Classic Album #19 - Fleetwood Mac - Rumours

[raliverpool]

Side one

1. "Second Hand News" 2:44
2. "Dreams"  4:14
3. "Never Going Back Again"  2:15
4. "Don't Stop"  3:12
5. "Go Your Own Way" 3:38
6. "Songbird" 3:21

Side two
7. "The Chain" 4:16
8. "You Make Loving Fun" 3:31
9. "I Don't Want to Know" 3:15
10. "Oh Daddy" 3:58
11. "Gold Dust Woman" 5:02

[Shireblogger]

My 3rd favourite album of all-time. I'd resisted the temptation of making it one of my own selections, but will enjoy writing a review sometime soon.

[vastar iner]

Not Tusk? This is an outrage.

[Whitneyfan]

The best album ever!! Featuring my all-time favourite song "Dreams".

[Deleted]

Am I only the one, who dislike this album ?

[vastar iner]

That’s quite a surprising opening; it sounds like it’s going to be a slow fade in but the vocals kick right in. Reminds me of a folk version of “Wunderbar”. It quite rattles along breezily. Nice pop song. Gets a boffo from me. Very unlike what I’d come to expect with the Mac.

Second track is “Dreams”. This is a lot slower, a lot more conventional, and duller. It just doesn’t seem to have a focus - it’s all verse. It’s very Dire Straits. This is more the commercial Mac that I recall - a far cry from the bluesy aggressive almost hard rock outfit of the late sixties.

Now, I know that when they were recording this, the various pairings amongst FM were busy splitting up, so the album is meant to be redolent of heartbreak and bitterness, but I’m not feeling it so far. The opening track is certainly wistful and wishful, redolent of unrequited love, but it sounds more mildly upset than emotional. And the second track is worse from that perspective; I can’t be bothered to make out the lyrics because there is no emotion in it. Could be the phone book.

Third track is acoustic. Fairly basic harmonies. Oh, is that it? Almost the definition of filler.

OK. “Don’t Stop”. One of the more well-known tracks. They get a little bit towards their blues origins, not very far, just enough for mainstream audiences to think “I’m a little bit with it now”. Rattles along again. Bouncy.

And “Go Your Own Way” is also well-known. Says a lot for the familiarity of the album that it has been so plundered for commerciality. I know there’s a big one coming up. This one is one where the verses are better than the chorus, nice stompy drums. Chorus is a bit cliched.

OK, back to the acoustics. Problem. If you haven’t got a strong voice, you should at least be distinctive. This is neither. Again it’s surprisingly emotionless. Where’s the pain? Where’s the anguish? It’s like being sung from a sheet by someone who has never read the lyrics before.

And now “The Chain”. Come on, we all know what we’re waiting for. The Hitch-hiker-y banjo again and the vocals show this is a song of two parts. It does open a bit like spruced-up hilllbillies. Nice idea to make the entire vocal close harmony. Stomps again in the chorus. Not as good as the verses, but we get a hint of what is to come in the guitars. Aaaaaand finally here it is. I love the smell of petrol in the morning. Pavlovian reaction - I can hear the Cosworth DFV in this, even though there isn’t actually one here. It’s the best bit of the song; it kicks everything up a notch. Another boffo for this one.

Unfortunately we’re back to the Dire Straits soundalike now. Yes, I know FM came first, but I don’t care. The chorus though is excellent. Another real step-up with the unusual vocal elision. That’s something Dire Straits always struggled with. Vocals and tune.

And now “I Don’t Want To Know”. Jaunty. Hate it. The Altered Images song of the same name is peerless.

“Oh Daddy”. Next.

Oh, and last. “Gold Dust Woman”. Stevie Nicks sounds more world-weary than Christine McVie. Suits more the bluesy sound. Started off as if it would end on a low note, but this is a grower.


