Lindsey Buckingham - Law And Order (1981) {Asylum US LP) 24/192

During the time he worked on Tusk, Buckingham also produced albums for Walter Egan and John Stewart in the late 1970s as well as beginning work on his own solo album.

In 1981, Buckingham released his first solo album Law and Order, playing nearly every instrument and featuring guest appearances by bandmates Mick Fleetwood and Christine McVie. The album pursued the quirky, eclectic, often lo-fi and new-wave-influences of Tusk, and spawned the hit single Trouble which reached #9 on the US Charts and #1 in Australia (for three weeks).


The distinctive music video for "Trouble" features a multi-instrumental "big-band" of male musicians (six as guitarists, besides Buckingham, and six as drummers, including Mick Fleetwood).





Track Listing


A1 Bwana 3:06
A2 Trouble 3:53

Bass – George Hawkins
Drums – Mick Fleetwood

A3 Mary Lee Jones 3:12
A4 I'll Tell You Now 4:18
A5 It Was I 2:39

Backing Vocals – Carol Harris

B1 September Song 3:13
B2 Shadow Of The West 3:57

Backing Vocals – Christine McVie

B3 That's How We Do It In L.A. 2:52
B4 Johnny Stew 3:06
B5 Love From Here, Love From There 2:47
B6 A Satisfied Mind 2:47






Credits

Main performer

Lindsey Buckingham: guitar, bass, keyboards, drums, percussion, and vocals

Additional personnel

George Hawkings: bass on "Trouble"
Mick Fleetwood: drums on "Trouble"
Carol Ann Harris: background harmonies on "It Was I"
Christine McVie: background harmonies on "Shadow of the West"






Review

by William Ruhlmann

Lindsey Buckingham's talents as guitarist, arranger, and producer were particularly well suited to Fleetwood Mac, a band in which he was only one among three songwriters whose material complemented each other's. As a solo artist, Buckingham retains his strengths, but he encounters a form-over-substance problem. The seven songs he wrote for his debut album come across as sketches, musical pieces for which he has constructed interesting guitar riffs and the occasional sonic effect, plus a lyric tag – "Trouble," "That's How We Do It in L.A." But they have not been fleshed out into full-fledged songs, perhaps because Buckingham hasn't much interest in lyrics, or because he declines to use more than one or two of his ideas per tune. On the eclectic choice of covers ("September Song," "A Satisfied Mind"), Buckingham at least has fully composed and written pieces to work with, but he embalms them in his production techniques. As such, Law and Order comes off as a high-quality demo of largely unfinished material. (Nevertheless, "Trouble" became a Top Ten single.)


Singles

"Trouble", featuring drumming by Fleetwood Mac drummer Mick Fleetwood, reached #9 on the U.S. charts; the album itself reached #32 on the Billboard 200.