Album A Day: Fleetwood Mac – Rumours [2004 Reissue]

Artist: Fleetwood Mac
Album: Rumours
Release Date: February 4, 1977 (Reissue: March 23, 2004)

I have tons of double albums, reissues and 2-disc sets in my music collection, and yet I’ve covered precious few of them. For the most part this is because of time constraints and other logistical problems. But today seemed like a good day to push the boundaries a bit.

So I’m pretty sure that if Fleetwood Mac were in their prime in the 2000s, they’d make for one hell of a reality show. Two married couples plus another guy all in a band for a couple years, then the breakups and sleeping around started happening, all while trying to make a rock and roll album in a time when rock and roll had standards way higher than they are now. If this chain of events took place today, not only would MTV and/or Fox have cameras all over that recording studio, but it would have made the comical meltdown of Danity Kane look like a peaceful parting of ways. But different from most musically-themed reality shows, Rumours, assuming the band would have made the same album with cameras surrounding them, was a wild success. Against all sense and expectations, Fleetwood Mac somehow found a way to channel the heartbreak, frustration, and awkward tension that filled their everyday lives into compelling, poignant, meaningful rock and roll. The fact that a simple, beautiful anthemic lullabye like “Songbird” can share record space with the driving force of “Go Your Own Way” speaks volumes about Fleetwood Mac’s artistic capabilities. The music isn’t perfect, but that fact is secondary simply to the fact that Rumours even came out amidst all the reasons why any other band would have disbanded as a result of what its members were dealing with.

The bonus disc is interesting in the same way most discs full of demos are; they show off the songs with all their imperfections and miscues that get dealt with during the production and mastering phases. So for any hardcore Fleetwood Mac fan that really wants to have every single chord, lyric and beat the band ever recorded, this is an essential piece. But in large part the bonus disc rehashes what made the original release of Rumours so good to begin with. There’s no new insight into what was going on with the band during recording, but that doesn’t make it any less worthy an addition to the album.

Fleetwood Mac – Songbird [iTunes] (YSI)

==TJ==