On the plus side, there are a couple of really, really good tracks here. They would have made great singles. They weren’t however the singles choice. Also, where the album is really weak, the songs are fairly short, and do not linger. And there is enough variation to make it interesting as an artistic whole. On the down side, there the good tracks are really good, but there are not enough of them. And for an album that was meant to be the product of chaos and heartbreak, it sounds just normal. Let down by the vocals. I’m not feeling the heartbreak.

I’m surprised at its commercial success. All I can think is people must have been sooooooo p*ssed off with disco they clutched at any straw. If I even the songs out, I get a 5 out of 10, which I think is fair enough.

[raliverpool]

You know the story but to recap: Born out of strife within the band (Fleetwood dipping his wick where he could (including Ms Nicks) after his wife left him for the previous tour's road manager; animosity between former partners Lindsay Buckingham and Stevie Nicks after an 8 year relationship; and the McVies' impending divorce), and not to mention the early ravages of heavy drug and alcohol use by all members of the group after the unexpected success of their previous 1975 Fleetwood Mac album, led to Rumours being an airing of grievances that somehow managed to produce good music rather than turning out like a horrendous soap opera episode, or even worse Big Brother with Perez Hilton!

The great thing about this seminal 5 piece lineup is having 3 quite different songwriters, everyone with their own point of view (musically and lyrically): Christine McVie represents the pop-side ("Songbird", "Don't Stop", "You Make Loving Fun") like a female Paul McCartney (as Louis Walsh might say), Stevie Nicks is simultaneously rough yet hippy mystic ("Dreams", "Gold Dust Woman") and at the time was better looking than nearly every other female singer ..... ever; whilst guitarist Lindsey Buckingam is the most intense of the trio ("Second Hand News", "I Don't Want To Know", "Go Your Own Way"...). And what's incredible is how their different styles combine themselves perfectly with each other thanks to the decade drum & bass togetherness of Mick Fleetwood & John McVie, a real band-chemistry perfectly encapsulated in a track utilized in my favourite sport!

The band's 11th album was produced in California in the summer of 1976, this album went on to top the charts virtually everywhere in 1977, produced 4 monster hit singles, win the Grammy for Album of the Year in 1978; and has sold in excess of 45 million albums (which is incidentally more than Stock Aitken & Waterman have sold in singles worldwide!)

Hence we come to this album (#. "Track" length - Rating out of 10):

Side one

1. "Second Hand News" 2:44 - 7.5 Buckingham's pithy lyrics about his imploded relationship with Nicks over a jaunty acoustic track.
2. "Dreams" 4:14 - 10.0 Despite overplay, and that Corrs cover, this Nicks track is just devastating brilliant thanks to Stevie's wordplay which I could write a mini essay about in its own right.
3. "Never Going Back Again" 2:15 - 7.0 Buckingham's lyrics are putting the boot into his former lover big time, on this acoustic folk track that musically could have come from a Peter Green Mac album.
4. "Don't Stop" 3:12 - 9.0 McVie's jaunty 6/8 piano led shuffle rhythm track contrasts with the previous song in so far she is telling her former husband with the message from this song ..... If you are depressed, just be patient, it will get better...
5. "Go Your Own Way" 3:38 - 8.5 Just listen to Buckingham's lyrics as it is ironic that such a bitter song is really and truly a love song, shouting out final pleas in vain for the woman he loves (Nicks).
6. "Songbird" 3:21 - 10.0 McVie's stand alone piano ballad was according to her "about nobody and everybody…in retrospect, it’s like an anthem…a little prayer of sorts". In time it came to represent a (love) song to & about the band. A perfect concert finale.

