Friday, November 15, 2002
starting my (work) day with fleetwood mac's rumours, which I bought for 50 cents on cassette, pristine condition, at a goodwill last year. what a fucking steal! this is a magnificent album, a towering achievement, a landmark in pop music. especially considering it came as part of the los angeles soft-rock boom of the mid-'70s (think eagles, ronstadt, jackson browne, et.al.). rumours stands tall above all the pretenders, however, for a number of reasons.
firstly, it's phenomenal pop/rock. say what you will about lindsey buckingham, stevie nicks, even christine mcvie, but they know (knew?) how to write songs; the fact that all of them were writing about the relationship nightmares consuming them (which also meant the band) certainly helps. lindsey and stevie, in particular, contributed some of their most biting work to the album ("go your own away," "the chain," "gold dust woman"). and the playing and song construction is nearly unrivaled. this is the stuff gossamer pop dreams are made of; the mac's aces in the hole in this regard are lindsey's guitar playing (amazing!) and the three singer's harmonies. stevie, of course, has a stunning ringer of a voice, but in some ways I almost prefer her as a harmony singer than as a lead. the way her voice intricately weaves its way around lindsey's and christine's is gorgeous. christine mcvie is, and always was, the mac's secret weapon. while not the raw talent of stevie or lindsey, her songs stand their own, and are often some of the most depressing ("oh daddy," "songbird").
so many songs off this record have become part of the american musical canon - "dreams," "don't stop," "go your own way," "the chain," "you make loving fun," "gold dust woman" - that most of us could sing 'em in our sleep. but more than that, you can hear the harmonies, the instrumentation in your head, and that's not just because of radio overkill (if that were the case, I'd know every word to "stairway to heaven," and I don't). it's because rumours is a collection of gibraltar-solid songs, performed by a band at the peak of their powers (odd, considering they were all coked out of their minds at the time), proverbially firing on all cylinders.
firstly, it's phenomenal pop/rock. say what you will about lindsey buckingham, stevie nicks, even christine mcvie, but they know (knew?) how to write songs; the fact that all of them were writing about the relationship nightmares consuming them (which also meant the band) certainly helps. lindsey and stevie, in particular, contributed some of their most biting work to the album ("go your own away," "the chain," "gold dust woman"). and the playing and song construction is nearly unrivaled. this is the stuff gossamer pop dreams are made of; the mac's aces in the hole in this regard are lindsey's guitar playing (amazing!) and the three singer's harmonies. stevie, of course, has a stunning ringer of a voice, but in some ways I almost prefer her as a harmony singer than as a lead. the way her voice intricately weaves its way around lindsey's and christine's is gorgeous. christine mcvie is, and always was, the mac's secret weapon. while not the raw talent of stevie or lindsey, her songs stand their own, and are often some of the most depressing ("oh daddy," "songbird").
so many songs off this record have become part of the american musical canon - "dreams," "don't stop," "go your own way," "the chain," "you make loving fun," "gold dust woman" - that most of us could sing 'em in our sleep. but more than that, you can hear the harmonies, the instrumentation in your head, and that's not just because of radio overkill (if that were the case, I'd know every word to "stairway to heaven," and I don't). it's because rumours is a collection of gibraltar-solid songs, performed by a band at the peak of their powers (odd, considering they were all coked out of their minds at the time), proverbially firing on all cylinders.
# posted by Thomas : 6:06 AM
