FM albums ranked

[Mr Scarrott]

One of thoses periodic rankings of the Mac's albums that has a pleasingly higher ranking for FG and BT and that doesn't have Time in last place for a change.

https://www.spin.com/2025/01/every-f...-album-ranked/

18 Mr Wonderful
17 Time
16 Fleetwood Mac in Chicago
15 Kiln House
14 Behind the Mask
13 Penguin
12 Heroes are are hard to find
11 Say you will
10 Mystery to Me
9 Then Play On
8 Mirage
7 Future Games
6 Tango in the night
5 Bare Trees
4 [Peter Green's] Fleetwood Mac
3 Fleetwood Mac
2 Tusk
1 Rumours

[aleuzzi]

Originally Posted by Mr Scarrott

One of thoses periodic rankings of the Mac's albums that has a pleasingly higher ranking for FG and BT and that doesn't have Time in last place for a change.

https://www.spin.com/2025/01/every-f...-album-ranked/

18 Mr Wonderful
17 Time
16 Fleetwood Mac in Chicago
15 Kiln House
14 Behind the Mask
13 Penguin
12 Heroes are are hard to find
11 Say you will
10 Mystery to Me
9 Then Play On
8 Mirage
7 Future Games
6 Tango in the night
5 Bare Trees
4 [Peter Green's] Fleetwood Mac
3 Fleetwood Mac
2 Tusk
1 Rumours

I wouldn’t place TIME in last place, either; but I wouldn’t put MR WONDERFUL there. At least half of the latter album is excellent.

[aleuzzi]

For my own amusement, I’ll post my list here:

18 Behind the Mask
17 Time
16 Heroes
15 Penguin
14 Mr Wonderful
13 Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac
12 Say You Will
11 Tango
10 Mirage
9 Mystery to Me
8 Future Games
7 Then Play On
6 Bare Trees
5 Tusk
4 Blues Jam at Chess
3 Kiln House
2 Fleetwood Mac (1975)
1 Rumours

For me, numbers 3-8 are all of nearly equal rank, and number 18 is the only wholly disappointing Mac studio album I’ve heard.

[Mr Scarrott]

Originally Posted by aleuzzi

I wouldn’t place TIME in last place, either; but I wouldn’t put MR WONDERFUL there. At least half of the latter album is excellent.

Peter's tracks are great- Love that burns is truly outstanding. It's just that the repeated Elmore James riff from Jeremy become a bit of an assault on the senses. I would put BTM last. Mr Wonderful definitely deserves better than Penguin, at least

[Street_Dreamer]

Then Play On being ninth makes that list null and void.

[Mr Scarrott]

Originally Posted by aleuzzi

For my own amusement, I’ll post my list here:

18 Behind the Mask
17 Time
16 Heroes
15 Penguin
14 Mr Wonderful
13 Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac
12 Say You Will
11 Tango
10 Mirage
9 Mystery to Me
8 Future Games
7 Then Play On
6 Bare Trees
5 Tusk
4 Blues Jam at Chess
3 Kiln House
2 Fleetwood Mac (1975)
1 Rumours

For me, numbers 3-8 are all of nearly equal rank, and number 18 is the only wholly disappointing Mac studio album I’ve heard.

Hi Aleuzzi, really interesting picks at 3 and 4. I quite enjoy Kiln House- it can be fun and interesting but ranking it above BT, MTM and TPO amongst others is a bit brave- I do accept personal tastes come into this, though. I have a hard time accepting the Blues Jam at Chess as a real FM studio album for a variety of reasons but given that it's on the compiler's list, do you have any particular thoughts that help warrant the position you gave it. BTM is lucky to even make last place...

[WalkAThinLine.]

Originally Posted by Street_Dreamer

Then Play On being ninth makes that list null and void.

I would personally rank that higher, although it's rather difficult to compare albums with drastically different lineups. There are not too many similarities between an album like Then Play On and Behind the Mask

For my list, I will also include Buckingham McVie, which is essentially a Fleetwood Mac album. I have only listened to a few tracks from Blues Jam, so I will omit that from the list. In comparison to most people, I'm probably more positive on Say You Will and Penguin. Meanwhile, the 1975 White album does not give me too many reasons to return to it, so that will receive a relatively average placement. Just to mix things up, I will also swap Mr. Wonderful with English Rose, as the latter received an official release in my home country while Mr. Wonderful did not.

