Review Summary: Been down one time, been down two times
I can guarantee that if you look through the record collection in your house, you’ll find a copy of Rumours. Go down to any music store, used or new, and you’ll find dozens of copies. Christ; you could probably find a copy abandoned on the sidewalk if you looked hard enough. Rumours is everywhere and everyone has it, and there’s a good reason for that. It’s such an absurdly well made record full of timeless, legendary songs that anyone with two functioning ears has likely heard at least one of them dozens of times. Rumours isn’t just a very popular album, it’s a cornerstone of music as a whole. When you’ve shifted 10 million copies in the FIRST MONTH of sale, you know you’ve done something right. Time has done little to diminish the album’s strength, in fact it’s only gotten better with age. Let’s look at one of the most popular and acclaimed albums ever recorded for a little run through shall we?
It’s important to note Fleetwood Mac’s progression as a group to really understand the weight of Rumours. If you weren’t aware, they started as an entirely British blues rock band fronted by the enigmatic guitar maestro Peter Green. They pumped out a few albums with that configuration before Green left and gradually the blues sound they had forged gave away to more universal strands of soft rock and pop. By the time Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham joined in 1975, The Mac were almost an entirely different band, now focusing entirely on radio friendly pop rock. They gradually went from touring local bars and other low-key locations to dominating the college circuit with their Bob Welch lead lineup to filling stadiums by the time their self titled 1975 record was released. Rumours was to follow up their first American no. 1 album, so of course there was pressure building. But things could only get better for the group, except they didn’t. Christine and John McVie separated, Mick Fleetwood divorced his wife and the newly added Buckingham-Nicks combo also spilt. Add on top of that a group wide cocaine addiction that would make Tony Montana concerned and an increasingly hostile, debaucherous working environment and you’ve got the stage for a disaster waiting to happen. But instead of channeling the resentment and anger that was bubbling amongst them into screaming matches and fights (which trust me, still happened regardless), the Mac turned that pain into music and in turn made the ultimate break-up album. Really it covers all bases. Anger, spite and resentment (Lindsey’s ‘Second Hand News’, ‘Go Your Own Way’ and ‘Never Going Back Again’), heartbreak, longing and regret (Stevie’s ‘Dreams’, ‘Gold Dust Woman’ and ‘Silver Springs’) and optimism, acceptance and the strength to move on (Christine’s ‘Don’t Stop’, ‘Songbird’ and ‘You Make Loving Fun’).
Apart from being lyrically excellent (Stevie’s ‘Silver Springs’, despite being left off the album and relegated to B-side status, is probably the best thing she ever wrote and one of the most powerful and intense breakup ballads ever recorded), Rumours is so meticulously polished and catchy that it’s almost frightening. Never before has an album featured so many instantaneous hooks and perfect melodies. It’s the ‘Thriller’ of white people music in that basically every song is a single candidate (except maybe the brief folk excursion ‘Never Going Back Again’, which even then is still one of the album’s best moments). Instrumentation is sleek and clean without ever feeling overly polished and sterile (‘Dreams’ being a perfect example of the record’s nigh flawless production), all vocals are hit perfectly, there’s not a single note out of place. It’s a marvel of top 40 pop music in just how bafflingly perfect it is. Lindsey’s complex, fingerpicked guitar playing shines brilliantly on the aforementioned ‘Never Going Back Again’ and the searing ‘Go Your Own Way’. Christine’s tight, melodic piano playing works wonders on the sentimental ‘Songbird’ or the funky ‘You Make Loving Fun’. Stevie’s vocals being down the house on ‘Gold Dust Woman’ and the immortal ‘Dreams’. It’s the sound of a band working in perfect unison, and it all comes to a perfect head on the album centrepiece ‘The Chain’ (coincidentally it’s the only song ever made by the Buckingham-Nicks configuration that has the entire band credited for writing).
Now despite what I say, Rumours is hardly absolutely perfect. While musically and lyrically it’s immensely good, there’s a few minor issues, mainly in the fact they replaced ‘Silver Springs’ with the rather slight ‘I Don’t Want to Know’. Maybe the band thought it was too personal, maybe it made the album too long (despite the fact they had released albums before and after this longer than 40 minutes), maybe it was a deliberate attempt to upset Stevie. Either way, its absence is absolutely absurd and if it was included on the base album and not relegated to bonus track status, Rumours would probably be my favourite album by them (as it stands, ‘Tusk’ and ‘Tango in the Night’ edge it out personally).
So that’s Rumours. I’d tell you to immediately go and listen to it but in all honesty you probably already have. So, yeah. Listen to it again, I suppose. Or don’t, I’m not your mom.
Standouts: all of them but especially Dreams, Never Going Back Again, Go Your Own Way, The Chain and Gold Dust Woman
Skips: I Don’t Want to Know
