Rumours

Few bands have followed a history as peculiar as Fleetwood Mac's. Formed in Britain in 1967, they began with earthy British blues. Through frequent changes of membership in the 1970s, they adjusted their music for America, moving their base to Los Angeles in 1974. With Stevie Nicks on vocals and Christine McVie on keyboards, synthesizer and vocals, they became an unusual mixed five-piece with two women. Nicks's glamorous presence at the front helped pull the band's popularity towards explosive success.

Released in 1977, Rumours became their biggest hit. Its chart and sales supremacy kept making news, so Japanese listeners knew it well too. By the time of this review, it had sold 19 million copies in the United States and 40 million worldwide, helping American music become an enormous industry.

In a rock world still dominated by big, powerful sounds, its soothing rock, full of air and transparency, was certainly attractive. But those enormous sales were not simply a matter of the quality of the songs or sound. People who had encountered rock as teenagers in the 1950s and 1960s were now working, married and entering middle age, beginning to understand life's difficulties and complexities. These unadorned songs seemed to speak for their remorse, regret and nostalgia, winning overwhelming support.

‘Go Your Own Way’ (No. 10), the No. 1 ‘Dreams,’ ‘Don't Stop’ (No. 3), urging us not to keep looking back, and ‘You Make Loving Fun’ (No. 9), recalling the happiness of a past love, are all songs of separation and reunion between men and women who seem to be lovers or spouses. A major reason was that two couples within the band were actually breaking up. Perhaps that is why the words strike so uncannily close to the heart.

It is a masterpiece in the sense that it caught the mood of its era beautifully. At the same time, it is hard to deny a certain chilliness, rather like a once-fashionable television drama from years ago...