Fueling the Baby Boomer Fire

LEGACY: A TRIBUTE TO FLEETWOOD MAC

Various Artists

Atlantic Records

Pass the crackers: Legacy: A Tribute to Fleetwood Mac's Rumours is the newest cheesy tribute album on the charts. The roster of contributors who celebrate the 25th anniversary of Rumours--which include Jewel, Shawn Colvin, Matchbox 20 and Elton John--is an impressive roster of pop talent. Legacy, however, celebrates Fleetwood Mac in an unconventional way, not by improving upon the original, but by making you appreciate it in comparison.

The resilient Fleetwood Mac has proved that, like platform shoes, it is a vestige of the 1970's that won't go away. The band's two new releases, "Silver Springs" and "The Landslide" clog the easy-listening airwaves. Fleetwood Mac even made an appearance at this year's Grammy Awards, singing a medley of their "favourites." Although the performance seemed rushed and dissonant (as medleys often do by virtue of fitting half a dozen hits into two minutes of stage time), the crowd did not seem to mind. The applause, especially from the forty-something section of the audience, was thunderous.

But baby boomer nostalgia does not fuel Fleetwood Mac's comeback alone. In two decades, the pop music scene has not seen an artist who can convey vulnerability and angst quite like Fleetwood Mac's lead vocalist, Stevie Nicks.

This, however, can pose a problem for a tribute album. Artists are confronted with a dilemma. Should they try to capitalize on these traits and convey the natural sensitivity and candor that characterizes Fleetwood Mac? Or should they try to do something completely different and revamp the material in their own style?

Legacy does not offer a definitive answer. Rather, the result is a schizophrenic hybrid of attempts. No artist convincingly emulates Nicks; no artist successfully reworks her material. While this is fodder for lite-radio DJs (You can hear them breathlessly plug the tribute: "Can you believe it's been 25 years since Rumours came out? Let's hear the Goo Goo Dolls rework one of our favourites!"), the ultimate effect of Legacy is to leave us wondering what to do when it hovers closer to desecration than celebration.

The contributors, veritable modern czars of pop, try to capture Stevie Nicks' exuberance, but almost completely ignore her contemplation. As a result, Legacy sounds artificially happy and at times, difficult to listen to. The band Tonic sounds cheerful in singing "I'm just second-hand news." As the Irish band, The Corrs, rework the track "Dreams," they too, seem to ignore the tortured meaning of the lyrics and delightedly croon, "Thunder only happens when it's raining/Players only love you when they're playing." The Corrs, however, do incorporate the hall-mark of 1990's music. They sing with a dance beat--and prove that not even music mixers consider Fleetwood Mac (like Celine Dion or songs from the Evita soundtrack) sacred from the throbbing bass of dance clubs.

Elton John (an artist quickly becoming synonymous with tributes) also delivers a rendition of "Don't Stop" on track four that is probably more upbeat than Nicks intended. After crooning about England's rose, it is understandable why he would want to sing something happier. But "Don't Stop" leaves a sugary aftertaste.

When The Cranberries rework "Go Your Own Way," they present a different problem. Dolores O'Riordan fails to sound sincere. She belts out "If I could, I'd give you my world," in bitter strains that sound as though she is still singing about bombs and the IRA.

Some of the artists do, however, have mild success in adapting the music. matchbox20 delivers a version of "Never Going Back Again" that produces a tension Fleetwood Mac never explored. Sister Hazel lives up to its reputation as a good adaptor of acoustic music in "Gold Dust Woman." One of pop's newest female sensations, Shawn Colvin, sings "The Chain" without Nicks' vulnerability, but with a level of sultriness that almost compensates. The sound comes across as mysterious and creative. But once again, hard to listen to.

Stevie Nicks' voice is so distinctive, you ultimately end up listening to the song, but subconsciously hear Nicks' voice alongside.

The only artist who came close to capturing the true essence of Stevie Nicks was Jewel. The sex kitten of the folk cum pop music scene is used to conveying vulnerability. But as Jewel sings "You Make Loving Fun" she seems to have grown up a little. She sounds less tawdry than usual. Instead of her tragic laments, "I was meant for you, and you were meant for me," it is refreshing to hear her in a more assertive role, moving away from broken hearts and deluded expectations. In fact, Jewel seems to enjoy it, and at times, sings with an even teasing lilt.

But even with an all-star cast of 1990s pop sensations, the legacy of Legacy is dubious. It leads us to realize that even 25 years and numerous drug rehabilitations later, the best band to do Fleetwood Mac is still Fleetwood Mac. And it makes us wonder if our parents might have been right after all: maybe Stevie Nicks really is irreplaceable.