Album Review

William Ruhlmann [allmusic.com]

Lindsey Buckingham's talents as guitarist, arranger, and producer were particularly well suited to Fleetwood Mac, a band in which he was only one among three songwriters whose material complemented each other's. As a solo artist, Buckingham retains his strengths, but he encounters a form-over-substance problem. The seven songs he wrote for his debut album come across as sketches, musical pieces for which he has constructed interesting guitar riffs and the occasional sonic effect, plus a lyric tag -- ''Trouble,'' ''That's How We Do It in L.A.'' But they have not been fleshed out into full-fledged songs, perhaps because Buckingham hasn't much interest in lyrics, or because he declines to use more than one or two of his ideas per tune. On the eclectic choice of covers (''September Song,'' ''A Satisfied Mind''), Buckingham at least has fully composed and written pieces to work with, but he embalms them in his production techniques. As such, Law and Order comes off as a high-quality demo of largely unfinished material. (Nevertheless, ''Trouble'' became a Top Ten single.)