Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

If the world cannot have Fleetwood Mac, then there is always at least Fleetwood Mac in one form or another and one of the reasons that the band name endures, touches the hearts of the vast majority who have ever heard the group across all the incarnations and different styles, is arguably down to the soul of Lindsey Buckingham. Regardless of whether on his own in the beguiling Seeds We Sow from 2011, across time with Stevie Nicks or in the passion that the classic line up of Fleetwood Mac bring together, the sense of magic and musical accomplishment, there is always Lindsey Buckingham, there is always Fleetwood Mac.

However whatever magic comes, it can only be enhanced, the spell can only be strengthened, when another member of the team strikes up and weaves the sense of enticement and beautiful attraction within the framework of a major collaboration. With Christine McVie, that attraction is placed before the listener and found to be nothing short of stunning and charming; in the albums of royalty, in two members who have undoubtedly made the fans swoon for the sound of their dreams, this is one that strides aloft and is in the same mould as Seeds We Sow, or Tango In The Night. It is an album in which these two behemoths are joined by Mick Fleetwood and John McVie and in which they capture the mood so perfectly that it could not have been planned.

There is always Fleetwood Mac it seems, no matter if they are together or apart, the often sense of the dysfunctional always working together because they are a team who will not quit and in Lindsey Buckingham/Christine McVie that sheer determination to carry on and look the listener in the eye as they whisper sweet nothings audible to the patient and the star crossed lovers is too beautiful to contemplate living alone in the dark; it needs the light shared by this terrific twosome.

In tracks such as Love Is Here To Stay, Lay Down For Free, Game of Pretend and Red Sun, the two musicians shine so brightly that the world, which is always a lonely place when looking down from the stars, instead is bathed in an illuminating presence, a figure in the heavens which is beckoning and harmonious.

Lindsey Buckingham/Christine McVie may have started out as a Fleetwood Mac album but instead it is the very best that the Mac offer.

Ian D. Hall