Why does no one hate Rumours?

[jbrownsjr]

I rarely heard Silver Springs. I did hear the Chain quite a lot on the radio. Also, Songbird and IDWK, once in a blue moon.

Later in the 80's, I would hear GDW, a lot on the radio.

[Villavic]

Originally Posted by jbrownsjr

Also, Songbird and IDWK, once in a blue moon.

I rarely play Rumours' IDWK. But the Early Version included in Disc 3 of the 2013 More From The Recording Sessions, that became a favorite. Lindsey rocks there.

[jbrownsjr]

Originally Posted by Villavic

I rarely play Rumours' IDWK. But the Early Version included in Disc 3 of the 2013 More From The Recording Sessions, that became a favorite. Lindsey rocks there.

I'm talking about Cleveland and Los Angeles radio waves, (back then).

[WalkAThinLine.]

Originally Posted by moon

Hi there! Personally, I'm tired, or bored of Rumours and the signature of "BEST FM album". I like it, I like some songs...But definitely is not the best. Commercially maybe, but in terms of quality, it's a bit far away from that... Many people in '77 were on it because of the broken relationships and that kind of...morb?? And that was repeated over the years, but '77...Even In The Quietest Moments by Supertramp was good too, Animals by Pink Floyd was great too, News Of The World by Queen was interesting too, Out Of The Blue by ELO was cool too!! So Rumours won only because of the broken relationships??

Of course this is my opinion! Everybody loves Rumours and think that it's truly cool and great, but I'm not able to think the same. Many albums from the 68-74 days are better and, incredibly or not for many people, some of the 79-95 are too.

I've been thinking about it these days, so thank you so much for share the thread!

But are them really good? Is the entire album really good? I can make a Top 10 of best or great songs of the band, and for sure none from Rumours will appear!! So I would say no, I don't hate Rumours, but I dislike it so much.
It's not a matter of negative (or maybe), but it's also about quality I guess...

The album's status as a commercial juggernaut and the recognizability of several songs from ''Rumours'' renders it an easy pick as the band's best album. Take a look at nearly any list ranking the band's studio albums and you're bound to see ''Rumours'' at number one; anything lower than this ranking is almost unthinkable for these publications. At this point, it's essentially written into the laws of nature that Rumours is the best Fleetwood Mac album. All of this comes at the expense of several of the band's other albums getting overlooked. I very much appreciate that nearly everyone under the sun has heard at least one track from Rumours - it represents their work very well. I also believe that several of their other albums are worthy of the same attention, including Future Games, Mystery to Me, Tusk, etc.

[BLY]

Rumours has it all……

Duets/ I Don’t Want to Know S&L and Don’t Stop C&L
Rockers/ Go Your Own Way and You Make Lovin Fun
Acoustic/ Never Going Back Again
Mid tempo/ Dreams/ The Chain/ Second Hand News
Slow and deep/ Songbird and Oh Daddy
Dark/ Gold Dust Woman

Classic bside Silver Springs

Three voices and styles equally distributed, something for everyone.

[Villavic]

Originally Posted by BLY

Rumours has it all……
.

And the Expanded and Deluxe releases have the best bonus material. Though it may be because of its success, but great tracks anyway.

But I think Tusk Deluxe and Expande should also have a lot of varied bonus material, but including so many IKINW and Tusk song versions wasn't the best idea if there were any other tracks left out.
And Tango wasn't that great in terms of bonus material either.

[Street_Dreamer]

Lindsey's infamous mantra of not wanting to make a Rumours II after the success of Rumours plays a big role in my view. Fleetwood Mac (Lindsey) is infamous for their "sound" but at the same time the band didn't rest on their laurels and attempt to duplicate the Rumours formula for what ended up being their subsequent three albums. Mirage is looked at as being a "safer" album than Tusk was but as was noted in another thread, there's still elements in that album's songs that have an edge. I really believe Rumours (and Fleetwood Mac) benefit from the fact they didn't try to copy and paste what they did for that album.

As far as my personal opinion, Rumours isn't my favorite album from the band. I don't hate it but I hate that it overshadows so many other interesting and great things from people. Rumours is without a doubt a shining moment in Fleetwood Mac's history but the band's overall story is so rich and deep. When you know all that, I think the success and lasting legacy of Rumours stands out more.

[WalkAThinLine.]

The deluxe editions of all five Rumours era albums offer at least something compelling. The 2015 edition of Tusk gave alternate mixes of several tracks, sometimes even 5+ variations at the expense of any outtakes. At the very least, the 2004 edition of Tusk included "Kiss and Run" and "Farmer's Daughter", but neither versions included "The Dealer" or "Smile at You". We had to wait until the deluxe edition of Mirage for that song. That release provided the best of both worlds of having alternate mixes and ample outtakes, although to my ears, the mixes chosen for "Goodbye Angel" and "Teen Beat" are worse than what was found on 25 Years the Chain. The deluxe edition of Tango in the Night leaned a bit too heavily on the remixes, which I am somewhat ambivalent about, and certain tracks such as "Caroline", "Family Man", and "Welcome to the Room Sara" were not accompanied with early versions. I would have been curious to hear what a rough take of "Family Man" sounded like, as I have yet to find anything of the sort on YouTube.

As mentioned above, the deluxe edition of Rumours is fine, but I don't find the material all that appealing, perhaps with the exception of the more ornate arrangements of "Never Going Back Again" and the sparser arrangement of "Gold Dust Woman".

[Villavic]

Originally Posted by Street_Dreamer

As far as my personal opinion, Rumours isn't my favorite album from the band. I don't hate it but I hate that it overshadows so many other interesting and great things from people. Rumours is without a doubt a shining moment in Fleetwood Mac's history but the band's overall story is so rich and deep. When you know all that, I think the success and lasting legacy of Rumours stands out more.

Rumours is my favorite album. I agree the band's overall story is so rich and deep. That's why it's my favorite band. So I see those two as separate things. Many times we play "what if" games about what if Tusk were a one disc album, what if Christine never left and it became In The Meantime Say You Will, what Tango would be like if Stevie were in better shape/health in 1987, what if the Mirage tour were longer, What if BuckVie... etc. And interesting theories emerge about all of that. But this is what there is, and all those things beyond Rumours are so interesting too.