What is YOUR Fleetwood Mac album?

[FuzzyPlum]

I don’t know whether I’ve raised this before (maybe sometime when I was tipsy and can’t remember)….

It intrigues me that people will have different perceptions of the band and of the music, based upon when they first became interested in the band.

For me, I listened to my parents album….Tango In the Night and over time became hooked. For me, that was the seminal album. It was a pleasant surprise to discover everything that came before it one album at a time. To be a huge fan and later hear their biggest album, Rumours, was amazing. But I’m conscious different people will have different feelings. It seems bizarre to me that a lot of fans really do not rate TITN. I just don’t get that!!!!

Having said that, I know there are some people who became fans after the release of Behind the Mask or Say You Will (nobody became a fan on the back of Time). For me, those albums were disappointing as they didn’t fit the sound of TITN which is my datum point. But I do recognise there are some positives with those albums. I can understand, if you first heard those albums then you’ll forever hold them in your heart.

On the other hand, I can see that a fan in the 70’s would view those 80’s albums to a lower standard. Am I making sense? Or is the Malbec taking over this Saturday evening????

[DownOnRodeo]

Greatest Hits (1988) was the first album I owned and I listened to it a lot.

I read the liner notes a lot and looked at the photos, but not being online and not being familiar with the band's history, it was all rather cryptic and confusing. With the knowledge I have now, the liner notes are shameful, in that they mainly describe a live concert of the Burnette/Vito lineup, despite all the actual "greatest hits" on the album being Lindsey era songs.

But it was hearing YMLF, Rhiannon, GYOW, and SYLM constantly on the radio that led me to get the album in the first place.

[Macfan4life]

Rumours was the first album I bought from the band in early 1983. I can almost remember each record store or department store that I bought the albums from. The White Album was my next buy and then Mirage, Tusk, and then Heroes Are Hard To Find. I was a 14 year old kid in 1984 jamming out to Heroes if you can believe that.
I became a fan at an awkward yet amazing time. Mirage was just fading from the charts and the band would not be back together for 5 years. Enter the solo years. My first concert was Wild Heart and then saw Chris the next year. I love the band carried on after Lindsey left on his own accord. I love half BTM and love that 1990 concert.
I sometimes ask myself if I could go back what concert would I attend if I could, White, Rumours, Tusk or Mirage. That is a tough pick. It would be a coin flip for Rumours or Tusk I think. But if you could get me a Mystery To Me date that could change everything. I am not a fan of 80s synth tech pop music of the 80s which is why Tango, RAL, and some of Go Insane does not sit well with me. I also like the band on their edge compared to playing a ballad or pop song.
Chris sort of hypnotized me on the Mirage show with YMLF. Lindsey was great on GYOW and Stevie blew the lid of on sisters. They had such chemistry.

[SteveMacD]

First album I bought was TITN, but I had Mirage, MTM, Law & Order, and one or two Boston Tea Party cassettes shortly thereafter.

I got the white Fleetwood Mac album and Tusk for Christmas and then Rumours a few weeks later.

The white album was my favorite followed closely by Tusk. At some point, those switched.

[aleuzzi]

Rumours was in our house in 1977. In 1982, when I was 11, I bought Mirage. I bought so many other FM albums within the year. The white album was the gold standard for me. It still remains one of my favs. But Penguin and Kiln House really excited me.

Edit: also Live in Chicago/Blues Jam at Chess…and English Rose…

[HomerMcvie]

It depends on when you ask me...

Rumours is the album that made me who I am, but I'm so tired of it. I've lost track of how many copies I've purchased.

Mystery To Me was my summer album for years. I'd put it on in the afternoon, blasting by the pool while I floated around until it was over.

Tusk is deeper than I'd normally choose as my favorite. It's great for a night of quiet thinking.

Live always held a place in my heart. I remember driving around in high school, BLASTING it for the world to hear. I never knew Oh Well before then(yes, I'd heard it on the Tusk tour, but didn't know what it's name was, even).

BuckVie is my second favorite. What a joy to get this at the late stage in the game. It's Mirage, part II.

For me, I'm going to have to pick Mirage. It's such a fun album, and came out at the height of my fandom. And yes, I realize that it's lightweight. Maybe that's all it needs to be. Light and fun.

I reserve the right to change this list at the drop of a hat.

[WalkAThinLine.]

The Very Best of Fleetwood Mac was actually the album that got me into the band. It only represented the band's work from 1975-1997, and overlooked the Time album (perhaps that was for the best), but I nonetheless found myself intrigued with band and set out to fill out their discography. After that, I later acquired some of their other albums: (Then Play On, Bare Trees, Mystery to Me, Fleetwood Mac, Rumours, Tusk, Mirage, Tango in the Night, The Dance, and Say You Will and even some solo albums from Peter Green, Mick Fleetwood, and Lindsey Buckingham.

[FuzzyPlum]

Originally Posted by WalkAThinLine.

