Fleetwood Mac's
only full-length album with a lineup of
Mick Fleetwood
,
John McVie
Christine McVie
Stevie Nicks
Billy Burnette
, and
Rick Vito
proved an artistic and commercial disappointment not so much because
Lindsey Buckingham
was missing as songwriter/guitarist/singer/ producer as because the group's other writers,
Nicks
and
, didn't pick up the slack, relying on
Burnette
Vito
to come up with material. They tried:
Burnette's
"Hard Feelings,"
written with
Jeff Silbar
, was a worthy effort. But
Nicks's
four contributions (three of them co-written) weren't up to her usual standard, and while
McVie
proved more dependable, turning in the Top 40 pop hit "Save Me" and the Top Ten Adult Contemporary hit "Skies The Limit," her light, romantic efforts needed sturdier work to play off of.
Behind The Mask
was never less than pleasant, but never of the calibre of the work of the previous lineup, either. Though it went gold, it was
least successful new album in 15 years. ~ William Ruhlmann