Track Listing

1. Love In Store
2. Can't Go Back
3. That's Alright
4. Book Of Love
5. Gypsy
6. Only Over You
7. Empire State
8. Straight Back
9. Hold Me
10. Oh Diane
11. Eyes Of The World
12. Wish You Were Here

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7011 in Music
• Released on: 1984-04-24
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .21 pounds

CD Description
After the 1979 release of the precocious but misunderstood double album TUSK, which fell disappointingly below the mind-blowing sales of 1977's multi-platinum RUMOURS, the band decided to take a safer route for their next release. In sunnycontrast to the melancholy introspection of TUSK, 1982's MIRAGE returned the band to bright melodies and hit single material. The advent of MTV led the band to release two artistic videos in conjunction with the record, the Magritte-inspired desert fantasy of "Hold Me", Christine McVie's lush, pleading love song, and the handsome, Depression-era daydream of"Gypsy", one of Nicks' prettiest signature tunes.
The jangling bonhomie of MIRAGE even affects Buckingham's darker songs; though lyrically heartbroken, on "Book of Love" Buckingham sounds almost cheerful. His husky "Empire State" is a love-giddy ode to New York. Nicks' "Straight Back" feels spiritually tied to the duskier tone of her 1981 solo album BELLADONNA, and the mistress of the moon even tries her hand at country with the twanging lope of "That's Alright". Christine McVie's shimmering ballad "Only Over You" is one of MIRAGE's strongest tracks. Though not one of Fleetwood Mac's legendary albums, MIRAGE is still strong when held against the fierce competition of the band's exceptional catalogue.

Customer Reviews

Polished
This album holds a slightly weird place in Fleetwood Mac's history. The classic line up is there so that at least guarantees it is better than any post Buckingham or post Nicks album which followed. But compared to 'Say You Will' being such a fine return to form, post Christine McVie (!!) it struggles to compete for the most part. Because it seems to me at least that the band were going through the motions somewhat....there are several fine moments here for sure but any great sense of daring or adventure as witnessed on Tusk (1979) is lacking. This is a safe record. Almost deliberately commercial after the wounding insults levelled at Tusk, this album is easy on the ear, if not exactly Easy Listening. But Rumours (1977) was also commercial, and considerably better than this.
Of course by most people's standards this is a fine album. We have after all the superb Gypsy from Stevie Nicks, the effortless single Oh Diane from Buckingham and at least one classic from Christine McVie in the closing number 'Wish You Were Here'. 'Hold Me' is catchy and inoffensive without achieving anything approaching classic status. 'Eyes Of the World' is compulsive Buckingham in the style he so ably demonstrated on Tusk. The rest is filler for the most part, enyoyable filler I admit at times ('Can't Go Back', 'That's Alright', 'Empire State') but the Stevie Nicks track 'Straight Back' is hardly worthy of a Nicks solo effort.
So this is The Mac treading water. They could still swim but were not making many waves with this. Compared to their best work at least. If halves were allowed then this would be 3,5 max. But as they are not, I will give it four, as my expectations are ridiculously high when I think of what they are capable of. I still play this album quite often after all so it is not an irrelevance by any means!

Almost perfect pop...
For me this album is Rumours part 2. Thats not to say it sounds anything like "Rumours" but more where "Rumours" left off. In its time it had a fair number of hit singles ("Hold me", "Gypsy", "Oh Diane") and made Fleetwood Mac popular again after the public rejection of "Tusk". To add to the wonderfully romantic hit singles are some of the Fleets greatest works...check out the wonderously slow build up in "Only over you", the guitar riff on "Eyes of the world" and the crazy beat of "Empire State"..
They were so near to making the perfect pop album...
Still, 4 stars is not bad.

The end of greatness but still some sparks
This is a difficult album to assess and many Fleetwood Mac fans are slightly ambivalent about it. Mirage in some ways looks forward to the overproduced Tango in the Night, but also hearkens back to Rumours and Fleetwood Mac. It's not a transitional album in any way, but it's also not entirely the work of a band treading water creatively. The Nicks compositions are the best songs on the album overall - the countrified and irresistibly catchy That's Alright, the slinky Straight Back and the great Gypsy-but it's Christine McVie's Hold Me that seems to be the core of the album. The interplay of the vocalists and guitar work echo You Make Loving Fun and show how Buckingham could flesh out McVie's sometime banal pop and make great songs of it. Buckingham's contributions are uneven and Oh Diane is probably one of the worst Mac songs ever, but Book of Love shines. Mirage is by no means a great album, but it is their last album that evoked the brilliance of their work in the 70s. If only it could make me forget the mess that is Tango in the Night!