Lindsey Buckingham – Go Insane (LP & CD, Asylum, 1984)
Can anyone doubt that Lindsey Buckingham is one of the most talented guys in rock, at least when at his best? Sadly, here he is not. He didn’t go insane on this album, but it might have been a near thing.
As an integral member of Fleetwood Mac, Buckingham was one of the creative forces that drove that group to superstardom and eventually broke it apart. After Rumors, the 1977 monster-hit album, Buckingham was largely responsible for moving the band into a somewhat different direction that resulted in 1979’s Tusk, a double album that the public didn’t care for nearly so much. Believing in that different, more experimental and – arguably perhaps – somewhat more jazz-influenced direction, and while still a Fleetwood member, he released his first solo album, 1981’s Law and Order. That was moderately well-received, and even had a hit single, “Trouble.”
Then in 1984 came Going Insane. This achieved even less commercial success, and I must suggest that this was deservingly so. Doubtless many die-hard fans of Fleetwood Mac ran out and scooped it up, and it’s probably... gathering dust on their music racks. What we have here are basically self-indulgent exercises in art rock that are barely listenable. (Opinionated? Who, me?) Oh, I grant that there are flashes of brilliance and even a trace of a melody here or there, but it’s certainly not his most accessible music. For the most part I would leave it.
His next solo album would not come for another eight years. In 1992 he released Out of the Cradle, and with that he did achieve a masterpiece worthy of his genius. I should review that album one of these days, but you needn’t wait to check it out...