The Very Best of Fleetwood Mac was actually the album that got me into the band. It only represented the band's work from 1975-1997, and overlooked the Time album (perhaps that was for the best), but I nonetheless found myself intrigued with band and set out to fill out their discography. After that, I later acquired some of their other albums: (Then Play On, Bare Trees, Mystery to Me, Fleetwood Mac, Rumours, Tusk, Mirage, Tango in the Night, The Dance, and Say You Will and even some solo albums from Peter Green, Mick Fleetwood, and Lindsey Buckingham.

Not in that order though….surely

[WatchChain]

First, I love this discussion because we now live in an extremely fragmented world of sound bites, snippets, jingles, and short attention span.

The concept of a recorded album reads like a great, classic novel. A list of songs that tell a story to document a moment in time. When played in sequence, they create a tone and mood that is euphoric. Coupled with cover art, photographs and liner notes, albums are an enriching experience. Fast forward to now - we have definitely lost something. Great albums are becoming a rare breed.

My Mac albums are the first 4 from the most renowned lineup, which remain the best - Fleetwood Mac, Rumours, Tusk, and Mirage. Though there are absolutely some shining moments in post-1982 recordings, nothing else has come close to the brilliance of these 4 albums.

[David]

Originally Posted by WatchChain

The concept of a recorded album reads like a great, classic novel. A list of songs that tell a story to document a moment in time. When played in sequence, they create a tone and mood that is euphoric. Coupled with cover art, photographs and liner notes, albums are an enriching experience. Fast forward to now - we have definitely lost something. Great albums are becoming a rare breed.

I can vouch for that perspective. I was very much of that generation that consumed the whole album in a sitting. The cliché of sitting on the floor, following along with the lyric sleeve, is the truth. We really did think of albums that way. We bought 45s, but that was a very different experience, and not as deep of a connection. In fact, there isn’t much talk about this, but one of the weird sensations we used to have was mentally placing the single (which was on the radio a month or two before the album was available) on the full album in an auditory way — we sometimes were disappointed about where the single was put on the album. Something usually felt wrong about it.

I knew the white album from AM radio, and I even knew “Hypnotized” and a few others. I was dragged to a Mac concert in late summer 1976, didn’t much turn on to the live experience, but did go nuts over the “Go Your Own Way” single a few months later. Rumours was released, and I bought it after keeping my friend’s vinyl copy for a few too many weeks. So Rumours was the first Mac album I owned — I got my 1975 vinyl a little bit after Rumours. I bought the vinyls for Tusk, Live, Mirage, Law and Order, Bella Donna, The Visitor, The Wild Heart, I’m Not Me, and I think that’s about it for my full-album vinyl experience. Everything since then has been just a collection of individual tracks for me, even Say You Will.

[sue]

My favourite chapter of Fleetwood Mac is the very early Peter Green era..
But my best loved Album has to be Rumours.
I had lost touch with them in the early 70s and didn’t listen to them at all.
Then, wham I heard Go your own way and Dreams on the radio.
I was re hooked and bought Rumours March 1977.

[DownOnRodeo]

Originally Posted by WalkAThinLine.

The Very Best of Fleetwood Mac was actually the album that got me into the band. It only represented the band's work from 1975-1997, and overlooked the Time album (perhaps that was for the best), but I nonetheless found myself intrigued with band and set out to fill out their discography.

That was a great colllection. Some deep-dives with Storms and What Makes You Think as I recall. And the Rumours five on the back cover, as it should be. I have an abridged version of it on casette tape as well.

I think I need to purchase a machine that lets me play my CDs again.
I was trying to play the Tusk album on Spotify the other day and instead it played two Tusk songs out of order then launched into Everywhere...

[sleepless child]

Fleetwood mac The white album. My first listen from the group and still my fave album.

[WalkAThinLine.]

Originally Posted by DownOnRodeo

That was a great colllection. Some deep-dives with Storms and What Makes You Think as I recall. And the Rumours five on the back cover, as it should be. I have an abridged version of it on casette tape as well.

There are some good songs on that collection, although there are some interesting choices. Nine out of the eleven Rumours songs are on there, which almost makes the regular purchase of Rumours unnecessary. However, I wanted to hear "I Don't Want to Know" and "Oh Daddy" so badly that I purchased the album anyways. There aren't any songs from the Live album and the only representation from The Dance comes from Lindsey Buckingham, who gets three songs from that collection. They also placed "Skies on the Limit" as opposed to "Save Me" on the album even though the latter was a top 40 hit and "Skies" was not. It's still a great introduction to the band, although 50 Years: Don't Stop is a better representation of the band's entire history.

[Villavic]

Live.

That album and Gypsy were the reason to became a Fleetwood Mac fan. After listening Gypsy I bought Live, the first Fleetwood Mac album I got. Later I bought the other albums and it was very very interesting to discover the studio versions of Over & Over, Monday Morning, Over my Head, Say You Love Me, songs that were my favorites of the Live album.

But if you ask me my favorite album, it was, is, and will always be Rumours.