Lindsey Buckingham is a multi-platinum enigma -- massively successful and still somehow an enduring, intriguing mystery. As an individual artist, Buckingham has remained a curiously low-profile figure, despite decades of high visibility as a member of Fleetwood Mac -- the legendary band for which he has long served as a visionary leader and bold sonic architect.
Buckingham is that rare artist whose body of work shows a refusal to allow commerce to swamp art. His series of wildly eclectic and consistently acclaimed albums have topped more critics' annual Top Ten lists than sales charts. Within Fleetwood Mac, his role is fascinating-- his brilliance as a singer-songwriter-arranger and producer have been key in making the band's music so successful, yet he's famously displayed a commercially subversive tendency dating back to Fleetwood Mac's Tusk -- the band's daring follow-up to 1977's Rumours, one of the best-selling albums in music history. Rarely has anyone followed their muse so strongly, challenging himself and his bandmates rather than taking the formulaic path of least resistance.
Today, Tusk is viewed not as a commercial letdown, but rather as an influential rock classic. It stands as a testament to the unflinching talent that makes Buckingham a true musical artist. His refusal to sell his own musical gifts short can be heard loud and clear on his wonderful and willful solo albums -- Law and Order, Go Insane, Out of The Cradle -- and most recently on Fleetwood Mac's 2003 smash release Say You Will, an acclaimed album that has stunned critics with its ambition and accomplishment. For anyone who's been listening closely, Say You Will is the latest evidence that Lindsey Buckingham is a daring musical genius who remains at the height of his powers, refusing to rest on his laurels. Lindsey Buckingham is that rare rock god who seems constitutionally incapable of simply going with the flow.
All in all, he'd rather go his own way.
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