This CD is another one that finds the Mac transitioning, this time after Danny Kirwan left the lineup, being replaced by both Bob Weston and Dave Walker.

The disc's highest point comes with "Did you Ever Love Me?", a Christine McVie penned pop tune that's buoyed up with peppy steel drums. She duets with Bob Welch on this one to great effect. It's easily the most "hooky" song here. Welch's quasi-apocalyptic "Revelation" also acquits itself fairly well. It has some tasty guitar soloing but doesn't overstay its welcome.
McVie contributes two other songs that are somewhat hummable although far from her best work. ("Remember Me" and "Dissatisfied")

Nadirs on the disc come with country warbler "The Derelict" sung by new member Walker (he makes up for it a bit with his cover of Jr. Walker and the All-Stars' "Road Runner"..it's not great but it's passable..) and the wordless harmonizing of "Caught in the Rain". It's somewhat pretty but really only needed to be a (short) intro to some other song, (perhaps "Bright Fire"?) instead of its own track.

The feeling of disarray here (an R&B raver, a country tune, a couple brisk pop tunes, several midtempo moody AOR songs) also makes this not a very satisfying listen when heard front to back.

Bottom Line: Skip this one. The best track is available on "Selections from the Chain". If you have to have "Did you Ever Love Me?" you're better off getting it there.

1 1/2 stars

"Penguin" is perhaps the most hot-and-cold album in the Fleetwood Mac catalog: when it's good, it's great, and when it isn't, it stinks! It has a couple of Chris McVie's best tunes ever--"Remember Me" and "Dissatisfied"--both of which, in my opinion, outshine anything she did in the Buckingham/Nicks era. It also has what I regard as Bob Welch's best song ever, "Bright Fire," which holds special memories for me personally. Moreover, "Revelation," although written by Welch, sounds very much like several of Peter Green's better Mac compositions (which a good thing). However, the rest of the album is mediocre at best and can be a little hard to listen to--the band didn't really know in which direction to head after Danny Kirwan's departure, which is made obvious by the short-lived participation of Dave Walker. (Bob Weston, the guitarist added to fill Kirwan's slot, wasn't long for the band, either, after he started carrying on with Mick Fleetwood's wife Jenny.)

Add it up, and you have a glaringly schizophrenic lineup, which was almost--but not quite--matched by the Dave Mason/Bekka Bramlett/Billy Burnette lineup of the mid-1990s. (I saw the latter incarnation in concert around 1996, when the Mac had been reduced to performing at COMDEX in Las Vegas for some now-defunct software company. Bizarre!)

Don't get me wrong, there are some marvelous tracks here, and there are some of the worst Fleetwood Mac tracks I have ever heard on here.

Let's start with the marvelous. Christine's Remember Me and her Motown influenced Disatisfied. She also shares the lead vocal with Bob Weston(?) on the Carribean influenced Did You Ever Really Love Me? Welch puts in some great tracks as well such as Bright Fire and Night Watch.

The bad tracks on here are the ones sung by Dave Walker, I'm A Roadrunner and Derelict (the worst Fleetwood Mac song bar none).

The rest IMO are forgettable.

Bottom Line: The last to get from Fleetwood Mac's middle years.

There's not much more I can say about it that hasn't been said in other reviews. I do have to agree that it doesn't deserve the reputation it has for being the dud of their catalog.

It seems that of all the Welch era stuff I reach for this one and Heroes Are Hard To Find the most. It's not even that I love the entire album, but there's several tracks on it that are some of my favorites by the band.

"Dissatisfied" is one of Christines best songs ever, and when it comes to Chris's mid-tempo boogies I'll take this one over "Don't Stop" any day. "Did You Ever Love Me" is a great collaboration between her and Welch, and although some of the vocals sound a little clumsy, the breezy, calypso feel of the track is totally irresistable. "Remember Me" is a pleasant enough tune, although somewhat forgettable. She was a much better writer during their mid-period than what she's given credit for.

As far as Mr. Welch he'll put you to sleep on this one. He wrote great songs for every Fleetwood Mac album he was on except for this one. "Bright Fire" and "Revelation" will breeze by you without making much of an impression. At least he knocked himself out with one of his tracks, the eerie mini-epic "Night Watch," which has some of the best production and instrumentation of any Fleetwood Mac track, complete with mellotrons, plucked piano strings, and appropriate sound effects on the fadeout. This is all without mentioning the fantastic vocal harmonies.

As far as Dave Walker, including him in the band was pointless. They already had two strong songwriters in the band, why they felt the need to get a separate lead singer who only contributed a cover and a half-assed original is beyond me. The cover he does contribute is a highlight of the album though, which is a rockin' cover of Junior Walker And THe All-Stars "I'm A Roadrunner." His other song "The Derelict" is OK, but sounds sketchy and unfinished. Want to know why? It is. The band just threw it on the album at the last minute because they didn't feel like working on it. If you wonder why it sounds so thin it's because there's no bass track on it.

