# Out of the Cradle

Professional ratings :
| Review scores ||
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic | |
| Robert Christgau | |
| The Encyclopedia of Popular Music | |
| Los Angeles Times | |
| MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide | |
| The Rolling Stone Album Guide | |
| Stereo Review | A |
Out of the Cradle is the third solo album by American singer/songwriter Lindsey Buckingham. Released in 1992, it was Buckingham's first album after his departure from Fleetwood Mac, in 1987 (though Buckingham rejoined the band in 1997). He named the album after Walt Whitman's poem "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking." The album reached #128 on the US Billboard 200 album chart, #51 on the UK Albums Chart, and #70 on the Canada Albums Chart. In Canada, four singles charted within the top 60.
Ten of the songs on the album (counting "Instrumental Introduction To") were included on Solo Anthology: The Best of Lindsey Buckingham.

## Background

Upon his departure from Fleetwood Mac, Buckingham refrained from making music for six months. After this period, he returned to his home studio in Los Angeles, where he occasionally spent ten to eleven hours a day working on songs. Richard Dashut, who worked with Buckingham on many Fleetwood Mac albums, helped co-produce and co-write much of the material on Out of the Cradle. Dashut served as a "sounding board" for Buckingham during the making of Out of the Cradle and offered input on how to approach some of the songs. Buckingham added that Dashut was "great with broad strokes and seeing the big picture" and said that he "tend[ed] to get lost in small details, so it's good to have him around."
When making Out of the Cradle, Buckingham decided to pivot away from synthesizers in favor of guitars. Buckingham specifically gravitated towards acoustic guitars on Out of the Cradle, particularly nylon-string guitars to make some of his denser compositions sound lighter, although he did utilize electric guitars when the song required it. All of the instruments were recorded directly into the mixing console in mono as opposed to stereo. Gated sounds and other audio effects were generally avoided during the recording process, although Buckingham did double and triple some parts to achieve a "squashed" sound.
One song, "Street of Dreams", had elements that date back to the mid-eighties. The middle section was written around 1985 and the verses were completed six years later. Buckingham said that other songs such as "Soul Drifter" took far less time to write, and noted that the song "was kind of blocked out and completed, words wise, before ever committing it to tape. It was done with a Tin-Pan Alley sensibility in mind". Some of the rhythm tracks on the album were programmed on a drum machine, which Buckingham "tried to keep as human and sloppy as possible."
Out of the Cradle contains multiple instrumental introductions to songs and two covers: "All My Sorrows" and "This Nearly Was Mine", the latter of which was a personal favorite of Buckingham's father. Buckingham took some liberties with his rendition of "All My Sorrows" by changing the chords and the melody, although the lyrics were retained. On "You Do Or You Don't", an original composition, Buckingham quoted a melodic line from "Theme From A Summer Place" as it matched the emotional tone that he envisioned.
Buckingham said that the album title, which referred to Walt Whitman's 1874 poem "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking", related both to his departure from Fleetwood Mac and "the child still rocking around inside of us after we become adults". For some of the lyrics, Buckingham took inspiration from Whitman's poems and the literary work of Dylan Thomas. He told BAM magazine that he wanted the album to challenge listeners while still remaining accessible.

## Release

Walter Egan did the album's woodcuts, which he gifted to Buckingham as a Christmas present prior to the assembling of the album's packaging. Some of Buckingham's family photos were also included in the liner notes. Four promotional music videos were shot for Out of the Cradle: "Wrong", "Countdown", "Soul Drifter", and "Don't Look Down". As of 2019, Lindsey Buckingham has released all four of these videos to his official YouTube Channel.
In support of the album, Buckingham embarked on his first solo tour. Portions of the debut concert in Los Angeles were released on the live album Never Going Back Again in 2023 on Spotify.

## Critical reception

The Los Angeles Times wrote that "it’s impossible to miss the meaning of Out of the Cradle: the primacy of the guitar as an expressive instrument." The Rolling Stone Album Guide said that "one catchy song after song, the sonic details flesh out the deceptively simple melodies." The Washington Post declared: "The album's stories are told with music, and only Brian Wilson, Stevie Wonder, Paul McCartney and a handful of others have made rock-and-roll as rich and powerful as this." Of "Say We'll Meet Again", Magnet wrote that "Buckingham’s Beach Boys/Les Paul & Mary Ford fascination manifests itself on this spare and breezy ballad, which closes Out Of The Cradle in most gentle fashion." AllMusic wrote that along with Michael Nesmith's Tropical Campfires, Out of the Cradle "may be one of the finest and most underrated albums of the 1990s."

## Track listing

All tracks written by Lindsey Buckingham and Richard Dashut except where noted.

## Personnel

Main Performer
* Lindsey Buckingham – vocals, guitars, keyboards, synthesizers, bass, drums, percussion, drum and percussion programming
Additional personnel
* Mitchell Froom – organ (14)
* Larry Klein – bass (3, 4, 8, 12)
* Buell Neidlinger – bass (5, 10)
* Alex Acuña – percussion (2, 4, 5, 9, 12)
Production
* Lindsey Buckingham – producer, recording, Polaroid art
* Richard Dashut – producer, recording, Polaroid art
* Greg Droman – recording
* Kevin Killen – recording
* Eric Rudd – recording assistant
* Chris Lord-Alge – mixing
* Lori Fumar – mix assistant
* Talley Sherwood – mix assistant
* Bob Ludwig – mastering
* Masterdisk (New York City, New York) – mastering location
* Andy Engel – package design
* Greg Gorman – photography
* Ron Slenzak – photography
* Guzman – photography
* Walter Egan – woodcuts
* Michael Brokaw Management – management

## Charts

| Chart (1992) | Peak position |
| Australian Albums (ARIA) | 135 |
| Canada Top Albums/CDs (RPM) | 70 |
| Dutch Albums (Album Top 100) | 57 |
| Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan) | 28 |
| UK Albums (OCC) | 51 |
| US Billboard 200 | 128 |