18) Time - If this didn't carry the Fleetwood Mac title, I would have very little reason to return to this. McVie's tracks are easily the best, but only three are above average. "Talkin' to My Heart" is fine enough and I also have a soft spot for "Blow by Blow". "These Strange Times" could have worked without the whispered vocals.

17) Behind the Mask - Similar to Time, McVie also carries the album, although Burnette's songs are much better here, with "In the Back of My Mind" being a highlight. Nicks is marginally better on this album than Tango, but she's still a weak link. Vito's songs are probably amongst the worst on the album. The production is inoffensive and very middle of the road.

16) Buckingham McVie - Barring "Game of Pretend", all of McVie's has songs here are great, although I wish she was [more] present on Buckingham's songs. "Sleeping on the Corner" is marred with a glitch in the intro and a rather poor vocal on verse 1, but the rest of the song is considerably better. There are some decent songs on here, but it lacks the passion of some of the band's earlier work.

15) Fleetwood Mac (1968 album) - The album is very conventional in terms of song structure yet enhanced by the musicianship and harmonica playing. Spencer's schtick gets old pretty quickly, although Green contributes a varied collection of songs here, with "I Loved Another Woman" serving as a proto "Black Magic Woman" and "Long Grey Mare" possessing an infectious guitar riff.

14) Kiln House - Spencer dominates the album with his parodies, which provides a nice change of pace from his Elmore James inspired compositions from the first few albums. "One Together" and "Mission Bell" in particular are very strong, although the best song on the album is actually an instrumental penned by Kirwan carrying the title of "Earl Gray". The most notable songs on this album, namely "Jewel Eyed Judy", "Tell Me All the Things You Do", and "Station Man" were all written and sung by Kirwan.

13) Heroes Are Hard to Find - As per usual, the best songs on the album were written and sung by McVie. Of the five albums Bob Welch appeared on, this probably has his weakest batch of songs, with "Born Enchanter" in particular providing very little of substance. The meandering "Bermuda Triangle" would become even more protracted during live performances, yet it's still one of his most memorable and enjoyable songs on the album.

12) English Rose - This heavily benefits from a far superior track listing compared to Mr. Wonderful, which replaces many of the filler tracks from that album with several Kirwan tunes, "Albatross" and "Black Magic Woman". The one regrettable omission is "Rollin' Man", which could have been swapped in for one of the Elmore James derivative songs, but this is still a fine selection.

11) Fleetwood Mac (1975) - The album that pumped some new life into the band and made them commercially successful in America. I would probably rank this album higher if the single mixes of "Over My Head" and "Say You Love Me" had replaced their duller album counterparts, but the album nonetheless has some stellar songs, particularly "Crystal" and "I'm So Afraid".

10) Say You Will - A very lengthy and disjointed album that still contains some of my favorite Fleetwood Mac songs, including "Murrow Turning Over in His Grave", "Steal Your Heart Away", and "Red Rover". Nicks contributed her best set of songs here since 1979's Tusk, with "Running Through the Garden" and "Everybody Finds Out" being highlights. Her vocals hinder the enjoyability of songs like "Illume", "Silver Girl", and "Destiny Rules", but the material here is very strong, even without the writing contributions of Christine McVie.

9)Bare Trees - A Kirwan dominated album, but even the filler tracks like "Danny's Chant" are worthwhile listens. It also features one the only shaky performances from McVie in her Fleetwood Mac career with "Homeward Bound", although "Spare Me a Little of Your Love" is much better. Bob Welch came with two high quality songs; this was the album that birthed "Sentimental Lady", which contains an endearing vocal delivery and arrangement far less polished than the version that later became a hit for him.

8) Mirage - While relatively safe in comparison to Tusk, the album still has some experimental moments, namely with "Empire State" and "Eyes of the World". Even "That's Alright", a conventional country ballad, carries some cool production tricks. "Oh Diane" is still one of the worst things that Fleetwood Mac has ever created, but the album is buoyed by the remaining singles on the album, especially "Hold Me" and "Gypsy", both of which are blessed with spectacular arrangements.

7) Tango in the Night - The absence of Ken Caillat's production is certainly felt and missed here, which gives way to more artificial sonic environments with Buckingham and Dashut at the helm. Still, I will give this the slight edge over Mirage due to the better song selection. There are still a few lesser songs on the album and one outright dud ("When I See You Again") but it also offers some of the best songs in Fleetwood Mac's career, including "Everywhere" and "Little Lies". "Isn't Midnight" also deserves a mention and benefits from Buckingham's guitar overdubs.