Side two
7. "The Chain" 4:16 - 9.5 This song has come to represent the never ending tie that bounds the band together in the past and binds them together now. Thanks to Nicks lyrics expressing various shades of love, anger, hate and frustration over this tense country folk track before igniting into a fabulous instrumental wig-out where I can hear Murray Walker in my head.
8. "You Make Loving Fun" 3:31 - 8.0 This jaunty track which really does sounds like it belongs to a Wings album is Christine McVie's telling us of her love affair with Fleetwood Mac's then lighting director, Curry Grant. Feel the shade John, feel the shade.
9. "I Don't Want to Know" 3:15 - 4.0 - Nicks jaunty by numbers track features Everly Brothers style harmonies with Buckingham, over some fairly nondescript lyrics. At the time Nicks was furious this track was included on the album at Warner Brothers & Mick Fleetwood's suggestion instead of her "Silver Springs" track (which became the b-side of the lead single "Go Your Own Way"). Looking back her anger is fully justified.
10. "Oh Daddy" 3:58 - 6.0 - Musically McVie's track harks back to their wilderness years when songwriters/guitarists Danny Kirwan and Bob Welch kept the band afloat post Green/pre Buckingham-Nicks. These lyrics are dark and many fans think these lyrics are about Stevie Nicks ill fated rebound relationship with Mick Fleetwood.
11. "Gold Dust Woman" 5:02 - 6.5 Nicks finishes the album with this song with an ambiguous lyric interpreted by many (& Buckingham at the time) as a song to herself about her addiction to Cocaine which certainly got to her in the second half of the 1980s when they were recording the Tango In The Night album, and her erratic behaviour led to Buckingham leaving the band.

Overall 8 (86 / 11 = 78.82% (76%-81% category)).

In short this is a great album, not least as I love the contrast between the three vocalists, and how the great lyrics are frequently telling a different story to the music. It certainly compares favourably to other mid 1970s monster albums by The Eagles; Boston; Blondie and you already know what I think about Bat Out Of Hell.

It would have been a 9 if Stevie Nicks had got her way and Silver Springs and I Don't Want To Know had swapped places:

^ A shocking decision to leave this track off Rumours IMHO.

Fleetwood Mac studio album rates:

Fleetwood Mac (68) 6
Mr Wonderful (68) 5
Then Play On (69) 8
Kiln House (70) 5
Future Games (71) 6
Bare Trees (72) 6
Penguin (73) 4
Mystery To Me (73) 6
Heroes Are Hard To Find (74) 5
Fleetwood Mac (75) 8
Rumours (77) 8
Tusk (79) 9
Mirage (82) 6
Tango In The Night (87) 7
Behind The Mask (90) 4
Time (95) 2
Say You Will (03) 5

You really cannot go wrong getting their The Chain - 25 Years 4CD career retrospective.

In truth if the best 12 tracks (with a minimum 3 tracks from each of the 3 songwriters had been compiled then Tusk would be hands down an easy 10.

[vastar iner]

So...no. 20?

[Shireblogger]

Fleetwood Mac – Rumours

Context
1977 was the year I started actively listening to my own music selections (as opposed to my parents’), but it was disco which consumed me. With none of the singles from “Rumours” coming remotely close to the Top 20, it was the BBC’s use of “The Chain” for its grand prix coverage which alerted me to Fleetwood Mac’s existence. 1982’s “Oh Diane” single was the first Fleetwood Mac record I bought, but once I had given “Rumours” a chance I was hooked.
7/10

General Overview
So what makes “Rumours” one of my 3 favourite albums of all time ? Well, it has classy songwriting, great melodies, variety, and not a duff track in sight. To prepare this review, I had to look up which tracks were actually released as singles, because, frankly, almost any of the 11 cuts on the album could have been put out.
10/10

Intro & Outro
It takes just 4 seconds for the album to get going, and by the time we’re 20 seconds in, my mind has wandered to the fantasy image of a Californian wheat field, and being told to “Lay me down in the tall grass, and let me do my stuff”. The album finishes with the wrong track, as “Songbird” should have closed side two. Instead “Gold Dust Woman”, which is probably the least excellent track, brings the album to an end in a rather inconclusive and meandering fashion.
8/10

