Reappearance of Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Mirage’ top new releases | Miami Herald

By Howard Cohen
Miami Herald
Sept 27th, 2016

Fleetwood Mac, “Mirage (Deluxe).” Oft-delayed remaster of original 1982 album, plus a disc of outtakes highlighted by Christine McVie’s randier take of “Hold Me” and Stevie Nicks’ demos of “Smile at You” and “If You Were My Love.”

Fleetwood_MirageDeluxe Product Shot

The angry “Smile at You,” later rerecorded in a considerably tamer version on “Say You Will” in 2003, would have given “Mirage” the edge some critics said it lacked after the left-field turn of the preceding “Tusk.” Her cut would have been a better choice than Lindsey Buckingham’s pointless and grating side two opening number, “Empire State.”

“I loved ‘Smile at You’ because it was a real rock and roll song,” Nicks said. “Only thing I can say is when it all came to push and shove we had 19 songs [recorded] and it was 12 songs on the real record. That means 13 to 19 had to go. I lost songs all the time I thought should be on records. But when you are in a band it’s a team and it’s a vote and Lindsey always had a bit of a stronger vote and I kind of went with that.”

The attractively packaged “Mirage” reissue also includes a live disc from the Mirage Tour from The Forum in Los Angeles from Oct. 21-22, 1982, originally issued on VHS. A 180-gram vinyl LP is tucked inside, too. Original co-producer Ken Caillat offers a new 5.1 surround and stereo remix.

“Back then we would paint with indelible colors,” Caillat said. “I had a philosophy early on that I wanted to always have the musician hearing the track as closely as possible to what I expected the end result would be. An engineer friend pulled me aside and asked, ‘Have you listened to ‘Mirage’ in awhile?’ I hadn’t played it and I was surprised how great it sounded. I was pleased with our sounds. We were always pleased with our sounds on the records.”

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