Background
"Trouble" was the only track on Law and Order on which Buckingham played neither bass nor drums. Buckingham wanted the song to have a "live feel" and recruited George Hawkins and his Fleetwood Mac bandmate Mick Fleetwood to play bass guitar and drums respectively. Hawkins had previously worked with Fleetwood on The Visitor earlier that year. He remembered that they played to a pre-existing backing track that Buckingham had prepared. [2]
Buckingham believed none of Fleetwood's takes were satisfactory from start to finish, so a tape loop of one of Fleetwood's drum tracks (about four seconds long) was used throughout the song: "The irony of that was that the original reason for having Mick play on the song was to approach the track completely live, as opposed to my usual technique." Buckingham later overdubbed some additional drum fills and cymbal crashes to create the illusion of live drums. [3]
Buckingham recorded some half-speed guitars for the choruses along with a Spanish influenced guitar solo, the latter of which he was particularly proud of. [3] The half-speed guitars were recorded at 15 IPS and later sped up to 30 IPS. He also overdubbed a gut-string guitar and said that there were "a lot of subtle things supporting the vocals." [4]
One year after the release of his Law and Order album, Buckingham said that "everyone thought that "Trouble" was a standout. There are other things on the album that I enjoy more on a different level because they're a little more off the wall, or they’re not quite as mainstream. I wasn’t really surprised that the single did that well." [4] He commented in a 2018 interview with Stereogum that "Trouble" lacked the campiness that the rest of Law and Order possessed, which he believed factored into the record label's decision to release "Trouble" as a single. [5] He also told Entertainment Weekly in 2021 that he wrote "Trouble" with the intention of demonstrating his capabilities of writing lighter and melodic songs.
In Fleetwood Mac, [I was] called upon to do more the rock side of things, but not necessarily the mid-tempo pretty stuff. I had that in me, and "Trouble" was a good representation of that. I was covering a broader landscape musically.
Critical reception
Record World called the song an "out-of-the box" smash with a sound that was "simply dazzling." [7] Writing for Billboard , Sam Sutherland wrote that the song showcased Buckingham's "chiming acoustic guitar signatures" and said that the lyrics were both "coy" and "romantic". [8] Cashbox referred to the song as a "pop smash" and noted the "precision" of Buckingham's guitar playing. [9]
Writing for Stereo Review , Steve Simels called "Trouble" "an extremely attractive, wistful little song that, done straight, would not have been out of place on Rumours ". He felt that Buckingham's vocal delivery sounded "absurdly breathy" that resulted in a "strangely paranoid" feel to the song. [10] Andy Claps of AllMusic praised "Trouble" for its "overwhelmingly strong" melody and "soothing atmosphere that slides around the listener like a security blanket." [11]
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