With its 10th album, Fleetwood Mac was making yet another new start in a meandering career. But its 1975 LP, “Fleetwood Mac,” would catapult the band from midlevel FM airplay and modest sales to hit singles, platinum certifications and decades of arena tours. The album gets the 50th-anniversary treatment on Friday, rereleased on deluxe vinyl and with spatial audio Atmos and surround sound remixes on Blu-ray. After half a century, the music still gleams.
“Fleetwood Mac” was made by a British band — Mick Fleetwood on drums, John McVie on bass and his then-wife, Christine McVie, on keyboards, vocals and songwriting — that had relocated to Los Angeles. When its guitarist and frontman left, Fleetwood happened to hear the duo of Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham. It was serendipitous; it was transformative.
“The way our band works when we write is that we try to stumble towards each other, then work it all out,” Fleetwood wrote in his autobiography, “Play On: Now, Then and Fleetwood Mac.” The newly reconfigured band, with its members still getting to know one another, did more than stumble; it found synergy.
“Fleetwood Mac” is one analog-era album that still sounds current, mainly thanks to the sheer perfectionism that the band and its co-producer, Keith Olsen, brought to every layer of instruments and vocals, long before quantization, digital editing or Auto-Tune. The tempos may fluctuate a little, and the vocals are (rightly) human and not superhuman. But all the tracks still feel flawless.
For decade upon decade, “Fleetwood Mac” and its turbulent, torturously recorded, blockbuster 1977 successor, “Rumours,” have been endlessly imitated. They showed generations of bands and producers how to blend voices and to make guitars sparkle or bite with fastidiously shaped tones. Current country studio production often harks back to Fleetwood Mac for steadfast drumming and a punctilious mix of acoustic and electric guitars. Indie-flavored rockers like Haim and boygenius are clearly disciples.
In 1975, Fleetwood Mac was no one’s winning pop formula. What were journeyman English musicians doing with American strivers whose 1973 debut album, “Buckingham Nicks,” had flopped? (That LP will be rereleased in September.)
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