Lindsey Buckingham (album)

According to Buckingham, the album was fully complete in 2018, but he decided to temporarily shelve the album and release Solo Anthology: The Best of Lindsey Buckingham that year instead.{{Cite web|date=2021-09-23|title=Lindsey Buckingham—Architect of Song|url=https://www.premierguitar.com/artists/guitarists/lindsey-buckingham|access-date=2021-12-18|website=Premier Guitar|language=en}} The studio album, which was tentatively titled "Blue Light", was subsequently planned for a 2019 release.{{Cite magazine|last=Fricke|first=David|date=2018-10-10|title=Lindsey Buckingham: Life After Fleetwood Mac|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/lindsey-buckingham-fleetwood-mac-firing-733460/|access-date=2021-12-18|magazine=Rolling Stone|language=en-US}} Buckingham was preparing a tour to promote the album in early 2019, but underwent open heart surgery before the start of the tour. The album was delayed again in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Most of the songs on Lindsey Buckingham began as voice memos on Buckingham's phone containing "seeds of ideas".{{cite podcast |url=https://www.sodajerker.com/episode-212-lindsey-buckingham/|title=Episode 212 – Lindsey Buckingham|website=Sodajerker|publisher= |host=Simon Barber and Brian O'Connor |date=2021-09-30 |time=07:08, 13:59|access-date=2021-12-18}} Buckingham commented that his goal was to create a pop album with "songs that resemble art more than pop". The songs were recorded on a Sony 48-track reel-to-reel at Buckingham's home studio.{{Cite web |last=Pinnock |first=Tom |date=September 17, 2021 |title="I love that Peter Green stuff, but it wasn't me": Lindsey Buckingham on Fleetwood Mac and his first album in a decade |url=https://guitar.com/features/interviews/lindsey-buckingham-solo-album-fleetwood-mac-2021/ |access-date=October 29, 2023 |website=Guitar.com}} Several of the drums on the album were played by hand on a keyboard,{{Cite web |last=Ryan |first=Jim |date=June 27, 2022|title=Lindsey Buckingham On Return To The Road And An Early Concert Memory |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/jimryan1/2022/06/27/lindsey-buckingham-on-return-to-the-road-and-an-early-concert-memory/ |access-date=December 29, 2023|website=Forbes |language=en}} although his favorite tracks on the album, "Swan Song" and "Power Down", incorporated a set of electronic drum loops. "I wanted to do something that felt a little more techno, and the drum loops were just a great starting point and pretty much led to everything else. It was a way of having a little slap across the face just when you thought the album might be a little too pretty."{{Cite web|last=Chiu|first=David|date=2021-09-15|title=Lindsey Buckingham looks for life after Fleetwood Mac|url=https://www.newsweek.com/2021/09/24/lindsey-buckingham-looks-life-after-fleetwood-mac-1629086.html|access-date=2021-12-19|website=Newsweek|language=en}} On "Scream", Buckingham eschewed a standard drum kit by instead experimenting with found sounds, including the front of his recording console, which he tapped with his hands. Buckingham used a Roland guitar synthesizer for the solos on "Power Down" and "On the Wrong Side".

In November 2021, Jordon Zadorozny and Brad Laner were given songwriting credits for "Swan Song" after the former discovered lyrical similarities with the chorus of the song "Mind's Eye". Buckingham had produced a couple of tracks for them in 2000 at The Village Studio where Tusk was recorded. After the studio session, Laner gave Buckingham a CD with songs he had co-written with Zadorozny, with one of those being "Mind's Eye". Buckingham later recorded a demo of the song, which he rediscovered while compiling material for his eponymous album, but forgot that Zadorozny and Laner had written it.{{Cite web|date=2021-11-23|title=Meet the Songwriters Behind the Best Song on Lindsey Buckingham's New Album|url=https://www.spin.com/2021/11/jordon-zadorozny-brad-laner-lindsey-buckingham-swan-song/|access-date=2021-12-18|website=SPIN|language=en-US}}

At the conclusion of Buckingham's North American tour, Buckingham, Zadorozny, and Laner amicably agreed upon legal paperwork that granted the latter two songwriting credits, a percentage of the publishing, and a flat sum of money. Neither Zadorozny nor Laner harbored any resentment over the misunderstanding, with Zadorozny saying that “I'm grateful to Lindsey for rediscovering this piece of music and I love what he did with it.”

