Thursday, December 18, 2008

Song of the day

"That's All For Anyone", by Fleetwood Mac. Of all the jaw-dropping moments on Fleetwood Mac's 1979 avant pop masterpiece "Tusk", none is more surprising, or more sublime, than "That's All For Anyone", buried as it is in the middle of the second of the double-album's four sides. There can be few moments in popular music more striking than this shimmering abstract-impressionist creation. What particularly stands out, in 2008, is the way it positively reeks (in a good way) of "Pet Sounds". My memory may be faulty, but I don't think anybody - and I mean anybody - was listening to "Pet Sounds" in 1979, and yet here were Fleetwood Mac, absorbing all of its many lessons and filtering them through into this song. And it's only one of twenty songs on the album. "Tusk". Is there anything it can't do?