Also, this is one of my least favorite Mac songs... This is the kind of song I immediately think of when I read this quote from yesterday:
I think "Don't Stop" is just kind of treacly and simpleminded in sentiment and lyric, and was surprised to find myself thinking that about most of Christine's songs as I went through the catalogue. Coming into this poll, I would have ranked LB >> CM >> SN, but now I'd put Stevie ahead of Christine because her songs don't reduce down to swoony Moon-June-Spoon platitudes and cliches -- at least not as often. #stonetheheretic
― Neil Jung (WmC), Tuesday, July 24, 2012 2:06 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― Clarke B., Wednesday, 25 July 2012 13:55 (twelve years ago) link
Yeah, that's one of the songs I had in mind when I wrote that.
― Neil Jung (WmC), Wednesday, 25 July 2012 14:00 (twelve years ago) link
The "like they know the score" line has always induced mega-cringe with me.
― Clarke B., Wednesday, 25 July 2012 14:01 (twelve years ago) link
Seriously? I love that line. Songbird didn't quite make my top ten, but I really like this mode that Christine goes into. Songs like this and Warm Ways really glow.
― how's life, Wednesday, 25 July 2012 14:03 (twelve years ago) link
I've been trying to figure out why I like some of Christine's songs and dislike others that are ostensibly similar in tone... "Glow" is a good word. I think "Warm Ways" does really glow, but "Songbird" feels turgid to me. I'm not a big piano fan in general (in rock music, at least), so that's probably a stumbling block.
― Clarke B., Wednesday, 25 July 2012 14:05 (twelve years ago) link
I love Songbird; that was a def a late cut from my ballot.
― seapluspluspunk (loves laboured breathing), Wednesday, 25 July 2012 14:07 (twelve years ago) link
Don't Stop is the only song that wd give me momentary pause before declaring the first side of Rumours flawless
― seapluspluspunk (loves laboured breathing), Wednesday, 25 July 2012 14:10 (twelve years ago) link
"Songbird" accrues more significance as you age, I think, which is why I prefer her performance on The Dance. Her voice huskier and sadder, it makes lines like "I wish you all the love in the world" that much more rueful.
― a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 25 July 2012 14:10 (twelve years ago) link
― seapluspluspunk (loves laboured breathing), Wednesday, July 25, 2012 10:10 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
See, the drag accrued by DS and SB is what notches Rumours below the s/t in my ranking...
― Clarke B., Wednesday, 25 July 2012 14:13 (twelve years ago) link
"I wish you all the love in the world/but most of all I wish it from myself" I think is another great line in this son.
― how's life, Wednesday, 25 July 2012 14:20 (twelve years ago) link
song
#38: "Honey Hi" (Christine McVie, 1979) - 143 points, 7 votes
http://img1.bdbphotos.com/images/orig/6/b/6bbdhc2p9j8cb6dj.jpg
Track link: http://youtu.be/LBJNkauHcpI
― Clarke B., Wednesday, 25 July 2012 14:21 (twelve years ago) link
That is a good line there, how's life.
― Clarke B., Wednesday, 25 July 2012 14:22 (twelve years ago) link
^^ one of Tusk's few duds imo
― a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 25 July 2012 14:22 (twelve years ago) link
"Honey Hi" is a gem, and I love it. I love how all the instruments just sound like they're pulling each other along lazily, bouncing off each other, while the amazing harmonies float over top of it all. Thinking about it more, I think Christine's voice is poorly matched with a piano because it's too similar in "perfection", mellifluosness, even timbre, so in a song like "Songbird" it becomes smooth overload, whereas in "Honey Hi" it can really shine as a counterpoint to what else is going on in the song. This is kind of a revelation for me, that I like Christine's really sparse stuff. (See also "Brown Eyes"...)
― Clarke B., Wednesday, 25 July 2012 14:24 (twelve years ago) link
that's a good explanation
― a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 25 July 2012 14:25 (twelve years ago) link
That makes sense. This is the first song to crack my top 10 (at #9)
― how's life, Wednesday, 25 July 2012 14:27 (twelve years ago) link
A little Christine Tusk double-dose!
#37: "Never Forget" (Christine McVie, 1979) - 145 points, 8 votes
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_oOUSmnU7nbQ/TS0LPgMLSQI/AAAAAAAAA_4/aulk6hIwQco/s1600/tumblr_l2j0edfpem1qbvg22o1_500.jpg
Track link: http://youtu.be/q2p6OnSTN28
― Clarke B., Wednesday, 25 July 2012 14:36 (twelve years ago) link
^^^ this one took years to sink its claws into me. Hot Chip are particular fans.
― a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 25 July 2012 14:37 (twelve years ago) link
Um, that was my #6. I hope not to see to many more of mine today!
― how's life, Wednesday, 25 July 2012 14:38 (twelve years ago) link
I like the way it closes Tusk after the bizarre carnival of the title track... I've always loved that that record is bookended by two amazing Christine songs.
― Clarke B., Wednesday, 25 July 2012 14:40 (twelve years ago) link
Today feels like the Christine day in the same way that yesterday felt like the Kirwan day.
― how's life, Wednesday, 25 July 2012 14:42 (twelve years ago) link
I'm keeping my mouth shut on that one... But this is a pretty big change of pace!