6) Then Play On - I was surprised to include the album this low on the list, but I happened to enjoy five other Fleetwood Mac albums more than this one. Incredibly varied in terms of the song selection, particularly when taking into account both parts of "Oh Well", which was appended to later editions of the album. Parts of "When You Say" sound unfinished, but this is mostly inconsequential when listening to the entire album from start to finish.

5) Penguin - The first Fleetwood Mac album with a six-person lineup and the only album to feature Walker, who feels a bit out of place here. Still, the two songs he sings on "The Derelict" and a cover of "I'm a Roadrunner", are fine enough additions to the album. Both Welch and McVie brought in some solid material, including the album's main single "Did You Ever Love Me?", the only Fleetwood Mac song to feature steel drums.

4) Rumours - A mighty fine collection of songs that launched the band into superstardom. It contains some of their best-known songs, and even the non-singles are more popular than some of the singles found on the band's other albums. When factoring "Silver Springs", this album is even better, and I could be convinced to place this at number three

3) Future Games - Arguably the band's most pastoral album, which is particularly evident with Kirwan's "Woman of 1000 Years" and the title track, which was written by Welch. The album's only single, "Sands of Time", is one of the only Fleetwood Mac songs with portions written in an odd signature, resulting in a relatively proggy song (at least by Fleetwood Mac standards). It also marks the first album with McVie and Welch as official members (although McVie had worked with the band going back to the Mr. Wonderful sessions.)

2) Mystery to Me - Another album with a varied set of songs and it includes the band's first use of a rhythm box (found on "Forever"). With Walker out, the song selection is more homogenous, although the band still left some room for experimentation, particularly with the string arrangement found on "Keep on Going". "Good Things Come For Those Who Wait" was wisely swapped for a cover of the Yardbird's "For Your Love", although it was a misstep to relegate "Hypnotized" as that song's B-side, which may have otherwise provided Fleetwood Mac with a minor chart hit had it been released as the A-side instead.

1) Tusk - A masterpiece, none the 20 tracks are filler. Buckingham's experimental songs are juxtaposed with the immaculate songwriting of McVie and Nicks, who provided some of their best work of their careers here, particularly with "Over & Over", "Sara", "Sisters of the Moon" and "Never Make Me Cry". The title track is one of band's most ambitious recordings, which makes it even more satisfying that it became a top ten hit on both sides of the Atlantic.

[aleuzzi]

Originally Posted by Mr Scarrott

Hi Aleuzzi, really interesting picks at 3 and 4. I quite enjoy Kiln House- it can be fun and interesting but ranking it above BT, MTM and TPO amongst others is a bit brave- I do accept personal tastes come into this, though. I have a hard time accepting the Blues Jam at Chess as a real FM studio album for a variety of reasons but given that it's on the compiler's list, do you have any particular thoughts that help warrant the position you gave it. BTM is lucky to even make last place...

I just love Blues Jam at Chess. I wouldn’t have included it in my list if it weren’t already there. But it’s such a great record. There are number of Danny songs that rank among his best and the Peter songs are great—more confident, I think, than he sounds on either of the first two records. And, well, I’m an Otis Span junkie.

Kiln House—it’s just soooooo good. It may not have the fuller sound of BT but the best songs are so joyous and unaffected. The band sounds totally at ease (even if they weren’t). I rank the albums based on consistent sound and overall feel. I listen to Penguin and MTM more frequently—but in a piecemeal way, whereas when I listen to Kiln House, I set in for the whole thing. Buddy’s Song and Honey Hush are my favorite Spencer….I think Bud Scopa and Robert Christgau were right to give it raves.

[aleuzzi]

Originally Posted by WalkAThinLine.

I would personally rank that higher, although it's rather difficult to compare albums with drastically different lineups. There are not too many similarities between an album like Then Play On and Behind the Mask

For my list, I will also include Buckingham McVie, which is essentially a Fleetwood Mac album. I have only listened to a few tracks from Blues Jam, so I will omit that from the list. In comparison to most people, I'm probably more positive on Say You Will and Penguin. Meanwhile, the 1975 White album does not give me too many reasons to return to it, so that will receive a relatively average placement. Just to mix things up, I will also swap Mr. Wonderful with English Rose, as the latter received an official release in my home country while Mr. Wonderful did not.