Bob Weston, who really didn't write much for the band, contributes the gorgeous acoustic instrumental "Caught In The Rain" to close out the album. The overdubbed choral of Bob Welch's vocals on this one is especially nice.

At 11 bucks it will be hard to regret purchasing this one. It doesn't soar to the musical heights that Mystery To Me and Heroes Are Hard To Find did, nor does it rock like Bare Trees. It's a wierd album, showing a band struggling to find its feet. Overall though the result is decent, and even though theres a few clunkers there's enough great songs to keep even the casual Mac fan (like me) happy.

Even during their extended middle period as they made the transition from blues-rockers to melodic popsters, you couldn't fault Fleetwood Mac for not being prolific. 1971's FUTURE GAMES could safely be called the first pop-oriented Mac album because it was their first one without guitarist Jeremy Spencer, thereby cutting off the last tie to their blues roots. 1972's BARE TREES was as spare as its title states, peeling away the layers of the previous album & letting the music speak for itself. After both of those albums sold dismally (but I believe they've at least gone gold by now), the Mac went back to the studio to record 1973's PENGUIN.

The remarks about PENGUIN being the rare sour grape in the Mac's large catalog are a tad exaggerated, for while it is by no means a masterpiece, it's unfair to call it a stinker. While Christine McVie & Bob Welch may have been the main creative guides during this period, PENGUIN was probably an attempt at a true group effort (which at this point was a sextet), for the songwriting & singing isn't strictly the work of McVie & Welch (though they do collaborate on one song); guitarist Bob Weston & vocalist/harmonica player Dave Walker (both added after the departure of guitarist Danny Kirwan) get a chance to shine here, too. Such democracy would hint at 1979's double album TUSK & like that epic, it's mostly hit & miss.

Walker's tune "The Derelict" is a country-based affair, complete with the banjo & harmonica (both done by Weston). As can be expected, the song is certainly no masterpiece, but it's a pleasant tune that closed out side one of the vinyl album. While Welch apparently did the singing on that song, Walker gets a chance to vocalize on a cover of Jr. Walker & The All-Stars' Motown classic "[I'm A] Road Runner". While such a gravel-voiced soul rave-up would seem like an odd choice with the proto-pop sound the Mac was exploring around this time, it comes off surprisingly well, sure to bring up any dull party. "Caught In The Rain" closes out the album & is an acoustic instrumental performed by Bob Weston with piano & an angelic chorus. Nice, but maybe an actual song with lyrics would have worked out better.

As for the Mac's main songsmiths, Bob Welch comes out the winner with 3 solo compositions & a collaboration with McVie, hinting at the promise that would be manifested when he went solo. "Bright Fire" is a slightly ethereal number with lyrics that are a bit hard to decipher, but the slightly Pink Floyd vibe the song gives off is very soothing. "Revelation" is a Santana-inspired rocker with guitar work worthy of Senor Carlos himself. The epic of the album (which is only 36 minutes long) is "Night Watch" & contains the soft-spoken voice you'd know from Welch's solo hit of "Sentimental Lady" (the Mac's version appeared on BARE TREES). The backing harmonies are an excellent lift from the Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young rule book.

While Christine McVie would become quite a dependable songwriter in later years, I guess she was still easing her way in at this point, for she only contributes 2 of her own songs, both of which were probably not even her best ones at the time. The opening "Remember Me" is a light, feel-good number that breezes by in its 2 1/2 minutes without leaving much of an impression. "Dissatisfied" is better with a little Motown flavor of its own, especially with the overdubbed backing vocals by Christine. Mick Fleetwood's drums alone make you wonder if the band had brushed up on their Motown before recording this. The calypso-flavored "Did You Ever Love Me" (love the steel drums) is the McVie/Welch team-up & is apparently more Christine's work than Bob's for she sings lead with Bob Weston on this bittersweet "end of the affair" love song.

The Mac's choice of producer in Martin Birch (who worked as an engineer on previous Mac albums) was an odd one, for he had cut his teeth on albums by bands as hard-edged as Deep Purple & would eventually work with similar groups like Iron Maiden, Blue Oyster Cult & Whitesnake. But this was his first album as a producer I believe, so he hadn't yet found his specialty & I guess with PENGUIN, he wanted to be as less intrusive as possible. Like BARE TREES, Birch lets the music stay as it is with little sweetening & I guess the Mac was happy enough with his work to use him again on their second album of 1973, MYSTERY TO ME.

PENGUIN is certainly no creative wonder by any stretch of the imagination, but interestingly it became their first album to chart in the U.S. (peaking at a respectable #49), so something about it won over music buyers. For an album that was only recorded in a month (in January 1973, with it hitting stores 2 months later), PENGUIN has the sound & feel of it, making for an album that is pleasant while it plays, but only small parts of it are memorable. Musical band members would start again (with Dave Walker being the one to leave), but Fleetwood Mac seemed to take it all in stride, moving towards the recording of their equally transitional (yet superior) MYSTERY TO ME in a matter of months. In hindsight, PENGUIN is a good time-marker in the Mac's long career, but definitely not the bomb it has long been made out to be.