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Written by Steven Rosen
American Songwriter
February 21, 2013
Rating: ★★★★★ (out of 5)
To be a fan of tuneful, tastefully literate rock in the mid- to late- 1970s was to walk among giants. The better the albums were, the more sophisticated and polished the songs and arrangements, the better they sold and the bigger their cultural impact – Jackson Browne’s The Pretender, Steely Dan’s Aja, the Eagles’ Hotel California, Boz Scaggs’ Silk Degrees, Joni Mitchell’s Court And Spark, Paul Simon’s Still Crazy After All These Years.
Yet the biggest and most enduring of all those “sophisticated rock” albums came from the unlikeliest of sources – Fleetwood Mac...
"Nicks was at her vocal peak here. The huskiness, which she still could control, gave “Dreams,” “Gold Dust Woman” and “Silver Springs” a moody, bluesy sensuality that suited the subject matter and provided a touch of the mystic."
"Christine McVie was a tunesmith worthy of the Brill Building’s heyday – Goffin and McVie? – yet had also been touched by Joni Mitchell. She also had perfect pitch – the outtakes and live cuts show she could find the right key, the perfect melodiousness, for her vocals right from the get-go."
"Buckingham’s three solo songs are a cornucopia of influences – Buddy Holly and Everly Brothers on “Second Hand News,” Americana and Appalachian folk on “Never Going Back Again,” and folk-rock/garage-rock on “Go Your Own Way.” The latter continues to amaze for the way the opening acoustic strumming – it slams like punk – fights with Fleetwood’s drumming. When it comes together, its raw driving urgency and the desperation of Buckingham’s thin, stretched voice keep you riveted."
Check out the full review at American Songwriter
FLEETWOOD MAC RUMOURS ★★★★★
By Reviewer: Arielle Gelb
“…I’ve been getting out there with two ex-lovers and we’ve been playing songs which are so specific about each of us, you just wouldn’t know. We’re friends now but we can’t forget what happened between us.” This quote from rock Goddess Stevie Nicks, one of the lead vocalists in Fleetwood Mac, perfectly epitomizes the collective mindset of the band during the album creating process. The quote also demonstrates to the fan that song quality is the bands first and highest priority.
Full Review at Puluche
If you haven't checked out any of the demos or live tracks from the new re-release of Rumours... Here's your chance to stream some tracks plus listen to a Rumours Radio Special that originally aired across North America mid-January. Check it out at AirplayDirect
- Radio Special Promo Spot
- Rumours - Radio Special Seg 1 (20:56)
- Rumours - Radio Special Seg 2 (17:36)
- Rumours - Radio Special Seg 3 (20:10)
- Go Your Own Way (Live 1977)
- Dreams (Live 1977)
- Never Going Back Again (Instrumental)
- The Chain (Demo)
- Songbird (Demo)
3 comments:
Excellent review via Puluche. Learned a lot about the album. Nice.
Well, I must be the only one, but I think the new Rumours 4 CD/DVD/Album package is for the most part very disappointing, especially for the price.
The CD of the original album with Silver Springs added doesn’t work well because they put it at the end of the CD, so it is right after Gold Dust Woman. Putting these two Stevie songs together kind of diminishes them both. It would have been better to put Silver Springs in the place of Songbird, which was at the end of the original album side 1, and put Songbird at the end of the CD to close the album.
The two outtake and demo CDs are fun to listen to, but not something you will play over and over. They will get played a few times and then never again. And a lot of them are already floating around on YouTube.
