Rumours – Fleetwood Mac – 1977

First listen?: No

Rumours is a classic. I doubt anyone can deny that fact. The story behind the album’s creation has become intrinsically linked with the success of Rumours, songs like Go Your Own Way and Dreams are two sides of the same troubled relationship, Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks perspectives respectively. It’s the context that makes these songs so memorable, it feels like you are looking in on real lives, playing out in this whirlwind of ‘Fleetwood Mac’. It allows all 5 members of the band to showcase their story, whether bathed in metaphor or taken at face value. I’ve always found it interesting how varied Fleetwood Mac songs are. It’s not just the varied vocal talents of each singer, but their way with words. The contrast between a song like Songbird, with it’s subtle guitar strums and piercing vocal from Christina McVie and something like Go Your Own Way, which is cutting and full of momentum is striking. The centerpiece among these solo moments is The Chain, the only track written by all members of the band. Glorious harmonies punch through the slow rolling beat before the now iconic guitar riff kicks in a good few minutes later. It’s an incredible song that feels like the peak for an album that thrills on the way up and the way back down again. It’s unique for a band to be so brilliant together and yet so brilliant apart too. The trick they mastered on Rumours is finding that perfect balance between the two. Every track is essential, 11 songs that I’m sure defined an era for lots of people. The thing that surprised me most about Rumours was that I had only listened to it once before and hadn’t gone back. Maybe I was listening to the wrong CD, because I’d have to be stupid to not have gone back to an album as good as this. A record I’m sure many people expected in the to 10, Rumours by Fleetwood Mac is a true classic.

Rating: 9/10

Will I listen again?: I definitely will this time.

Best Track: I need to go for The Chain, it really is the high point on this album for me.