – in the decade since Say You Will – he’s the Mac member that’s offered the most outside of the band; his solo albums a grand showcase for his skills; each album offering something new, a fresh angle. The other song is one that Buckingham had a hand in way back; has been resurrected.

So, opener, Sad Angel is the sort of immaculate pop song Buckingham has been scrubbing since his first solo album and in the way the riff dissolves into the hook it bears some resemblance to his great solo track Trouble. It’s a strong new addition to the Mac cannon.

Without You is a re-recording of a pre-Mac Buckingham/Nicks demo – and though it’s lightweight it plays into the history and is something for fans to hear; to reconnect with that soap-opera back-story that is so important to this band. It’s the weakest song on Extended Play however.

But It Takes Time is gorgeous, Lindsey at the piano, deciding – essentially – that if the band is missing Christine McVie and Christine McVie Songs he’ll just write one. It Takes Time wouldn’t have been out of place on the recent return from Bill Fay. It’s my pick for winning track on EP – it’s the something special you often find on EPs.

And the closer, Miss Fantasy, is another strong pop song. Flavours of the Mac of old. Just enough to distinguish it – and the other songs here – from Lindsey’s solo career; it’s deceptively slight at first – just 17 minutes after all – but you hear the textures, that lovely feel that is signature.

Will it change the world? No. Will it keep the fans happy? Of course.

Fleetwood Mac, Extended Play (LMJS Productions) * * * 1/2
By Howard Cohen
The Miami Herald

Fleetwood Mac’s first new music since 2003’s Say You Will is short on Stevie Nicks, who resisted recording a full album with the group. The resulting four-track EP, released to iTunes as a digital download, makes you wish for more on the strength of Lindsey Buckingham’s three new songs.

Nicks contributes the folksy Without You, a reject from the 1973 sessions for the Buckingham Nicks LP. The pair harmonize over Buckingham’s tinny acoustic strumming. Meh.

Much better: Buckingham’s fresh songs in which he returns to writing crisp, accessible, engaging California pop/rock, like the infectiously melodic and rhythmically driving Sad Angel and the breezy Miss Fantasy, a piquant taste of Mirage-era Mac that makes great use of the famed rhythm section of Mick Fleetwood and John McVie.

His stark solo piano ballad, It Takes Time — imagine Christine McVie’s Songbird as its closest cousin — intrigues the most because it’s unlike anything the guitarist has released.

REVIEW: Fleetwood Mac “Extended Play” - "concise burst of fresh songs'

Fleetwood Mac “Extended Play” (iTunes)

In the decade since Fleetwood Mac released 2003's “Say You Will,” a new surge of interest in the group's distinctive pop style has taken hold in the modern pop, alternative and country communities. Recent music by artists as diverse as Cut Copy, Lady Antebellum, Vampire Weekend, Haim, Daft Punk, John Mayer and Little Big Town was inspired by the warmth and harmonic richness of Fleetwood Mac's Lindsey Buckingham/Stevie Nicks era, and last year's tribute album, “Just Tell Me That You Want Me,” offered persuasive testimony to the band's enduring influence.

But for all the enthusiasm those acts show for Fleetwood Mac's pop shimmer, most would balk at walking a mile in their shoes, and continued tension within the band is a key reason why they only mustered four tracks for “Extended Play,” Fleetwood Mac's first new material since 2003. But this concise burst of fresh songs, mostly co-produced by Buckingham and Mitchell Froom (Crowded House), says more about what it really means to be part of Fleetwood Mac than anything since “Rumours” and “Tusk.” Buckingham takes it on directly with “Sad Angel,” which addresses the challenge of getting Nicks on board with new Mac material while the fans are “calling out for more.” Even the inclusion of “Without You,” an unreleased Buckingham Nicks song, underlines the continued tension — putting the song on “Extended Play” was a compromise after Nicks and Buckingham could not agree on how to handle the 40th anniversary of the “Buckingham Nicks” album.

