Lindsey Buckingham

Christine McVie rejoined Fleetwood Mac in 2013 after a 16-year absence. In the aftermath, the classic Rumours quintet – McVie, Lindsey Buckingham, Stevie Nicks, John McVie, and Mick Fleetwood – were readying the ground to record for the first time since 1987. Nicks, however, despite public affirmations that she was on board, bailed to pursue her solo work, creating the kind of melodrama that has made Fleetwood Mac one of pop's most dysfunctional outfits. Buckingham and McVie had already written songs for the band project – together and separately – and decided to complete the record anyway with the rhythm section…

It is positively spooky how consistently interesting Lindsey Buckingham's 30-year solo career has been. For a musician whose core creative philosophy seems rooted in the way art emerges from dramatic chaos, his own output—both within and without Fleetwood Mac—always manages to be immediately familiar and completely surprising. And although it's been ten years since his last proper solo album, his 2017 collaboration with Christine McVie (featuring Mick Fleetwood and John McVie) felt more like "Buckingham with guests" than the "Fleetwood Mac without Stevie Nicks" album the lineup suggested, as it leaned heavily on Buckingham's unique vocal and guitar phrasings.

Lindsey Buckingham has released only four albums as a solo artist in 25 years. While he remains active as a producer and session musician, this is his first offering in 14 years. Those who saw Cameron Crowe's film Elisabethtown got a sneak peak: Buckingham's "Shut Us Down" was featured in the film. Under the Skin is perhaps the most nakedly visible and tender recording he's ever dropped. He wrote much of the set while on tour with Fleetwood Mac in 2003…

Two studio albums in three years may not seem to be a breakneck pace for anybody else, but for Lindsey Buckingham it is no less than pure acceleration. Indeed if we include the live album that came out in 2007 between the two, it's like three outings in as many years – warp speed for an artist like Buckingham who has been known to go more than a decade between his own offerings outside of Fleetwood Mac…