Why is Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours on my best 1,000 albums ever list?
Don’t stop thinking about tomorrow.
Some stats & info about Fleetwood Mac – Rumours
- What kind of musical stylings does this album represent? Rock Music, Soft Rock, Album Rock
- Rolling Stone’s greatest 500 albums ranking – #7
- All Music’s rating – 5 out of 5 stars
- When was Rumours released? 1977
- My ranking, the one you’re reading right now – #657 out of 1,000
Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours on Spotify
What does the “best 1,000 albums ever” mean and why are you doing this?
Yeah, I know it’s audacious, a little crazy (okay, maybe a lot cray cray), bordering on criminal nerdery.
But here’s what it’s NOT: a definitive list of the Greatest Albums of All-Time. This is 100% my own personal super biased, incredibly subjective review of what my top 1,000 albums are, ranked in painstaking order over the course of doing research for nearly a year, Rob from High Fidelity style. Find out more about why I embarked on a best 1,000 albums ever project.
What does Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours mean to me? What does it make me feel? Why is it exciting or compelling?
For reasons that might seem odd perhaps. the vibe of Rumours reminds me of a 2011 movie called Cinema Verite, which is a fictionalized account of the making of a 1973 TV show called An American Family¸ which is arguably the first reality television-style show ever to air on TV in the United States.*
* Cinema Verite is a good but not great movie that was made for HBO. The cast includes Diane Lane, Tim Robbins, and James Gandolfini, all of whom do much to elevate the production.
The backdrop of sunny but washed-out California, idyllic family life on the surface but deep broiling family tensions waiting to break out at any moment tie in some ways of what was going on with Fleetwood Mac during the making of Rumours. There’s a lot to learn about what was going on with the band in terms of romantic entanglements… and other entanglements that you can spend some Internet rabbit hole time getting into if you’d like.
If you had to pick one song to represent the 1970s, you could do worse than selecting “Go Your Own Way.” It’s a good mix of rock and pop. It’s got a great hook and a great chorus, which soars in a way that you can imagine it lighting up arenas and perhaps enthralling the (slightly baked) masses. But it’s got a delicacy to it too that elevates it beyond most standard issue rock songs.
As a politics nerd, I automatically associate “Don’t Stop” with Bill Clinton’s presidential campaigns in the ‘90s. Bill’s legacy as a politician (pretty sterling) and personally (much more complex) kind of tie together with his famous ability to “compartmentalize” and the song’s message… don’t stop thinking about tomorrow.
I really dig how dark the vibe of “Gold Dust Woman” is. It’s probably my favorite song on the album.
And I enjoy the alt rocked up Courtney Love cover version even more.
Personal stuff that’s somehow related to Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours
I suppose it’s worth noting that Rumours is the highest ranking album according to Rolling Stones’ greatest 500 albums list (#7) that has been featured on the old best 1,000 albums ever… so far.