Out of the Cradle

Album Review

Lindsey Buckingham quit Fleetwood Mac after the release of their Tango in the Night album in 1987 and spent the subsequent five years working on his first post-Mac solo album, Out of the Cradle. Perhaps because he was now focused on his solo career, Buckingham reined in the experimental style of his first two albums, producing more conventional, accessible material, much of it similar to his later work with Fleetwood Mac. The inventiveness this time was heard largely in Buckingham's electro-acoustic guitar style, which combined the power of a rock guitarist with the delicacy and precision of a classical nylon-string player. Perhaps the biggest difference from his previous solo work, however, was that Buckingham actually wrote a group of songs that were about something, not just riffs full of aural tricks. Unfortunately, Buckingham had never fully established himself in the public mind as a separate entity apart from Fleetwood Mac, so taking eight years between solo albums made Out of the Cradle a tough sell. Which means that, although this is his most listenable solo album to date, not many people heard it.