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Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours: Why the under-30s still love it
Ahead of the release of a special boxset edition of the Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours, James Lachno argues that the 1977 album has survived better than its punk rivals.
by James Lachno
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| Available Monday in the UK: iTunes | Amazon |
This Monday, a three-disc, 35th anniversary boxset of Fleetwood Mac’s 1977 masterpiece Rumours will be released. There’s never been a better time to celebrate the band and their gorgeous 11th album, both of which are more popular and fashionable than ever.
For many music fans in their mid twenties, Rumours has been the soundtrack to large portions of our lives. During my childhood, it used to initiate a brief ceasefire between me and my sister as we squabbled during long car journeys, and in my teens, Songbird often featured on the giddily romantic mix CDs I made for girlfriends. Recently, Go Your Own Way and The Chain – better known as the BBC's Formula One theme tune – have become 2am favourites for bleary-eyed twentysomethings desperate to keep a house party going. By contrast, pioneering punk hits released in the same year such as God Save the Queen and White Riot never seem to get a look in.
But why is Rumours so beloved among my generation? Its resilient popularity is, of course, in part due to the timeless quality of the music, which is warm and sweetly melodic, with coruscating harmonies, breezy rhythms, and virtuoso guitar flourishes. By 1977, Fleetwood Mac had had almost a decade to hone their songcraft, via several line-up changes and subtle changes in style, and Rumours shows a band at the pinnacle of their pop powers. It’s an album that’s chock-full of potential singles, all lushly produced to create an almost faultless, glossy soft-rock sound. It’s sold 40 million copies worldwide, making it one of the bestselling albums of all time, and everyone from family pop quartet The Corrs to Californian hardcore band NOFX have covered its songs. All of this is testament to its broad appeal.
But there’s more to it than that: right now the hippest bands around all want to sound like Fleetwood Mac. What started in the late-2000s with US folk-rock revivalists such as Fleet Foxes and Bon Iver has built up a head of steam. Last year saw the release of fine albums from trendy US acts such as Best Coast and Sharon Von Etten that bore the unmistakable influence of Fleetwood Mac’s classic Seventies period, as did work from blockbuster pop artists Mumford and Sons and Taylor Swift. Barely a cigarette paper, meanwhile, can separate the sound of Stevie Nicks’s songs from Rumours and those of the BBC's feted Sound Of 2013 poll winners, Haim.
"Whether milking a cash-cow or hoping to disseminate their work to a new, younger audience, there is a sense that such an album is coming at the right time. The musicianship of the songs forms an interesting juxtaposition to the works of many of today’s new breed of guitar bands (From The Vaccines to Palma Violets), and, despite the recordings having inevitably aged, the songs themselves remain just as potent as they did in the 1970s."
Mythique Fleetwood Mac
Le Parisien (France)
Fleetwood Mac est toujours vivant. Après quarante-cinq ans d’existence, le groupe repart en tournée cette année et en profite pour ressortir l’un de ses chefs-d’oeuvre. Sorti en 1977, « Rumours » fut un triomphe artistique et commercial. Vendu à près de 40 millions d’exemplaires, le disque est traversé par une pop californienne où le soleil se teintait souvent de clair-obscur, à travers les classiques inusables « Go Your Own Way » ou « Dreams ». Sa nouvelle édition luxueuse en 3 CD est complétée par un disque live, enregistré en 1977, et une série de versions inédites. Fleetwood Mac « Rumours, édition Deluxe », Warner, 19,99 €. Sortie demain.
Fleetwood Mac 'Rumours' genudgivet i luksusudgave: Tidløs klasse
Af STEFFEN JUNGERSEN
BT
Fleetwood Mac 'Rumours' genudgivet i luksusudgave: Tidløs klasse
Af STEFFEN JUNGERSEN
BT
Året var 1977, og helvede var løs!
