Buckingham Nicks reissue shines as Joy Crookes stakes her claim with Juniper

The long-awaited reissue of Buckingham Nicks, the 1973 duo album by Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham, has arrived on vinyl, CD and streaming for the first time in decades. Rhino Records is overseeing the project, which preserves the original sleeve and liner notes and places the record back in circulation as the Fleetwood Mac saga continues to echo through music culture. The release comes amid renewed public interest in whether Nicks and Buckingham might someday reconcile their estrangement and rejoin Fleetwood Mac after Christine McVie’s 2022 passing reshaped reckonings around the band. The two musicians have, for now, been publicly tentative about a reunion, even as they oversee today’s reissue together—a historical artifact that also foregrounds the moments that would eventually feed Rumours more than five years later.

Buckingham Nicks captures the pair’s early, combative chemistry and their complementary talents. Nicks’s lyricism and Buckingham’s grounded, guitar-driven approach blend on cuts that range from the moody to the melodic, offering a snapshot of the couple’s creative dynamics before the duo joined Fleetwood Mac in 1974. The album includes tracks such as Crying In The Night and Crystal, where their voices and sensibilities collide with a precocious sense of pop-rock grandeur. The recording benefited from the contributions of drummer Jim Keltner and guitarist Jimmy Wachtel (Wachtel’s younger brother, Waddy Wachtel, would later gain renown for his work with Stevie on other landmark songs). Yet the record’s impact at the time was limited, and it was soon dropped by its label, a preface to the couple’s later struggles and breakthroughs. The reissue also revisits the controversial cover, shot by Jimmy Wachtel, which featured Nicks photographed topless with Buckingham; Nicks has said she felt “like a rat in a trap” in that moment, even as the pair’s on-record chemistry continued to shape their subsequent paths. The project’s timing underscores how the two later channelled their turbulence into songs that would become cornerstone moments on Rumours.

The package presents a fuller view of the couple’s early collaboration, including standout moments where their different writing instincts push the material forward. Crying In The Night, for instance, pairs Nicks’s emblematic, evocative voice with Buckingham’s melodic propulsion, foreshadowing the dynamic that would define much of Fleetwood Mac’s peak era. Crystal, a pastoral ballad written by Nicks and sung by Buckingham, hints at the natural affinity they shared even when their personal relationship was fraught. The release also points to tracks such as Long Distance Winner and Don’t Let Me Down Again as evidence of their capacity to blend intimate storytelling with a streamlined rock sensibility. The reissue does not attempt to sanitize the era’s tensions; rather, it presents the work as a historical document of a duo navigating ambition, romance and artistic risk. The sleeve remains faithful to the 1973 edition, ensuring collectors and new listeners alike can experience the packaging that accompanied the original release.

Image: Buckingham Nicks photo

Beyond the music, the re-release reopens a chapter in the wider Fleetwood Mac story. Buckingham’s departures from the group in 1987 and again in 2018, followed by Nicks’s ascent to superstardom with both Fleetwood Mac and her solo work, form a throughline through the 1970s and 1980s rock canon. The reissue reminds listeners of the seeds of Rumours—the unresolved tensions, the candid storytelling, and the way two artists could push each other toward billion-seller moments even as their personal lives complicated the process. As fans debate the possibility of a Mac reunion, Buckingham Nicks offers a measured, historically grounded opportunity to reassess how that legendary era began and why it mattered then—and matters still for contemporary audiences.

Joy Crookes’s Juniper marks a very different but equally significant moment in music culture. The London-born singer-songwriter returns with a second album four years after her Mercury-nominated debut, Skin, signaling a deliberate expansion of her sound and artistic ambitions. Juniper, named after a resilient evergreen, reflects Crookes’s determination to navigate a demanding industry while sustaining the emotionally candid storytelling that has earned her critical respect and a growing fan base. The record features collaborations with a varied set of artists, including rapper Vince Staples and British MC Kano, and three tracks co-written with Athlete’s Joel Potter. A high-profile duet with Sam Fender on Somebody To You adds another layer of cross-genre appeal.

The album’s core strength lies in Crookes’s ability to blend intimate confessionals with a savvy pop-soul sensibility. On Brave, she delivers a poised, bluesy vocal over piano-driven arrangements and lush strings that amplify the song’s emotional honesty about new love. Mathematics, the Kano collaboration, showcases her talent for weaving personal detail into a broader, rhythmically charged track, while Forever leans into balladry with an earnestness that resonates with listeners seeking authenticity. I Know You’d Kill takes a playful swipe at industry hypocrisy in a northern soul stomp, displaying Crookes’s appetite for witty, boundary-pushing lyricism. Carmen, a centerpiece that interpolates Elton John’s Benny And The Jets with Elton John’s blessing, evidences her willingness to push formal boundaries while paying homage to the musical touchstones that shaped her.

The reception to Juniper has highlighted Crookes’s growth—soundwise and thematically—as she embraces a wider sonic palette without sacrificing the personal storytelling that has defined her career to date. The album’s timing reflects a broader cultural moment in which artists from diverse backgrounds are increasingly carving out space for their voices in contemporary pop, R&B and indie-adjacent spaces. Crookes’s ongoing Juniper tour, opening November 3 at 3Olympia Theatre in Dublin, is poised to translate these studio ambitions into live experience, bringing the record’s intimate transparency to stages around the world.

The juxtaposition of Buckingham Nicks and Juniper underscores how culture and entertainment continue to move through cycles of revival and reinvention. One release revisits a foundation stone of late-20th-century rock, offering a richer historical context for fans and scholars alike, while the other seizes the moment to reassert a rising artist’s place in a crowded, cross-generational landscape. In both cases, the music culture—whether through archival reissues that illuminate the roots of a modern classic or contemporary records that push a new chapter forward—remains deeply invested in the stories artists tell about love, ambition and resilience.