Fleetwood Mac
Mirage Deluxe Edition
(Warner Brothers)

Like the vanilla ice cream stuck between the chocolate and strawberry of a Neapolitan tub, Mirage’s chronological position between 1979’s Tusk (critically lauded, albeit retrospectively) and 1987’s Tango In The Night (the 15 million selling ground zero for countless synth pop acts to emerge in the 2000s) has left the 1982 album an underappreciated entry in the Fleetwood Mac canon.

With the ‘70s wonders of “Rhiannon”, “Go Your Own Way” and “The Chain” in the rear view mirror and the ‘80s highs of “Little Lies”, “Seven Wonders” and “Everywhere” still on the horizon, Mirage finds the Mac in a strange holding pattern. All the key sounds of their biggest hits (Lindsey Buckingham’s inventive guitar harmonics and agitated delivery, Christine McVie’s sumptuous piano arrangements and warm vocals and Stevie Nicks’ lyrical imagery swirling about like a fortune teller reading tea leaves) are accounted for, but after the one-two album punch of Rumours and Tusk, the band seem unsure whether to look forward or back.

Like the illusive beauty its title hints at, Mirage still shimmers with intangible splendour. A twice platinum album which reached two in the Australian charts, Mirage’s second single “Gypsy” harnesses the familiar spooky sway of Nicks at her finest. Australia’s ninth best-selling album of 1982 also features the simmering snarl of Buckingham’s “Book Of Love” and the smooth West Coast gem “Hold Me”, but this special edition’s greatest spoils are its rarities.

While Tusk and Rumours have been re-issued on multiple occasions over the past 40 years, Mirage’s vaults have remained comparably non-pilfered. The deluxe additions to this special set now includes the killer Nicks outtake “If You Were My Love” (a glorious, pulse-building band version of a track she released in solo form on her 2014 outtakes album 24 Karat Gold), McVie’s honky tonk sketch “Put A Candle In The Window” and Buckingham’s “Teen Beat”, a hollering, deferential Chuck Berry-esque treat.

The Billboard number one might not have matched Rumours for sales (honestly, how could it?), but Mirage and its fascinating album sketches combine for a swooning, storming wonder.

It’s not vanilla in the slightest.

- SM