18) Time - If this didn't carry the Fleetwood Mac title, I would have very little reason to return to this. McVie's tracks are easily the best, but only three are above average. "Talkin' to My Heart" is fine enough and I also have a soft spot for "Blow by Blow". "These Strange Times" could have worked without the whispered vocals.

17) Behind the Mask - Similar to Time, McVie also carries the album, although Burnette's songs are much better here, with "In the Back of My Mind" being a highlight. Nicks is marginally better on this album than Tango, but she's still a weak link. Vito's songs are probably amongst the worst on the album. The production is inoffensive and very middle of the road.

16) Buckingham McVie - Barring "Game of Pretend", all of McVie's has songs here are great, although I wish she was [more] present on Buckingham's songs. "Sleeping on the Corner" is marred with a glitch in the intro and a rather poor vocal on verse 1, but the rest of the song is considerably better. There are some decent songs on here, but it lacks the passion of some of the band's earlier work.

15) Fleetwood Mac (1968 album) - The album is very conventional in terms of song structure yet enhanced by the musicianship and harmonica playing. Spencer's schtick gets old pretty quickly, although Green contributes a varied collection of songs here, with "I Loved Another Woman" serving as a proto "Black Magic Woman" and "Long Grey Mare" possessing an infectious guitar riff.

14) Kiln House - Spencer dominates the album with his parodies, which provides a nice change of pace from his Elmore James inspired compositions from the first few albums. "One Together" and "Mission Bell" in particular are very strong, although the best song on the album is actually an instrumental penned by Kirwan carrying the title of "Earl Gray". The most notable songs on this album, namely "Jewel Eyed Judy", "Tell Me All the Things You Do", and "Station Man" were all written and sung by Kirwan.

13) Heroes Are Hard to Find - As per usual, the best songs on the album were written and sung by McVie. Of the five albums Bob Welch appeared on, this probably has his weakest batch of songs, with "Born Enchanter" in particular providing very little of substance. The meandering "Bermuda Triangle" would become even more protracted during live performances, yet it's still one of his most memorable and enjoyable songs on the album.

12) English Rose - This heavily benefits from a far superior track listing compared to Mr. Wonderful, which replaces many of the filler tracks from that album with several Kirwan tunes, "Albatross" and "Black Magic Woman". The one regrettable omission is "Rollin' Man", which could have been swapped in for one of the Elmore James derivative songs, but this is still a fine selection.

11) Fleetwood Mac (1975) - The album that pumped some new life into the band and made them commercially successful in America. I would probably rank this album higher if the single mixes of "Over My Head" and "Say You Love Me" had replaced their duller album counterparts, but the album nonetheless has some stellar songs, particularly "Crystal" and "I'm So Afraid".

10) Say You Will - A very lengthy and disjointed album that still contains some of my favorite Fleetwood Mac songs, including "Murrow Turning Over in His Grave", "Steal Your Heart Away", and "Red Rover". Nicks contributed her best set of songs here since 1979's Tusk, with "Running Through the Garden" and "Everybody Finds Out" being highlights. Her vocals hinder the enjoyability of songs like "Illume", "Silver Girl", and "Destiny Rules", but the material here is very strong, even without the writing contributions of Christine McVie.

9)Bare Trees - A Kirwan dominated album, but even the filler tracks like "Danny's Chant" are worthwhile listens. It also features one the only shaky performances from McVie in her Fleetwood Mac career with "Homeward Bound", although "Spare Me a Little of Your Love" is much better. Bob Welch came with two high quality songs; this was the album that birthed "Sentimental Lady", which contains an endearing vocal delivery and arrangement far less polished than the version that later became a hit for him.

8) Mirage - While relatively safe in comparison to Tusk, the album still has some experimental moments, namely with "Empire State" and "Eyes of the World". Even "That's Alright", a conventional country ballad, carries some cool production tricks. "Oh Diane" is still one of the worst things that Fleetwood Mac has ever created, but the album is buoyed by the remaining singles on the album, especially "Hold Me" and "Gypsy", both of which are blessed with spectacular arrangements.

7) Tango in the Night - The absence of Ken Caillat's production is certainly felt and missed here, which gives way to more artificial sonic environments with Buckingham and Dashut at the helm. Still, I will give this the slight edge over Mirage due to the better song selection. There are still a few lesser songs on the album and one outright dud ("When I See You Again") but it also offers some of the best songs in Fleetwood Mac's career, including "Everywhere" and "Little Lies". "Isn't Midnight" also deserves a mention and benefits from Buckingham's guitar overdubs.