Music
We’ve got everything here. The fabulous acoustic numbers such as Lindsey Buckingham’s “Never Going Back Again” or Christine McVie’s “Songbird”. We have full-on orchestral rock, with the rollicking “Go Your Own Way” showcasing the band in maximum effect. There is a clavinet. And a hard rock guitar solo that turns “The Chain” into such an interesting piece after 3 minutes of pretty conventional soft rock. Could we describe “You Make Loving Fun” as blues funk ? There are even pop tunes which Benny and Bjorn would have been proud to write, such as McVie’s “Don’t Stop”.
10/10

Lyrics
The detonated relationships which formed the basis for the succession of bittersweet love songs, resulted in lyrics of beauty and emotional simplicity. Stevie Nicks’ “crystal visions”, Buckingham’s “if I could, baby I’d give you my world”, and, most of all, McVie’s “all I want is to see you smile, if it takes just a little while”, and “why are you right when I’m so wrong, I’m so weak but you’re so strong”. Of all the tracks, it is the crushing pathos of “Songbird” which does the most to humanise the turbulence the band were struggling through at the time.
10/10

Production & Sound
Pitched to perfection. When understatement is called for, the record sounds like a singer-songwriter opening his/her heart to the world in splendid isolation. And when we want one of the world’s best blues rock bands to kick it up several gears, they get free rein to go for it. Buckingham deserves much credit for being able to do so much with a guitar. But just listen to the drumming on “Second Hand News” – Mick Fleetwood at his creative best, without ever trying to steal the show.
10/10

High Points
The entire album. I have never skipped a track when putting this album on. If I’m forced, I guess “Go Your Own Way” and “Never Going Back Again” are the best of the best.
10/10

Low Points
The final track, “Gold Dust Woman”, doesn’t quite sit right with the rest of the album, but it isn’t exactly filler.
9/10

Packaging
I’m not a huge fan. The front cover pic, which only shows Nicks and Fleetwood, doesn’t do justice to the importance of both McVies and Buckingham to the album. The swirling typeface of the title also seems at odds with the content, whilst the black and white band shots on the back are lazy. But we do get full lyrics, and the pale yellow sleeve makes the album identifiable at 100 paces.
5/10

On balance
I must have played “Rumours” over 100 times over the years. And I never get tired of it. With most of the tracks coming in at less than 3½ minutes, there isn’t really time for anything to become tedious or repetitive. Despite listening more closely to the album over the past few weeks than I ever have before, it remains a work of distinction and splendour to my ears.
10/10

TOTAL SCORE
The songbirds keep singing.
89/100.

For Haven:
9/10

[o]

I managed to listen to this once, shall try again at some point, as for #20, I'm a bit busy with stuff to check who's up next, if someone wants to work out who it is, then they can choose the next album, or we could make it an album every two months as there only appear to be a few of us doing it every month?

[Smurfie]

I am happy to do the next one - but can I go offlist? I would kinda like to do Bjork - Debut, now that she has a new album out.

[Shireblogger]

I'm pretty sure its vas's turn next. And I'd like to keep it monthly.

[vastar iner]

Well, if it's me, I know exactly which one to go for now - and it shouldn't take too much time to hear...

[vastar iner]

OK, I will put one up on the 1st March, to give people time to give Rumours a shot. This'll be a 2 month special.

[vastar iner]

Oops - bit of tempus fugit there.

[Mic1812]

I quite like this album and i know people on here dont like Glee but th ey did a great job in replicating the songs in one of the their episodes. Dreams must be one of the most covered Fleetwood Mac songs i think. I know its charted in the singles chart at least 3 or 4 times after being covered by other artists most notably The Corrs.

Of course The Chain will go down immortally as the Grand Prix Motor Racing Theme Tune. play the song from the beginning to new listeners and they go what is this but play the end bit where it goes dommmmmm de da dommm domm domm da dommmmmm and they all recognise it.