Under the Skin (Lindsey Buckingham album)

Last updated

Under the Skin
Under The Skin.jpg
Studio album by
ReleasedOctober 3, 2006
Recorded1995–2004
StudioL.B.'s house
Ocean Way Recording (Hollywood, California)
Genre Acoustic rock
Length45:01
Label Reprise
Producer
Lindsey Buckingham chronology
Out of the Cradle
(1992)
Under the Skin
(2006)
Gift of Screws
(2008)
Singles from Under the Skin
  1. "Show You How"
    Released: September 2006
Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic 80/100 [1]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [2]
Classic Rock Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [3]
The Guardian Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [4]
The Music BoxStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svg [5]
Rolling Stone Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svgStar empty.svg [6]

Under the Skin is the fourth solo album by American musician and Fleetwood Mac vocalist/guitarist Lindsey Buckingham, released on October 3, 2006. The album, long delayed by Fleetwood Mac's reunion tour in the 1990s and 2003 album Say You Will , was his first solo release in 14 years. [7] Under the Skin peaked at number 80 on the Billboard 200 album chart in October 2006. [8] In the United States, the album sold 13,000 copies during its first week of release, with 32 percent of those sales coming from purchases on the Internet. [9] "Show You How" was also released as a single but failed to chart.

Contents

Music

Predominantly an acoustic album, the album does not feature many instruments besides acoustic guitar and percussion. Buckingham sought to forgo the more ornate elements on his previous albums in favor of orienting compositions around vocals and a single guitar. [10] Buckingham wrote most of the material for Under the Skin while he was touring with Fleetwood Mac. He recorded the material on a Korg 16-track unit and mixed them onto CDs in hotel rooms during days off from live performances. [11] He also used a Roland delay on his vocals and said that the recording process was conducted "in an orderly, overdubbed manner, but with just the limitations that I wanted to impose on the tracks." [12] In an interview with Sound & Vision , Buckingham discussed his approach in recording Under the Skin.

It was kind of freeing to be able to overdo the vocal effects and processed guitars yet have the sound be so transparent. I just went for what excited me. [12]

"Someone's Gotta Change Your Mind" and "Down on Rodeo" predated the other songs on Under the Skin and were recorded with Rob Cavallo ten years prior at Ocean Way Recording in Hollywood. [11] [13] He said that these songs were already "mixed and ready to go" for Fleetwood Mac's Say You Will album, released in 2003. [11] Some tracks on Under the Skin were also recorded at Buckingham's home studio on a 48-track machine. [12]

"Down on Rodeo", which was written about Buckingham's brief relationship with Anne Heche, [14] and "Someone's Gotta Change Your Mind" are the only two songs on the record with contributions from outside musicians. [13] These two songs, along with "To Try For the Sun", were also included on a Gift of Screws bootleg that was leaked online in 2001. [15]

When Buckingham was completing a take for "Flying Down Juniper", Buckingham's son Will beckoned him for dinner through the studio intercom, which was caught on tape. "I'd just finished the take, and all of a sudden, 'Dinner, Daddy!' So I had to leave it in. It's a perfect ending." [16]

Buckingham said that many songs on Under the Skin presented him with an opportunity for self-discovery. [17] He also recalled that the album received a lukewarm response from Warner Brothers, who expressed a lack of interest in promoting it. "When I turned in Under The Skin, their general response was 'Yeah we'll put it out, but don't expect us to do too much.'" [10] Warner Brothers requested the addition of more conventional rock songs to make the album more marketable. [18]

Critical reception

According to the review aggregator Metacritic , Under the Skin received "generally favorable reviews" based on a weighted average score of 80 out of 100 from 15 critic scores. [1] AllMusic writer Thom Jurek noted how several songs felt autobiographical and described the album as "the most nakedly visible and tender recording he's ever dropped." [2]

Chris Willman of Entertainment Weekly complimented Buckingham's "frantic" guitar fingerpicking and said that his production work enhanced the sound of his nylon-string guitar. Willman added that despite the album's nominally stripped back nature, some of Buckingham's recording techniques, including the use of mulitracked vocals, prevented the album from being truly unplugged. [19] Brian Hiatt of Rolling Stone thought that Buckingham achieved "maximum effect from minimal arrangements" and said that "Down on Rodeo" resembled a "lost Fleetwood Mac hit." [6] Mat Snow of The Guardian called the album "a small masterpiece of tightly balanced musical contrasts." [4]

Track listing

All songs composed by Lindsey Buckingham except where noted.