{{Album ratings

| rev1 = AllMusic

| rev1score = {{Rating|4.5|5}}[{{AllMusic|class=album|id=mw0003541025|pure_url=yes}} Allmusic review]

| rev2 = NME

| rev2score = {{Rating|4|5}}{{cite web|url=https://www.nme.com/reviews/album/lindsey-buckingham-new-soll-album-review-3046525|title=Lindsey Buckingham – 'Lindsey Buckingham' review: Fleetwood Mac visionary's stellar return|website=NME|last=Buchanan|first=Rhys|date=September 15, 2021|access-date=September 7, 2022}}

| rev3 = Paste

| rev3score = 7.0/10{{Cite web |date= September 15, 2021|title=Lindsey Buckingham’s Satisfying, Solitary Self-Titled Album Is Comfortable Enough |url=https://www.pastemagazine.com/music/lindsey-buckingham/lindsey-buckingham-album-review |access-date=January 25, 2024 |website=Paste Magazine |language=en-US}}

| rev4 = Pitchfork

| rev4score = 7.0/10{{cite web|url=https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/lindsey-buckingham-lindsey-buckingham/|title=Lindsey Buckingham: Lindsey Buckingham Album Review|website=Pitchfork|last=Soto|first=Alfred|date=September 14, 2021|access-date=September 16, 2021}}

| noprose = yes

}}

At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received a score of 79, based on 13 reviews.{{cite web|url=https://www.metacritic.com/music/lindsey-buckingham/lindsey-buckingham|title=Reviews and Tracks for Lindsey Buckingham by Lindsey Buckingham|work=Metacritic|publisher=CBS Interactive|access-date=2022-09-07}} Greil Marcus praised the album, writing that "everything here sings with delight. There’s pleasure in music-making that gives Buckingham’s confident, all-the-time-in-the-world singing a lift right out of 'Blind Love,' a doo-wop ballad that sounds like something he and his high school friends made up while cruising up and down the San Francisco Peninsula instead of doing homework."{{cite news |last=Marcus |first=Greil |url=https://www.lareviewofbooks.org/article/real-life-rock-top-10-november-2021/|title=Real Life Rock Top 10: November 2021|publisher=Los Angeles Review of Books|access-date=2022-09-07}}

Rhys Buchanan wrote in NME that "even the most casual Fleetwood Mac fans won’t have to look hard to uncover the band’s classic hallmarks, which are dotted all over the listen...The album bustles with defiant spirit while leaning heavily on deeply catchy songwriting and production. And with Mick Fleetwood having reconciled with Buckingham back in March, it’s exactly the kind of triumphant return that could give his old band food for thought."

All tracks written by Lindsey Buckingham, except where indicated.

{{Track listing

| headline = Lindsey Buckingham track listing

| total_length = 36:33

| title1 = Scream

| length1 = 2:11

| title2 = I Don't Mind

| length2 = 4:05

| title3 = On the Wrong Side

| length3 = 3:36

| title4 = Swan Song

| writer4 = Buckingham, Jordon Zadorozny, Brad Laner

| length4 = 3:27

| title5 = Blind Love

| length5 = 3:47

| title6 = Time

| writer6 = Michael Merchant

| length6 = 3:56

| title7 = Blue Light

| length7 = 3:24

| title8 = Power Down

| length8 = 3:54

| title9 = Santa Rosa

| length9 = 4:24

| title10 = Dancing

| length10 = 3:49

}}

• Lindsey Buckingham – electric and acoustic guitars, guitar synthesizer, bass guitar, synthesizer bass, keyboards, percussion, drum programming, vocals

;Production

• Lindsey Buckingham – performance, mixing, producer, engineering
• Mark Needham – mixing
• Stephen Marcussen – mastering
• Liz Hirsch – design, layout
• John Russo – photography

{{reflist}}

{{Lindsey Buckingham}}

Category:2021 albums

Category:Lindsey Buckingham albums

Category:Albums postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic

Category:Albums recorded in a home studio