25 Years: The Chain

Overall, Fleetwood Mac's four-CD box set, 25 Years: The Chain, contains a lot of great music, with plenty of the 1970s hits that made them one of the biggest bands in the world. It fails as a complete chronicle; not enough weight is given to the early, blues-based Mac with Peter Green, and there are too many songs (nearly a whole disc's worth) from the lightweight 1980s albums. Also, the haphazard song sequencing doesn't help matters -- it doesn't make the case for Fleetwood Mac's music as a body of work, and it doesn't trace the evolution, which should be apparent from the diversity of the music. If nothing else, 25 Years: The Chain offers evidence that Lindsey Buckingham was a brilliant pop composer and that the band's '70s success was well deserved. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine