Stephen Merrit

FLEETWOOD MAC

Tusk WARNER BROS, 1979

In 1979, there were two extremes of pop production: bedroom-recorded DIY made purely for the love of music-making, and state-of-the-art California cocaine-fuelled arena rock. Fleetwood Mac had come to epitomise the California approach, whose apex was , one of the biggest-selling records ever. So when I received the follow-up, , from the Columbia House Record Club as its album of the month, I didn’t get it. Why, with an unlimited budget, was Lindsey Buckingham playing half the songs alone in his bathroom, drumming on