But Buckingham extends an olive branch with “It Takes Time,” a rare piano ballad from the band since Christine McVie's retirement. The song acknowledges that Buckingham bears some of the burden here, and that he carries his own emotional baggage to every Fleetwood Mac gig. The group wraps up “Extended Play” with Buckingham's “Miss Fantasy,” a wistful uptempo song about “the queen of the underground.” “Everyone whispers when you go, into the silence soft and low/ Ten thousand voices, crying ‘on with the show,” Buckingham sings. Over 35 years after the romantic fissures that nearly wrecked the band, on “Extended Play” Fleetwood Mac proves that some chains never really break.

— George Lang
Newsok.com

Review: Fleetwood Mac "Extended Play" "as fresh and exciting as anything they have recorded for a very long time"

Fleetwood Mac – Extended Play Review

by Terry Hearn
WhatCulture

Ten years is a long time between records but for Fleetwood Mac it feels like the rest has done them good. Containing four tracks, three new Buckingham compositions and a reworking of an old Stevie Nicks track from the 1970’s, the new EP, ‘Extended Play’ is as fresh and exciting as anything they have recorded for a very long time.

At a show during their current world tour, singer and guitarist Lindsay Buckingham announced the EP saying it would be out in ‘a few days’ before performing one of the new tracks. This created quite a buzz of expectation online, not least because the band hadn’t released any new material for so long. Weeks later the iTunes-only release appeared without fanfare. In the gap between the announcement and release it was rumored there was a delay centered around getting an agreement on the title and artwork. Between the over simplistic title and the black and white cover it seems that the band fortunately decided releasing the music was the most important thing.

The EP leans strongly towards Lindsey Buckingham which is no bad thing as his song writing and performance is clearly in rude health but it would be nice to hear the lead vocal shared a little more.

By a long way the standout track is the opener ‘Sad Angel’ which is the best thing they have done since ‘Tango in the Night,’ possibly longer. It sounds fresh and new but it also fits with ease amongst the best of their vast back catalogue and would not be out of place on ‘Rumours.’ While not holding the strength or immediacy of the first track of this collection, the light and breezy ‘Without You’ sways with a sureness that was lacking from their last full album release ‘Say You Will’ from 2003. ‘It Takes Time’ hears an isolated Lindsay solo on the piano whispering until strings join him for a dramatic climax. Despite a small number of tracks, ‘Miss Fantasy’ is still able to stand out as a particularly delightful pop song.

If nothing else this EP shows that Fleetwood Mac still have what it takes in the studio. Each  song is immediate and fresh which belies the familiarity they provoke after only a handful of listens. Hopefully it is the first step towards a new full length album rather than a souvenir to give the current tour an identity. The Mac is back.

Get the EP on iTunes $3.96

It's Out Now... Granted, it’s only four songs. But still. Fleetwood Mac Man! "Extended Play"

With relatively little fanfare or forewarning, iconic pop/rock act Fleetwood Mac have released their first new music since 2003’s Say You Will.

Granted, it’s only four songs. But still.

Simply titled Extended Play, the four-song EP contains three brand-spanking-new tunes penned by Lindsey Buckingham, plus a lost Steve Nicks tune from the Buckingham/Nicks era, “Without You.” The band decided to resurrect the tune officially after an early demo of the song surfaced on YouTube.

Along with the oft-rumored tour, a new album from the band has been hovering on the will-they-won’t-they table for quite some time. The tour landed in the “will they” column and is currently in progress, but a full-length album is still up for speculation as Stevie Nicks in particular seems to be in wait-and-see mode. After Say You Will saw disappointing sales compared to earlier releases, Nicks has indicated that future music from Fleetwood Mac would be based on fan demand. Thus, it would appear that Extended Play is something in the middle, a way to test the waters, as it were.

