Following the release of "Tusk" in 1979, Fleetwood Mac released only one album, "Mirage" in 1982, until Tango In The Night came out in 1987. I had not purchased Mirage and only bought Tango In The Night after the fifth single had been released.
Consequently I was already familiar with most of the better tracks on the LP, and at the time I didn't think most of the rest the album tracks to be that interesting. I didn't play the album that often after the first couple of weeks after buying it. Looking at the track listing now there were four songs I couldn't recall.
Side One opens with the first single "Big Love". Whilst being an OK song, I never liked the fake orgasmic vocals, which are apparently all Lindsey Buckingham rather than him and Stevie Nicks.
Next up is "Seven Wonders" co-written by Nicks with Sandy Stewart, who had worked together on Nicks' solo albums, and this is one of my favourite songs on the album. I was surprised to learn it only got as high as 56 in the UK Charts.
Christine McVie's "Everywhere" was a global hit and has since been used in bank and mobile phone adverts in the UK.
"Caroline" is one of the songs I didn't remember. It has a weird drum intro and the "Carra-liinne" chant has a hint of native American to it. It's quite a nice song
"Tango In The Night" is another track I didn't remember and it is actually fairly awful. It seems to be Buckingham's attempt to be the "Tusk" of the album, but fails miserably.
The side closes with "Mystified", a cute, but insubstantial song, jointly written by McVie and Buckingham.
Side Two starts with "Little Lies", another McVie song that was a huge hit. It has great backing vocals in chorus from Nicks and Buckingham.
Buckingham's "Family Man" was the last of five singles from the album, a smooth song with a disco feel, and a flamenco style guitar break.
"Welcome To The Room....Sara" is about Nicks' trying to kick her cocaine habit after checking in to the clinic as Sara. It's not great and when "The First Cut Is The Deepest" is sung, I wished it was the PP Arnold/Rod Stewart song !
The rock flavoured "Isn't It Midnight" is an album filler but has a good guitar solo reminiscent of The Cure in their "Hot, Hot, Hot !" phase, whilst "When I See You Again" is a simple song with plucked guitar but the "What's a matter baby ?" refrain is a bit annoying after a while. The vocal by Nicks isn't the best either.
The album closes with "You And I, Part II", a lively, happy toe-tapper of a song with pleasant keyboards and perhaps because it wasn't a single, is my favourite track on the LP. I'm not sure what happened to Part 1, I think it may have been a B-Side ?
Overall, Tango In The Night is a patchy album. The huge hit singles helped reaffirm Fleetwood Mac's status as global headliners, but it has nowhere near the consistency of "Rumours" or "Tusk". That said it isn't a bad album.
I have probably heard "Little Lies" and "Everywhere" too often so that now I switch channels when they are played on the Virgin Anthems radio station. If these songs were not so ubiquitous I would probably appreciate them a lot more. Apart from "Seven Wonders", the contributions from Stevie Nicks are inconsequential at best.
Track Listing :
Side One :
1. Big Love
2. Seven Wonders
3. Everywhere
4. Caroline
5. Tango In The Night
6. Mystified
1. Little Lies
2. Family Man
3. Welcome To The Room....Sara
4. Isn't It Midnight
5. When I See You Again
6. You And I, Part II
Released 1987
UK Chart Position : 1
Big Love ( No 9 - 1987 )
Seven Wonders ( No 56 - 1987 )
Little Lies ( No 5 - 1987 )
Everywhere ( No 4 - 1987 )
Family Man ( No 56 - 1987 )
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