Dust 1972

rguably the first consistently strong album Fleetwood Mac ever recorded – all the way back into the Peter Green/Jeremy Spencer era, the Mac's albums had previously consisted of individual moments of brilliance in a sea of uninspired filler – 1972's Bare Trees is also the album where the band finally defines its post-blues musical personality. Low-key but less narcoleptically mellow than 1971's sleepy Future Games, Bare Trees is a singer/songwriter album in the traditional early-'70s style, backed up with just enough musical muscle to keep from sounding like weedy soft rock in the manner of Bread or Cat Stevens. This is the one Fleetwood Mac album on which singer/guitarist Danny Kirwan is the dominant figure, writing five songs to Christine McVie and Bob Welch's two apiece.

rguably the first consistently strong album Fleetwood Mac ever recorded – all the way back into the Peter Green/Jeremy Spencer era, the Mac's albums had previously consisted of individual moments of brilliance in a sea of uninspired filler – 1972's Bare Trees is also the album where the band finally defines its post-blues musical personality. Low-key but less narcoleptically mellow than 1971's sleepy Future Games, Bare Trees is a singer/songwriter album in the traditional early-'70s style, backed up with just enough musical muscle to keep from sounding like weedy soft rock in the manner of Bread or Cat Stevens. This is the one Fleetwood Mac album on which singer/guitarist Danny Kirwan is the dominant figure, writing five songs to Christine McVie and Bob Welch's two apiece.

Dust were almost an ideal cult band: a group that were of their time but never belonged to it, yet its members became better-known later, with drummer Marc Bell becoming Marky Ramone and bassist Kenny Aaronson joining the Stories, a band the singer/guitarist produced along with Dust producer Kenny Kerner. Of course, neither 1971's Dust or its 1972 sequel Hard Attack – both combined on this Legacy two-fer from 2013 – sound anything like the breakneck punk of the Ramones or the Baroque pop of the Stories, nor is it quite the proto-metal of its lore…