Album Review: Fleetwood Mac - Rumours: 35th Anniversary Expanded Edition

The 1976 line-up of Fleetwood Mac collectively endured an affair, a divorce and a breakup right before recording the band's iconic 1977 album, Rumours. Rather than give it all up, they did the next best and most uncomfortable thing by committing the songs they wrote about one another to tape. You can picture Lindsey Buckingham eyeing off Stevie Nicks in the studio as he sings the lines in Second Hand News: “I know there's nothing to say/Someone has taken my place” and then her reply in Dreams: “Now here you go again/You say you want your freedom”... How the hell the band got it together is itself astounding.

For this expanded version of the 1977 classic, Warner has put together a whole bunch of live recordings from the album tour and other early demos to supplement the original album, all spread over three discs. The outtakes are of particular interest, especially the commentary between takes from the band members themselves. The instrumental alternate version of Never Going Back Again is also worth a look in, as are the alternate lyrics of Go Your Own Way.

What's really good about the reissue though is the reminder of how great the songs sound by today's standards; not just in terms of composition, but the recording technique employed, which delivers a warm, rich tone that was pioneering back then and seemingly worlds apart from the digital standard and revivalist analogue techniques used by some in the present.