There’s a whole complex history to Fleetwood Mac, to the point where it’s hard to know how to even classify the band in terms of where they’re from. They were initially an English band, with the five founding members – Peter Green, Jeremy Spencer, Danny Kirwan, John McVie, and Mick Fleetwood – all hailing from that part of the world. There was some success during the band’s early years, but even after just a few albums, things were shifting rapidly. By 1973, only McVie and Fleetwood (the bass guitarist and drummer, respectively) remained as members of the band, though Christine McVie (at the time married to John) joined as a vocalist and keyboardist, and then by the mid-1970s, the band had added a pair of American musicians: Lindsey Buckingham, who became the lead guitarist and vocalist, and Stevie Nicks, who was another vocalist for the band.
The lineup of the two McVies, Fleetwood, Buckingham, and Nicks is the classic one, and it did remain stable for quite some time, at least by Fleetwood Mac’s standards. There was instability, quite infamously, within the band in other regards, as John and Christine McVie separated in 1976, and Buckingham and Nicks – who weren’t married, but had been partners for several years – also separated that same year. The professional stability, so to speak, lasted until near the end of the 1980s, and then there were some reformations and people coming and going, which is further complicated, but also not super relevant if you just want to talk about the best of the best Fleetwood Mac albums. The band’s four outright masterful albums all came out between 1975 and 1987, and they’re perfect pop/rock releases that have helped cement Fleetwood Mac (or maybe that particularly classic lineup of Fleetwood Mac) as one of the undeniably best bands of their era.
4
‘Fleetwood Mac’ (1975)
All that history in the intro was a bit arduous to get through, even with it being simplified, but it goes some way toward explaining why Fleetwood Mac (1975) was a self-titled album, and deserved to be one, too, even if it was technically the tenth Fleetwood Mac album overall. It was also the second self-titled album, after the band’s 1968 debut, which is sometimes called Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac to differentiate it from 1975’s Fleetwood Mac. The latter’s self-titled because this is a formal introduction to the new Fleetwood Mac; the lineup that would become legendary, and one that clicks in such a way that it’s quite surprising to think about how new Buckingham and Nicks were to the band, at this point. The former has lead vocals on four out of 11 songs, and a fifth where he shares lead vocals with Christine McVie, who then also has solo lead vocals on four songs. This leaves Nicks with “only” two, but those two songs are definite highlights, since they’re “Rhiannon” and “Landslide.”
Fleetwood Mac does feel like a bit of a warm-up for the even more legendary Fleetwood Mac album that was only a couple of years away, even down to the fact that the album covers for both are kind of similar (the same photographer, Herbert W. Worthington, was behind both). It is still a great album, though, and if it had marked Fleetwood Mac’s peak, as a band, then that’d remain a pretty great creative peak. Things just got even better artistically over the next decade or so, and the band’s 1977 album is a definite refinement of everything that already worked well (the gentle/soft rock sound, the catchy melodies paired with bittersweet lyrics, the variety of three talented/distinct-sounding vocalists being cycled between, etc.) on this self-titled album.
3
‘Tango in the Night’ (1987)
It is an incredibly 1980s album, and that can be a bit of a shock if you listen to Tango in the Night after being more acquainted with Fleetwood Mac’s efforts from the back half of the 1980s. The pop sound and that reliably immediate songwriting are retained, but then come the synthesizers, and therein lies the 80s-ness. And it wasn’t the band’s first 1980s album, but it was the first that had that real synth-heavy/1980s sound, since 1982’s Mirage stuck to the pop/soft rock. Mirage is good, but not a classic. It has “Gypsy,” which is a beloved Fleetwood Mac song, and then a bunch of other pretty good songs, but not enough to make the whole album go from “pretty good” to “pretty great.” Tango in the Night fares a lot better as far as highlights are concerned. Also, it might well be the Christine McVie show, since she has lead vocals on a fair few of those highlights, and then was credited with doing the keyboards and synthesizers (again, the album’s heavy on the latter, though Buckingham was also credited with doing keyboard and synthesizer work on the album).
Tango in the Night (is) easy to listen to, from front to back, and the consistency is such that no songs leap out as being weak or like they should’ve been cut.
Sticking with McVie, though, she did the lead vocals on “Everywhere” and “Little Lies,” which are the two biggest songs on the album, and also on “Isn’t It Midnight,” which is probably the most underrated song on Tango in the Night, or at least the best comparative deep cut. Stevie Nicks shines on “Seven Wonders,” which is probably the third-best song here, and then when it comes to everything else, it’s all good. A handful of amazing songs, and then a slightly bigger handful of very good songs. But it’s enough to keep Tango in the Night easy to listen to, from front to back, and the consistency is such that no songs leap out as being weak or like they should’ve been cut. If the production with its distinctly 1980s sound turns you off, then that’s a shame… but also a little understandable, because the 80s is strong with this one.
2
‘Tusk’ (1979)
Tusk is a wild album, and the sort that is honestly kind of surprising to see within Fleetwood Mac’s discography, in a good way. Hell, maybe even in a great way. It’s a go-for-broke sort of album that doesn’t feel restrained, with it being 20 songs long and almost 75 minutes all up. Yes, a double album, without a doubt, and one of the better double albums of that pre-CD era when a double album meant something. It might not quite be London Calling, Blonde on Blonde, or Electric Ladyland, but Tusk also isn’t far off. It keeps things consistent, and there aren’t any outright bad songs here. The more forgettable tracks are only a couple of minutes long, and they’re only forgettable if you want to compare them to the highlights from Tusk… namely, “Sara.” And “Sara” is not a short song, by any means, at 6:26, but it doesn’t feel much longer than three or four minutes.
“Sara” might well be the best Fleetwood Mac song. A hot/bold take? Maybe. There are lots of great Fleetwood Mac songs. It has some serious competition. But it’s one hell of an emotional slower song, perhaps standing out to a particularly great extent on Tusk because this album’s a little more upbeat and energetic than most other classic Fleetwood Mac albums. It’s an anxious sort of energy, with Tusk indeed feeling like it was written and recorded during a tumultuous time in the band’s history. As they did with their best album, two years before Tusk, all that angst was channeled into something great, albeit in a more (intentionally) unstable-sounding way on Tusk. It’s the kind of album a band can only make once they’ve established themselves and proved immensely successful, being like the music equivalent of a blank-check movie. Here, Fleetwood Mac did indeed seize the opportunity and then some.
1
‘Rumours’ (1977)
Already alluded to as a refinement of 1975’s Fleetwood Mac, and the sort of album successful enough to ensure the band could cut loose in 1979, with Tusk, here’s Rumours. It is inevitable that this gets highlighted as Fleetwood Mac’s best album. It might be boring to say that, but it is just true. Another reason to go through Fleetwood Mac’s history, and the romantic relationships between certain members, is because Rumours came out in 1977, and that was one year on from two break-ups within the band. Further emotional and romantic turmoil ensued beyond that, but those two break-ups combine to make for the main catalyst of Rumours being the album that it is. It’s one of the ultimate break-up albums, and maybe even the ultimate one if you’re looking for break-up albums that aren’t exclusively made up of ballads.
There are ballads here, sure, but then highlights like “Go Your Own Way” and “The Chain” deal with intense emotional turmoil while also sounding energetic. Those two tracks, and some others that at least sound upbeat, are spread out well throughout Rumours, consistently contrasting well with the slower songs. This is easily one of the best pop albums of all time, and there is enough by way of a rock sound to also make it definitive as far as all-time great classic rock albums are concerned, too. Rumours is just that good (as good as everyone says it is), and so what more is there to say? It’s Rumours.