Analyzing album covers: Rumours

Villavic · #1 02-12-2013, 03:26 PM

Maybe too quick but since I have free time this afternoon, let's post the analysis of the Rumours cover. I think it was the favorite one in a previous poll. And yes I love the cover. Maybe the best of that era.

It shows a "Fleetwood" member, like ther are saying Hey, this is still Fleetwood Mac, with Mick depicting in his stage clothes including the old wooden balls, and the new groove represented by Stevie, lovely dressed in her black chiffon and ballet shoes (Was Rumours or Penguin safari the last tour she dressed in chiffon?).

I think it's a cool cover for an album of the 70s.

redbird · #2 02-12-2013, 03:39 PM

I'm just so used to this cover as a rock icon, it's almost surreal to analyze it. On a purely aesthetic level I love it, for similar reasons as the white album cover. Mick and Stevie seem like the most similar between the old Mac and the new, and having one man and one woman is obviously relevant to the subject matter of the album.

Funny how it portends the "hush hush" Stevie/Mick affair in a way, that was salacious rumor-worthy material itself.

cantgoback · #3 02-12-2013, 04:37 PM

Oh god this cover haha. Well it's something that is just as much apart of the album as the music is to me. The sorta "elegant hippie" feel has always fascinated me. The spider-esque handwriting is just as much part of the album cover. Stevie's witchy feel makes it even better. Call this a cliché but it's my personal favorite album and album cover of all time.

Bandon · #4 02-12-2013, 08:54 PM

Well, a no brainer. Perfect. Enough said.

WatchChain · #5 02-12-2013, 09:36 PM

Hands down, the best Fleetwood Mac album cover ever photographed. Moreover, it stands as one of the most iconic album covers in rock-n-roll history.

CADreaming · #6 02-12-2013, 09:58 PM

It's not a favorite, but it's SO iconic I have to like it. And, it's grown on me. I think Mick and Stevie represent the "show" aspect of FM and it's perfect that this was the cover for the album that propelled them into superstardom. It lives up to the hype.

FierySequences · #7 02-13-2013, 12:50 AM

well, not my fave, but I have to agree iconic.

I bought this in 87-88 when I was in the 8th grade (and embarrased to admit now) that I was just realizing FM and Stevie's place within the band. At one point I thought this was Chris on the cover!

at myself.

Keep in mind I was only 13 and the only real pic I had (of Chris) to compare with was the inner sleeve of TITN.

Mmonta4 · #8 02-13-2013, 09:28 PM

I love the whole imagery of this. The crystal ball, the black chiffon, the timeless outfits. It's like from another place in time. Very mysterious, dark, and mystical. There was a darkness, a real erieness to it. Growing up in a religious household, I remember being kind of scared by this and what it might represent. As a kid Led Zepplin's Houses of the Holy & Black Sabbath's Black Sabbath album covers used to scare the hell out of me in the same way. Are they witches or devil worshipers? (the mind of a child is quite naive and impressionable). Now I love them all!

drzubritsky · #9 02-13-2013, 10:11 PM

Totally iconic and almost beyond any objective or subjective analysis at this point. But there is one thing about the Rumours cover that always bugged me: while the shot of Mick and Stevie is great, the way they cut them out and pasted it onto that beige background looks a bit cheap and amateurish. I suppose there wasn't enough of a plain white background on the original plate to fill the entire album cover. But surely they could have blended the photograph background in rather than the cut-out method.