'Seeds We Sow'

If you come to Lindsey's Buckingham's Seeds We Sow looking for something reminiscent of Fleetwood Mac, you're going to be disappointed. In fact, that's the last thing the ex-Mac singer-songwriter-guitarist wants you to hear from him. That's why, he told USA Today, he didn't re-sign with Warner Bros. when his recording deal with them expired.

"We just didn't think they were on the same page as we were. They were always thinking, 'Yeah, this is nice, but let's get back to what's really important.' They wanted us to be cranking out Fleetwood Mac albums."

It isn't that Buckingham has filed for divorce from Fleewood Mac or anything like that. To the contrary, he openly talks about the possibility of another reunion tour, and possibly even a new Mac album. He just feels he's reached a point in his professional and personal life that he wants to do the songs he wants to do, the way he wants to do them, and not worry about whether a bunch of record label suits like it.

So, for his sixth solo studio album, Buckingham sealed himself in his own studio, recorded music that he had written, provided the instrumentation, mixed it, produced it, and released on his own label.

Artists who have earned their props, and no longer have to crank out hit after hit in order to put food on the table, tend to produce more soul searching, introspective music (see: Young, Neil - Prairie Wind or McCartney, Paul - Chaos and Creation in the Backyard or Clapton, Eric - Back Home) as they grow older. That's the route Buckingham (61 at the time of the release of Seeds We Sow) has chosen, with lyrics reflecting on life, love, death, and (you guessed it) getting older.

While you have to respect an artist's ability to be, literally, a one man band, there are several instances in which some harmony vocals and a defter touch on the mixing board would have helped a lot. In places, Buckingham's voice sounds thin, either because some vocal support would have helped, or because the mix was bad (or both.)

I'm generally willing to cut some slack for artists with Buckingham's talent and track record, as I did in my review of In Your Dreams, the recent solo album by Stevie Nicks, Buckingham's former professional and personal cohort. Nicks had Buckingham duet with her on one track of her album. He would have done well to have asked her to return the favor.

Although my opinion of Buckingham's considerable talent as a singer-songwriter-guitarist is not diminished as a result of Seeds We Sow, I think he did himself a disservice by producing it in a vacuum.

As long as you're willing to take Buckingham on his own terms, you will probably like this album. If, on the other hand, you're still longing to return to the '70s Fleetwood Mac, don't waste your time and money.

Release date: September 6, 2011 (Buckingham Records)

Review date: September 12, 2011