25 Years: The Chain (4CD)

This collection was issued originally in 1992, at a very expensive 45.00. This is exactly the same but at a much cheaper price and is well worth a look by any Fleetwood Mac Fan. The set steers very firmly to the Buckingham Nicks period of Fleetwood mac, with only the 4th Disc going back to the Peter Green years. The set has four exclusive tracks one live track "Standback" which are not available on any other set. Paper doll is defiantly from the Behind the Mask period, written by Nick's and Rick Vito, as Nick had left the band by this point due to Mick Fleetwood not allowing her to use Silver springs on her own Greatest hits Time and Space. Silver Springs is included at and at the time was the only place you could find it on CD. Make me a mask a Buckingham song has all the trade marks of being a solo song knocked up in his own studio. Love Shines which was issued as a single, a McVie song is a typical Mac friendly song. The set dose not run in order which is a bit of a pain, infact the first two discs bounce all over the place taking in tracks from Fleetwood Mac too Behind the mask. Only one track from Rhumours does not make the set "I don't want to know" but the rest are included, perhaps in hindsight to many tracks, belittling the original album. The third disc includes the Bob Welch period and has highlights, with some very nice McVie songs, Come a little bit close and heroes are hard to find are just great to hear again and always seem to be overlooked. A few of the tracks have alternative versions, Gypsy is the rarely heard long version, a few tracks are different mixes like the the chain, second hand news to name a couple. For value for money this is an excellent reissue, and the negatives are completely out weighed by the positives, the booklet is nice collection of pictures but very little information on the tracks. Each band member from the Rumours period writes a few lines about Fleetwood Mac.