The Galleon
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Album review: Fleetwood Mac – Rumours (35th Anniversary Edition)
By Flynn Massey, Arts and Entertainment Editor
13th March 2013, 12:27pm
Quintessentially one of the greatest rock albums ever written and produced, Rumours now celebrates its 35th anniversary this year. An album that spans and reveals an immense saga of love and lust, both lost and found throughout a near conceptual and cathartic approach to songwriting, Rumours is truly the record that defines Fleetwood Mac.
After following the successful Sixties and Peter Green’s vision of Fleetwood Mac, to ever-changing lineups within the band, releasing various albums which garnered partial attention both across the Atlantic and within the United Kingdom, the band in 1975 abandoned Green’s inception of British blues and found the virtuoso combination of lead guitarist Lindsey Buckingham and lead vocalist Stevie Nicks, thus creating the most popular version of the group.
Yet it was only after releasing their tenth eponymous album, Fleetwood Mac, that the band truly began to establish songs which would easily last and span decades, such as ‘Landslide’ and ‘Rhiannon’. However, following the newly found success, personal conflicts between the established couples of the group luckily led to the creation of some of the best and most revered rock songs of the 20th century, merely at the cost of the entire integrity of the band.
The well documented toil of personal relationships within Fleetwood Mac cannot be dissected from the material produced here on Rumours, with each song telling a tale of complete catharsis. The interplay between each member of the group, from percussion to vocals, creates an intensely addictive wall of sound, which even to this day stands in terms of its production, performance and replay value.
Nicks’ vocal performance on ‘Dreams’, an anthemic message of hope following the breakup, combines with Buckingham and McVie’s backing vocals to intersperse, collide and create nothing short of the first classic jewel in this album’s laden crown. With ‘Never Going Back Again’, Buckingham only needs two minutes to chillingly tell the world about remaining adamant about his choices.
Combining his vocals with Christine McVie on ‘Don’t Stop’, her own optimistic message to resolving issues with estranged husband and bassist of the band, John McVie, it still remains a well-played song by DJs, television shows and presidential candidates today. ‘Go Your Own Way’ is Buckingham’s brilliantly pessimistic retort to Nicks’ ‘Dreams’, whilst ‘Songbird’ reveals McVie’s hauntingly beautiful vocals.
Following this melodic masterpiece is another: ‘The Chain’, the only song written collaboratively by the band, which remains a rock anthem for all the right reasons, as vocally, Buckingham, Nicks and McVie all seem to reach near perfection. Completed with John McVie’s thunderous and instantaneously recognisable bass line, Mick Fleetwood’s sharply building snare drum and Buckingham’s fret melting solo, it still to this day manages to send shivers down thousands of spines.
Rumours’ last song, ‘Gold Dust Woman’, fights a good fight for being the best closer to an album, portrayed with Nicks narrating the dangers of LA lifestyle amidst the addictions found with the lifestyle of rock stardom, in which she and the entire band reach an astoundingly climactic and emotional zenith. 35 years on, Rumours still undoubtedly deserves to be regarded as one of the best rock albums of all time.