6) Then Play On - I was surprised to include the album this low on the list, but I happened to enjoy five other Fleetwood Mac albums more than this one. Incredibly varied in terms of the song selection, particularly when taking into account both parts of "Oh Well", which was appended to later editions of the album. Parts of "When You Say" sound unfinished, but this is mostly inconsequential when listening to the entire album from start to finish.

5) Pengiun - The first Fleetwood Mac album with a six-person lineup and the only album to feature Walker, who feels a bit out of place here. Still, the two songs he sings on "The Derelict" and a cover of "I'm a Roadrunner", are fine enough additions to the album. Both Welch and McVie brought in some solid material, including the album's main single "Did You Ever Love Me?", the only Fleetwood Mac song to feature steel drums.

4) Rumours - A mighty fine collection of songs that launched the band into superstardom. It contains some of their best-known songs, and even the non-singles are more popular than some of the singles found on the band's other albums. When factoring "Silver Springs", this album is even better, and I could be convinced to place this at number three

3) Future Games - Arguably the band's most pastoral album, which is particularly evident with Kirwan's "Woman of 1000 Years" and the title track, which was written by Welch. The album's only single, "Sands of Time", is one of the only Fleetwood Mac songs with portions written in an odd signature, resulting in a relatively proggy song (at least by Fleetwood Mac standards). It also marks the first album with McVie and Welch as official members (although McVie had worked with the band going back to the Mr. Wonderful sessions.)

2) Mystery to Me - Another album with a varied set of songs and it includes the band's first use of a rhythm box (found on "Forever"). With Walker out, the song selection is more homogenous, although the band still left some room for experimentation, particularly with the string arrangement found on "Keep on Going". "Good Things Come For Those Who Wait" was wisely swapped for a cover of the Yardbird's "For Your Love", although it was a misstep to relegate "Hypnotized" as that song's B-side, which may have otherwise provided Fleetwood Mac with a minor chart hit had it been released as the A-side instead.

1) Tusk - A masterpiece, none the 20 tracks are filler. Buckingham's experimental songs are juxtaposed with the immaculate songwriting of McVie and Nicks, who provided some of their best work of their careers here, particularly with "Over & Over", "Sara", "Sisters of the Moon" and "Never Make Me Cry". The title track is one of band's most ambitious recordings, which makes it even more satisfying that it became a top ten hit on both sides of the Atlantic.

Tastes are so varied! I never liked the “Over My Head” or “Say You Love Me” (or “Rhiannon”) singles mixes. The album versions are my favs.

[Villavic]

Originally Posted by aleuzzi

Tastes are so varied! I never liked the “Over My Head” or “Say You Love Me” (or “Rhiannon”) singles mixes. The album versions are my favs.

I love the Over My Head intro from the Live album.

[HomerMcvie]

Originally Posted by Villavic

I love the Over My Head intro from the Live album.

Me too. I've been playing along with Live for the past few evenings.

[aleuzzi]

Originally Posted by Villavic

I love the Over My Head intro from the Live album.

Love the live version included in the Deluxe white album. Not the Midnight Special one. But the full concert one…

[WalkAThinLine.]

I'm curious why they decided to double track her vocals on the Midnight Special recording. Personally, I find it very amusing.

[Macfan4life]

Its really hard to rank ALL the albums. I own all the albums but the band improves so much when Chris joins. They get even better when Bob Welch joins. Mystery To Me and Heroes Are Hard To Find are brilliant. Mystery To Me has my all time favorite songs but Heroes I like Chris's selections more. We get a full variety of her contributions. We get a bluesy pop song with horns on the title track, we get a sad broken love song but its set to incredible fun and happy music, we get an angry song from Chris which is rare, and we get the somber love hurt song. Bob we get the spooky Bermuda Triangle, a psychedelic instrumental, and a pop rocker Silver Heals. I love Heroes Are Hard To Find just as much as Mystery To Me. I dont know why many rank the album on the lower side.
This sounds weird to say but IMHO the band's releases in the 1970s got better and better with each release. Then the 1980s happened which impacted all great 1970s bands.

[Penguin Emeritus]

Originally Posted by WalkAThinLine.

I'm curious why they decided to double track her vocals on the Midnight Special recording. Personally, I find it very amusing.

I don't remember that track having double vocals on it years ago...? it's been on youtube for years. i actually like it better w the double vocal because in the original she sounded a bit pitchy. but maybe i'm just imagining previously hearing it a different way..?

-Lis