Legacy Album Review - Fleetwood Mac - Rumours - 1977

Fleetwood Mac
Rumours
Warner Brothers
1977


The eleventh album, made after a progression of leaps into stardom, and cut backs to the band,  perhaps Rumours marks the pinnacle moment when everything came together. A disk of hit after hit, the moments between the songs themselves seem to be just right. It's not that it's formulated, or made to fit a narrow audience, that's the easy way to be loved. The professional way, the superstar way is to do something totally you, but do it so well that it defines itself. It takes a long time to get to this point, and eleven albums sounds about right.


Second Hand News is the opening track, and if we think about it, unless we were there ourselves, it is always second hand. Making something new is to add something of our own. Maybe this opener uses the style of previous albums and shows us that the sound is still there. A simple rock n roll bass driven jumpy number, it's easy to relax into the album with happy stuff like this.


Dreams just takes that edge from the razor and melts the ice a bit, feeling like a rainy day, mentions of thunder and disillusionment set the scene for an anti-ballad. We do love our sad songs, and when they're in the mix it makes the scope of the whole just that little bit wider. I think maybe when we are exposed to the human sadness like this, it helps to reassure listeners that these artists are for real. Marketeers and commercially minded people are nearly always fake happy, and shallow. Being able to artistically open our hearts and remain therapeutic is a skill.


Some bluesy folk acoustic jingles sweep away the tears with a playful and childish melody of Never Going Back Again, and it can feel like a release from jail when we change the way we look at it. Yesterday's Gone brings the gear up again. If Dreams was reverse, this must be second. The optimism of effort and time combined makes good listening material. We're reminded that it's okay to feel sad about the past but not to lose hope about the future.


The clutch comes down and now we are getting somewhere. Go Your Own Way makes us realise that walking in the footsteps of others may be easy but we don't get to be a leader, a pioneer, or anything unique. At some point we have to move into third and then fourth for the solo, and really make waves with what we want to do. When we have expended our energy, wait for the tide and then when the timing is right, do it all again. Following our own lead, our own thunder, is the good way to make sure we get as far out as we can with what we want to do.


You know when the car is going so fast, on the motorway, and everything seems to change. A new kind of peaceful resonance sweeps over us and although we are going faster than we have been previously, the atmosphere is that of calm and ordered consideration. A graceful piano background makes the framework for some strummed steel and a gorgeous declaration of eternal love. It's a bit sad, too, as we just don't know quite what is going to happen between these two. It has a hint of last chapter about it.


I guess things are not built to last forever no matter how many nails we bash into them, and we must continually make efforts to fix, amend, and restore when ever anything begins to show signs of entropy. These things happen, and many hands make light work, so when we're talking about a couple, then it can understandably get very hard wearing. The Chain is a reminder that once we have worked so hard then it's really tough to let go.


You Make Loving Fun is that get well soon fix that says we mustn't forget that we are merely fools in the grand design of astronomy and love, so not to lose that extra something of your own that creates the unique glow we get when spending time with our loved ones. Watering ourselves down or stripping off the extras can make us a bit of a soft drink. OK for lunchtime I suppose, or if we are driving at 70mph. I think we've hit a turning somewhere,  I definitely sense a B road with green fields as the album takes us on the slow and windy journey back home.