No.TitleLength
1."Not Too Late"4:42
2."Show You How"4:21
3."Under the Skin"3:56
4."I Am Waiting" (Mick Jagger, Keith Richards)3:34
5."It Was You"2:48
6."To Try for the Sun" (Donovan)3:14
7."Cast Away Dreams"4:28
8."Shut Us Down" (Lindsey Buckingham, Cory Sipper)3:57
9."Down on Rodeo"4:27
10."Someone's Gotta Change Your Mind"4:48
11."Flying Down Juniper"4:43
12."Go Your Own Way" (live; iTunes-exclusive bonus track)4:56
13."Say Goodbye" (live, featuring Stevie Nicks; Barnes & Noble-exclusive bonus track) 

Personnel

Main performer

Additional personnel

Production

Music promo videos

Three promotional music videos were shot for Under the Skin, these included "It Was You", "Show You How" and "Shut Us Down". Both "It Was You" and "Show You How" are available for digital download via iTunes, but the video for "Shut Us Down" remains unavailable.

Charts

Chart (2006)Peak
position
US Billboard 200 [20] 80

References

  1. 1 2 "Under the Skin - Lindsey Buckingham". Metacritic .
  2. 1 2 "Under the Skin - Lindsey Buckingham Songs, Reviews, Credits". AllMusic. Retrieved June 3, 2019.
  3. Bosso, Joe (December 2006). "Lindesy Buckingham Under The Skin". Classic Rock . p. 89.
  4. 1 2 Snow, Mat (September 28, 2006). "Lindsey Buckingham, Under the Skin". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved March 5, 2024.
  5. Metzger, John (October 2006). "Lindsey Buckingham - Under the Skin (Album Review)". The Music Box. Retrieved June 3, 2019.
  6. 1 2 Hiatt, Brian (October 16, 2006). "Rolling Stone - Lindsey Buckingham". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on April 28, 2007. Retrieved March 5, 2024.
  7. Hyden, Steven (November 10, 2021). "Lindsey Buckingham Reviews His Albums With And Without Fleetwood Mac". UPROXX. Retrieved November 14, 2021.
  8. Billboard Album Chart - Lindsey Buckingham
  9. "The Billboard 200" (PDF). Billboard. October 21, 2006. p. 108. Retrieved July 22, 2025.
  10. 1 2 Bosso, Joe (September 29, 2008). "Lindsey Buckingham: "Fleetwood Mac still have a lot to say"". MusicRadar. Retrieved December 29, 2023.
  11. 1 2 3 Buckingham, Lindsey (October 17, 2021). "Lindsey Buckingham - Best of". In the Studio With Redbeard (Interview). Interviewed by Redbeard. Event occurs at 39:28-40:18. Retrieved September 30, 2025.
  12. 1 2 3 Mettler, Mike (December 5, 2006). "30 Minutes with Lindsey Buckingham". Sound & Vision . Retrieved October 19, 2025.
  13. 1 2 Randall, Mac (November 2006). "Lindsey Buckingham - Original Skin". Guitar World Acoustic. Retrieved November 26, 2019 via Fleetwood Mac UK.
  14. Lapatine, Scott (December 10, 2018). "Lindsey Buckingham Reveals Stories Behind His Solo Songs And Whether He'll Ever Rejoin Fleetwood Mac". Stereogum . Retrieved January 26, 2024.
  15. "The Gift of Screws Sessions". Fleetwood Mac UK. Retrieved March 13, 2024.
  16. Perusse, Bernard (April 3, 2007). "Buckingham's always ready to change his tune". The Gazette . pp.  D1 D8 . Retrieved September 28, 2025 via Newspapers.com.
  17. Hernandez, Raoul (January 19, 2007). "Go Insane". The Austin Chronicle . Retrieved February 20, 2025.
  18. Powers, Ann (October 3, 2006). "The rock star hits midlife". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved March 13, 2024.
  19. "Under the Skin". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved March 5, 2024.
  20. "Lindsey Buckingham Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved 28 January 2023.