Lindsey Buckingham Christine McVie

A few months after McVie rejoined Fleetwood Mac in 2014, she and Buckingham met at Studio D at the Village Recorder in Los Angeles, where the band recorded the Tusk album in 1979. Fleetwood Mac's rhythm section of Mick Fleetwood and John McVie played drums and bass for the sessions.[6] After two months, they had recorded eight songs, including "Carnival Begin", "Too Far Gone" and "Red Sun".[7] Recording was then put on hold when Fleetwood Mac began preparations for their On with the Show tour.[8] While Buckingham and McVie were able to rekindle their musical chemistry during these sessions, neither of them expected the project to progress any further.[9]

During the album's early stages, McVie sent Buckingham raw demos to work on remotely. McVie also helped Buckingham develop his own compositions. "She would write lyrics and maybe paraphrase the melody — and come up with something far better than what I would have done if I'd taken it down the road myself."[10] Two of those songs, "Red Sun" and "Too Far Gone", started off in this fashion.[11] The lyrics to "Red Sun" were inspired by a trip McVie took to Africa, during which she wrote the words “When the red sun kisses the sea" on a beach. McVie then combined these lyrics with a chord progression and melody created by Buckingham.[9]

In 2015, Mick Fleetwood was still hopeful that Stevie Nicks would contribute songs for the project, stating that “My inclination is, the music will not be wasted. It will come out one way or another. I truly hope and I quietly believe it will be Fleetwood Mac, and Stevie will do some lovely stuff, and within the next couple of years we will get that done.”[12] However, Nicks revealed in 2016 that she was still undecided about recording another Fleetwood Mac album.[13] McVie and Buckingham ultimately decided to proceed as a duo without Nicks.[14] Work on the album resumed at the end of 2016, more than two years after the initial recording sessions.[15] To augment McVie's compositions, Buckingham took some material that he originally recorded with producer Mitchell Froom that featured Mick Fleetwood and John McVie on drums and bass guitar.[9]

"Sleeping Around the Corner", the album's opening track, was previously included as a bonus track on the US digital edition of Buckingham's 2011 solo album, Seeds We Sow.[16] McVie took an immediate liking to the track, prompting Buckingham to finish the song.[17] Another song, "Love is Here to Stay", emerged from Buckingham's home studio and its lyrical themes address changes in Buckingham's personal life. "What had changed was I had got married and had kids and had a whole new set of things to write about. [This song] gets back to a single guitar doing the work of a whole track."[18]

On March 24, 2017, McVie announced that the album would see a worldwide launch on June 9, 2017, and would be available for purchase on "iTunes and vinyl – it will be available everywhere".[4] The complete track list was released on April 11, 2017, with Buckingham releasing this joint statement: "We were exploring a creative process, and the identity of the project took on a life organically. The body of work felt like it was meant to be a duet album. We acknowledged that to each other on many occasions, and said to ourselves, 'What took us so long?!'"[1] "In My World" was also released as a single on April 14 through streaming and digital services.[1] While the single failed to make the UK Top 100, it did reach number 86 on the sales chart.[19]

"Feel About You" was released on April 27 as a promotional single. Co-written by both Buckingham and McVie, Rolling Stone described the track as "bubbly pop-rock" in nature with a "jangly, infectious chorus".[20] Buckingham confessed that the "Feel About You" was primarily McVie's composition, but he altered it enough to warrant a co-writing credit.[21]

Buckingham and McVie released a mini behind-the scenes documentary in May discussing the development of various tracks, including "On With the Show" and "Carnival Begin". McVie reflected on her experience in the studio coming out of her sabbatical from the music industry:

"For me, this is all a fresh beginning. I didn't know myself I'd end up coming back into the band after so long: 16 years...I guess I've rediscovered my love for writing and my love for music. I seemed to have evolved quite organically because I've been sending Lindsey some rough demos; He's refined them and shaped them into some of our best material ever."[22]

Buckingham and McVie performing in 2017

On April 11, 2017, a 14-date North American tour was announced.[1] Eight of the album's ten tracks were played live, with the rest of the set list consisting of Fleetwood Mac songs and Buckingham solo cuts.[23] Their performance in Woodinville, Washington took place just three days after Fleetwood Mac's joint performance with Earth, Wind & Fire and Journey at Classic West.[24] The Wallflowers opened for the band on select nights.[25] In June, the band appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon to perform the album's first single, "In My World".[26]

Some extra North American shows were later added in August, including one in Los Angeles and another in New York City.[27] Another North American leg began in October, which saw the addition of 22 more shows.[28]

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	72/100[29]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[30]
The Guardian	[31]
Paste	[32]
Rolling Stone	[33]

At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received a score of 72, based on 20 reviews.[29] Thom Jurek of AllMusic singled out the first three songs as "absolute knockouts". He labelled "Red Sun", “Love Is Here to Stay", and "Carnival Begin" as the other standouts.

The album debuted at No. 17 on Billboard 200 with 23,000 equivalent album units, 22,000 of which were in traditional album sales. The chart ranking is higher than either of the two artists' solo projects.[5] UK sales exceeded 19,000 units, which was enough to vault the album to the No. 5 spot.[34] It debuted at No. 3 in the Sales Chart.[35]

• ^a signifies a co-producer

• Lindsey Buckingham – vocals, guitars, keyboards, bass, drums, percussion, programming
• Christine McVie – vocals, keyboards

Additional personnel

• Mitchell Froom – keyboards
• John McVie – bass
• Mick Fleetwood – drums, percussion

• Official website