#36: "Man of the World" (Peter Green, 1969) - 155 points, 7 votes
http://www.kieran.keegan.btinternet.co.uk/Greeny/Greeny_pics/amsterdam_70.gif
Track link: http://youtu.be/_CT7mzrJunc
― Clarke B., Wednesday, 25 July 2012 14:51 (twelve years ago) link
"He [Peter Green] has the sweetest tone I ever heard; he was the only one who gave me the cold sweats."--B.B. King
― Clarke B., Wednesday, 25 July 2012 14:53 (twelve years ago) link
"Songbird" is not a very interesting song, it's true. But Christine's singing on it is so, so appealing, that I enjoy it anyway. Is there a song out there that Stevie wrote, but Christine sang? That would be a really cool thing to hear, since Christine is by far a better singer, but Stevie's songwriting has some teeth that Christine's don't. I would love to here her smoothness over something gritty.
― JessFlip, Wednesday, 25 July 2012 14:57 (twelve years ago) link
Better singer in the Glee sense, not necessarily in the "feel" sense...
― Clarke B., Wednesday, 25 July 2012 15:00 (twelve years ago) link
Songbird was on this killer mixtape that my cousin made for me that had Love and Rockets and The Verve and the first Big Star song I'd ever heard on it; usually inclusion on said mixtape is enough to make any poll ballot I draw up, but space was v v v limited, but I will still pledge fealty to that song forevermore
― seapluspluspunk (loves laboured breathing), Wednesday, 25 July 2012 15:01 (twelve years ago) link
Is that PG's first entry? I can't recall whether he even has an album in our chart.
― Ismael Klata, Wednesday, 25 July 2012 15:01 (twelve years ago) link
I really like the Honey Hi on the Tusk bonus disc - just Christine & Rhodes as I recall it
― Ismael Klata, Wednesday, 25 July 2012 15:02 (twelve years ago) link
They Play On made the albums list. xp
― Johnny Fever, Wednesday, 25 July 2012 15:02 (twelve years ago) link
Circling back to "I Don't Want to Know," I love the sustained harmony all the way through. I guess it's pretty slight, songwise, but it's a great bit of singing.
― something of an astrological coup (tipsy mothra), Wednesday, 25 July 2012 15:03 (twelve years ago) link
<3 peter green
― buzza, Wednesday, 25 July 2012 15:03 (twelve years ago) link
And the Cut Copy remix of Never Forget takes flight nicely.
― Ismael Klata, Wednesday, 25 July 2012 15:03 (twelve years ago) link
Isamel, Then Play On was 8th place in the albums ranking...
― Clarke B., Wednesday, 25 July 2012 15:03 (twelve years ago) link
But yeah, this is the first Peter Green song to appear... Beautiful track.
― Clarke B., Wednesday, 25 July 2012 15:04 (twelve years ago) link
I'd never even heard of "Man of the World" a week ago, but it leapt onto my ballot after the first listen.
― Neil Jung (WmC), Wednesday, 25 July 2012 15:04 (twelve years ago) link
There are three Peter Green songs that I expect to see higher, plus Brown Eyes, but that's it for him.
― Ismael Klata, Wednesday, 25 July 2012 15:06 (twelve years ago) link
Ask and ye shall receive...
#35: "Black Magic Woman" (Peter Green, 1968) - 158 points, 8 votes
http://991.com/NewGallery/Fleetwood-Mac-English-Rose---Se-451586.jpg
Track link: http://youtu.be/6pT3OaV0g64
― Clarke B., Wednesday, 25 July 2012 15:09 (twelve years ago) link
I love Songbird, and a sparsely arranged, melodically straightforward composition like that is a perfect interlude amidst the multi-tracked feast of popcraft ambrosia that is Rumours.
I agree with others though, that "Don't Stop" is the relative dud on the LP. I actually like the verse sections plenty; it's just the chorus that annoys me.
― collardio gelatinous, Wednesday, 25 July 2012 15:13 (twelve years ago) link
Exactly it. Say You Will shows what's missing when you take that out.
― Ismael Klata, Wednesday, 25 July 2012 15:16 (twelve years ago) link
<i>the multi-tracked feast of popcraft ambrosia that is Rumours.</i>
Nice! Beautiful turn of phrase.
― JessFlip, Wednesday, 25 July 2012 15:17 (twelve years ago) link
English Rose is the most horrifying album cover of all time.
― Clarke B., Wednesday, 25 July 2012 15:18 (twelve years ago) link
Nah, it's funny.
― Johnny Fever, Wednesday, 25 July 2012 15:20 (twelve years ago) link
I love it!
― Clarke B., Wednesday, 25 July 2012 15:20 (twelve years ago) link
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9PUi1S3XRPo/T8pRybwEfqI/AAAAAAAAAXo/PoH_zMKckNQ/s1600/583J.jpg
― Clarke B., Wednesday, 25 July 2012 15:21 (twelve years ago) link
"Black Magic Woman" rules, though... Dig John's bass!
― Clarke B., Wednesday, 25 July 2012 15:22 (twelve years ago) link
"Don't Stop": assumed when the poll was announced it would be a shoe-in for my ballot, but in the end I thought "nah"
"Songbird": used to think "nah" but it's grown on me a lot lately; in the end it was a late cut.
Does anyone agree btw that Rumours is not well sequenced? Don't Stop-->GYOW-->Songbird really doesn't work for me, perhaps because they could all be the Side 1 closer. Not that I have a better sequence in my head.
― Jeff W, Wednesday, 25 July 2012 15:26 (twelve years ago) link
Ah, that should have been a side question to the poll: Sequence your own Rumours
― Clarke B., Wednesday, 25 July 2012 15:27 (twelve years ago) link
lol
― how's life, Wednesday, 25 July 2012 15:29 (twelve years ago) link
Haha... I do agree though that the above-mentioned trio doesn't quite click.
― Clarke B., Wednesday, 25 July 2012 15:30 (twelve years ago) link