The live CD of the Rumours tour is pretty good, especially the live versions of Dreams and Don’t Stop, since those songs that were on the 1980 album Fleetwood Mac Live, from the Tusk tour, were both actually recorded at sound checks, and not live in concert. Also The Chain, Gold Dust Woman, Songbird, World Turning and Oh Daddy are good, since they were not on the 1980 live album. But overall the sound mixes don’t have very much bottom end and the vocals are not leveled out very well. These mixes sound very poorly done and make you realize how well the Fleetwood Mac Live album was mixed. And that kind of ruins otherwise good performances. Not one song sounds as good as the 1980 live album, and that‘s because of the sloppy mixes not because of the way the band was playing. And they should have included a few more songs on this live CD. It clocks in at only 55 minutes and surely they could have added a few more live songs to make it worth the price. Most noticeably missing are live Rumours tour versions of You Make Loving Fun, Landslide, Over My Head, Say You Love Me, I’m So Afraid and Second Hand News. And they did perform Silver Springs a few times on the Rumours tour, again one great version is on YouTube. That would have really been a terrific inclusion on this CD.
Perhaps the most disappointing thing here is the DVD of the Rosebud film. Most of it has also been on YouTube for years, and since Fleetwood Mac never put out a DVD of their videos ever, this would have been the chance to do so. The DVD is only about 30 minutes, and you don‘t even get to hear most of World Turning. The end piece of that song which opens this film was shot live in concert in Santa Barbara at a stadium show in 1976 and also filmed then was a fantastic version of Over My Head. That and the full World Turning should have been on this DVD. And they should have added the wonderful taped studio version of Dreams. They also should have included the videos of Tusk, Sara, Hold Me, Gypsy, Big Love, Seven Wonders, Little Lies, As Long As You Follow, Save Me, Skies The Limit, Silver Springs and Landslide. It would have made this DVD really special, and again, worth the money.
As for the new album itself, I, like most people don’t even own a record player anymore, so this is a total waste. I know albums are making sort of a comeback, but that is only to a very small audience, so this should have been sold separately to those who want it. Most people will never play it.
Fleetwood Mac doesn’t seem to completely understand what their fan base wants and sometimes they inadvertently insult us by appearing to not care and make us pay for what we don’t want and not give us what we do.
The money spent on this package would have been better used to buy a ticket to see them more than once on their upcoming tour.
UM... IF YOU GO TO FLEETWOODMAC.COM THEY HAVE OTHER OPTIONS BESIDES THE FULL ON DELUXE EDITION THAT DO NOT INCLUDE THE VINYL LP FOR WAY CHEAPER!!! NO OPTION WILL SATISFY EVERYONE NO MATTER WHAT THEY WOULD HAVE DONE!!! I PLAN ON BUYING THE DELUXE EDITION SIMPLY TO HAVE IT IN MY COLLECTION OF (PRETTY MUCH EVERYTHING AVAILABLE POST LINDSEY/STEVIE) JOINING!!! BUT ALL OF THIS REALLY DOESN'T MATTER ANYWAY BECAUSE NOTHING COMPARES TO THE SILVER SPRINGS TRACK ON THE RUMOURS DVD-AUDIO VERSION IN 5.1 THAT SOUNDS AS IF STEVIE IS IN THE ROOM SINGING IT RIGHT TO YOU (INCREDIBLE)!!! AND I DISAGREE WITH ANYONE WHO SAYS DIFFERENT BECAUSE IF THEY DO THEY NEED THEIR HEARING CHECKED IMO!!! I HAVE TWO COPIES AND THEY ARE VERY EXPENSIVE AND HARD TO COME BY, AND IT WAS THE MAIN REASON I PURCHASED A NICE 5.1 SYSTEM WITH A DVD AUDIO PLAYER CAPABLE OF DOING IT JUSTICE!!! AND REALLY VINYL IS ONLY GREAT IF YOU HAVE A HIGH END TURNTABLE CAPABLE OF DOING IT JUSTICE!!! BUT WHEN I GO TO BUY IT I WON'T CARE AT THAT MOMENT BECAUSE I WILL GET THE DELUXE EDITION JUST TO HAVE IT ALL IN ONE PACKAGE!!!! TOO EACH THEIR OWN I GUESS!!!
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