(Translation: if you want even more new music from Fleetwood Mac, buy this EP. You can currently get it only at iTunes.)

Get the EP on iTunes $3.96

Fleetwood Mac have released a four-track EP called "Extended Play" via iTunes.

Classic Rock Magazine

Their first new music in 10 years comes in the form of three recently-written songs – Sad Angel, It Takes Time and Miss Fantasy – plus a reworked Buckingham Nicks number called Without You.

Lindsey Buckingham says: “After all this time you would think there was nothing left to discover, no new chapters to be written. But that’s not the case – there are new chapters to be written.”

He and Steve Nicks recently reflected on the life they might have lived if they’d remained together as a couple.

Fleetwood Mac are currently touring the US and will arrive in the UK in September:

Sep 20: Dublin O2
Sep 24: London O2 Arena
Sep 29: Birmingham LG Arena
Oct 1: Manchester Arena
Oct 3: Glasgow Hydro


Fleetwood Mac releases new music for the first time in 10 years.
CNN

While some musicians make a splashy entrance when they're returning from a recording hiatus, Fleetwood Mac has been far more subtle.

The legendary group has released a four-track EP called "Extended Play," which became available Tuesday on iTunes.  It's the group's first studio release since 2003's "Say You Will."

While Lindsey Buckingham said at a concert in April that fans should look out for a new EP from the band, "Extended Play" simply popped up on Tuesday.

The EP contains three songs written by Buckingham - "Sad Angel," "It Takes Time" and "Miss Fantasy" - as well as a fourth, "Without You," that was penned by Stevie Nicks years ago in the era of Buckingham/Nicks and was rediscovered for the EP.

Fleetwood Mac "Extended Play" "Sad Angel," shimmers with the glossy textures of 1987's "Tango in the Night."

First impression: Fleetwood Mac's four-song 'Extended Play'

By Mikael Wood
LA Times

The four songs on the new Fleetwood Mac EP -- which the legendary pop-rock outfit put up for sale on iTunes on Tuesday morning with little advance warning -- arrive steeped in echoes of the past, in at least one case quite literally: 

"Without You," a strummy acoustic number overlaid with harmony vocals by Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, reportedly dates back to sessions for the two singers' 1973 album as a long-haired vocal duo deeply opposed to shirts.

But the other tunes on "Extended Play," newly composed by Buckingham and co-produced by him and L.A. studio pro Mitchell Froom, feel no less rooted in earlier iterations of this on-again/off-again institution.

"Miss Fantasy" has some of the folky back-porch guitar action of "Never Going Back Again," while the stripped-down "It Takes Time" could be Buckingham's version of Christine McVie's big piano ballad, "Songbird." And opener "Sad Angel," which you can hear below, shimmers with the glossy textures of 1987's "Tango in the Night." (Incidentally, if you want to get a sense of Fleetwood Mac's enduring influence on synthed-up young rock acts like Phoenix, go straight to "Tango" -- it looms larger these days than the vaunted "Rumours" does.)

Nothing about this self-reference surprises, of course, especially given that Fleetwood Mac is in the midst of a giant arena tour that will bring the band to the Hollywood Bowl on May 25 and Anaheim's Honda Center on May 28. Old hits are what the members are playing onstage -- "Don't Stop," "Dreams," "Go Your Own Way," "Silver Springs" -- so old hits are what the members are hearing in their heads.

And yet "Extended Play" -- Fleetwood Mac's first studio output since "Say You Will" in 2003 -- doesn't sound stale or overworked; indeed, the songs have an impressive crispness (after only a handful of spins, anyway) that makes their familiarity seem less like evidence of a tapped creative supply than like proof that this is simply the kind of music Fleetwood Mac writes.

"I remember you," Buckingham sings over and over again near the end of "Miss Fantasy," and he might be addressing his own melody. But it's a good one. You'll remember it too.

Get the EP on iTunes $3.96

First Single "Sad Angel"