Fleetwood Mac, Fleetwood Mac (1975), sometimes known as “The White Album.”

Null:

I am a big Fleetwood Mac fan, warts and all. Of the Buckingham/Nicks line-up of the band, their self-titled record from 1975 might be my favorite. It is a little more humble than the massive Rumors album. It also quietly introduces what was to come down the line. It was a new start for an old band and it felt young and fresh. The Buckingham tracks rock, the Nicks tracks have a depth and mystique that she tried to hold on to for the next 35 years, and the McVie tracks jell in a hypnotic dance between her keyboards and Mick’s ride and John’s basslines. It was the beginning, and the ending, of a particular kind of innocence that this band would never again recapture. It’s almost perfect.

SoDak:

Fleetwood Mac is a strange band. They have several distinct periods of music. Their second eponymous record (which was their tenth studio album), released in 1975, was the first one to feature Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, alongside long-time members Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, and Christine McVie. The hit songs from this record and the several that followed catapulted the band into the stratosphere. The Greatest Hits collection presents a fairly cohesive band, organized around three primary songwriters—Buckingham, Nicks, and Christine McVie. But many of the studio records from this line up are uneven, featuring a handful of great songs (often the hits), some sleepers, and strange cuts.

For me, their 1975 self-titled record is a case in point. Side A of the album starts with Lindsey Buckingham’s “Monday Morning.” His vocals and guitar are quirky, which is quite typical of his songs. The drums are great, which add an infectious element to the tune. McVie’s “Warm Ways” fails to hold my attention. “Blue Letter,” the only song not written by the band, is catchy. Stevie Nicks shines on “Rhiannon.” Her voice is smooth. It is ethereal in many ways. The song is warm and beautiful. “Over My Head” is a fine, but not remarkable. The same is true of “Crystal,” which has a folk-rock sound and is a little trippy at times. Side B starts off with two good songs: “Say You Love Me” and “Landslide.” The former is McVie’s stand out track on this record. The latter is a beautiful acoustic ballad that still hits me in the heart even after all of these years of hearing the song. It is remains one of Nicks’s masterpieces. In my opinion, the record could have ended here. I really do not care for “World Turning,” “Sugar Daddy,” and “I’m So Afraid.” For me, they are filler tracks. In the end, the record has three or four songs that I really like. In many ways, I think this record was laying the foundation for the following record, the truly exceptional Rumors, which is mostly one great song after another.