An interesting review of Rumours from 1977

[PenguinHead]

New Musical Express is an international newspaper/magazine based in the UK. I have an issue dated February 12, 1977. In it are are two articles about Fleetwood Mac.

The first one (edited)

MAC'S DATES

Dates and venues have now been confirmed for Fleetwood Mac's first British concerts in several years, and their first ever in this country with their re-shaped line-up.
The band - whose current personnel comprises Mick Fleetwood. John McVie and Christine McVie, plus new members Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham -- will be promoting their new album 'Rumours', released by WEA this weekend. They will feature material from the Platinum album 'Fleetwood Mac', one of the top U.S. sellers of 1976.


SAY NOTHING SWEETLY

Fleetwood Mac, nigh on ten years ago the doyen of British blues bands, finally cracked the American market in Big Way last year, shifting over three million copies of the last album, simply titled 'Fleetwood Mac', from which was culled three hit singles. Moreover, they did it with music that bore no immediate resemblance to that which assured them a place in the annals of rock back in the late Sixties.

Fleetwood Mac's music is now a unique synthesis of the best elements of the late Sixties blues-rock (albeit an updated version of it) and Seventies California high pop.

And the two distinct forms act as a perfect tempering device for one another; in fact more so on this album, than on it's highly successful predecessor which, good as it was, hinted at blandness, the blight of much California rock. Producer Keith Olsen must take a fair share of responsibility for that album registering a reading on the blandometer, however slight, since he applied a similar approach to Cado Belle's first album.

Olsen is ignored for 'Rumours' and, instead, the band themselves, with the help of three engineers, have produced the follow-up -- although a much tougher-sounding record, without forsaking any of the group's lyricism in the process and certainly maximising their collective talent.

And what a lot of talent there is in this line-up, be it as players, songwriters or singers.

I doubt very much whether any one member of the band could produce a solo album of any particular worth, but together these five complement each other perfectly, bringing out the best and most creative parts in each.

Fleetwood Mac are ecletic, being perfectly able to work as an acoustic act (Lindsey Buckingham's exquisitly simple 'Never Going Back Again' and Christine's low-key ballad 'Songbird' with just her liquid piano and slight acoustic strumming from Buckingham are a perfect example of this), or a full-blown thinking electric rock band, as epitomised on the masterly single, Buckingham's 'Go Your Own Way' or Ms. Nicks' awesome 'The Chain'.

Both the aboved-mentioned songs are typical of the insidious quality that pervades the best of Fleetwood Mac songs. They don't hit you smack in the centre of your skull straight-away, but creep up on you and before you know it, the hook or another part of song is firmly lodged in your consciousness.

Neither Buckingham, McVie or Nicks are exceptionally gifted song-writers, but what talent they do possess in that field is always enhanced by the group arrangements, so that on 'The Chain' the whole thing comes to a gloriously heroic climax, courtesy of the massed guitars of Buckingham - the blues-rock connection.

Buckingham has a particular fondness for the kind of electric guitar motif Clapton and Harrison indulged in during the late Sixties. He's always an intelligent, inventive, and tasteful player, as is the redoubtable Mick Fleetwood whose imagination seems boundless-- and yet he, like Ringo, is fundamentally into simplicity and rarely fails to provide a resilient backbone to a song.

Back at the songs, each of the band's three writers know how to write a good melody, even if there are clear limitations to what they can come up with.

McVie's songs invariably hang around a few block chord changes worked out on the piano and yet performance of them transcends their limitations. And what a great singer she is, a voice so inherently saturated with feelinbg that makes the dumbest of lyrics sound convincing. Nicks too is an endearing singer with a voice somewhere between country and folk, adding more colour to a group already saturated with it.

The arrangements are well-crafted, without being contrived and although a lof of Los Angeles (the harmonies and the general ambience) is evident in what Fleetwood Mac do, it is not the smug, over-rich LA vibe contained in too many other LA-based artistes' work.

Like I said earlier, Fleetwood Mac have created a perfect balance between the LA sunshine approach and a tougher, altogether more English one. It doesn't matter if they're not saying anything, because their music is so obvioulsythe product of a pretty heady and loving internal chemisty.

Right, it makes you feel good.

Buy 'Rumours' in vast quantities -- you'll get more from it than the insular, contrived and even sanctimonious attitudes of one of LA's other recent offerings, The Eagles' 'Hotel California.' Fleetwood Mac on 'Rumours' are in very good shape indeed.


(The article is accompanied by a picture of Stevie looking slightly surprised. The caption reads: "Ooh look - we're getting another good review over in quaint old England. Does this mean I can have my swimming-pool now?")

The italicized lines are statements that I took some issue with.