Fleetwood Mac - best album (a poll)

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Yeah I just wanted to second your love for Mystery To Me, dlp9001, even though I picked Heroes. You are also right that their cover of "For Your Love" is probably the low point of that record. I will have to give Rattlesnake Shake a try.

― Bimble, Saturday, 28 April 2007 19:51 (nineteen years ago)

unfortunately none of the green-era records contain the studio versions of "green manalishi" and "man of the world."

this is a major disappointment. for all the reissues of the last 15 years you'd think they could do an expanded Then Play On with these two songs. make me chairmen of warner bros records, ok?

― m coleman, Saturday, 28 April 2007 19:58 (nineteen years ago)

also, does anyone know who was the primary songwriter of "the chain"? and is that the only song of the lindsey-stevie era to be credited to the whole band?

Nicks wrote most of the song.

I voted for Rumours too. Was it Christgau who wrote in 1977's P&J essay that it would prove to be a better record than Never Mind The Bullocks?

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Saturday, 28 April 2007 20:08 (nineteen years ago)

I will Mark but you have to throw in poor Danny Kirwan's "Dragonfly" while you are at it ok?

― Stormy Davis, Saturday, 28 April 2007 20:09 (nineteen years ago)

(this is actually the rekkid to get which has all those tracks:)

http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drh400/h445/h44597ffm3a.jpg

― Stormy Davis, Saturday, 28 April 2007 20:10 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah, Dragonfly's great. I was just busy trying to work out if that was on a record or not...

― Keith, Saturday, 28 April 2007 20:11 (nineteen years ago)

There is only one Fleetwood Mac that contains "Little Lies" and "Everywhere". Sadly, I'm afraid it won't win, although it's their best.

― Geir Hongro, Saturday, 28 April 2007 21:25 (nineteen years ago)

The Best of Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac contains "Dragonfly," "Green Manalishi," and "Man of the World," but I agree with m. coleman, i'd rather have an expanded edition of Then Play On that contained Green-era Mac's final singles.

― QuantumNoise, Saturday, 28 April 2007 22:48 (nineteen years ago)

BTW, I've never been able to figure out if there exists a studio version of "Only You." Anybody know?

― QuantumNoise, Saturday, 28 April 2007 22:51 (nineteen years ago)

bump

― félix pié, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 17:11 (nineteen years ago)

I voted for "Rumours" - terrific record. "Tusk" has stellar moments but a lot of arsing about.

― Groke, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 17:14 (nineteen years ago)

I like "Mirage" a lot too.

― Groke, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 17:14 (nineteen years ago)

Okay, look. Let's call a truce. Please let the self titled Fleetwood Mac from 1975 beat Rumours. PLEASE. I can even find it in my record collection in a heartbeat even though it isn't in proper alphabetical order. Not bad.

― Bimble, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 17:23 (nineteen years ago)

Oh I like that one too.

― Groke, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 17:26 (nineteen years ago)

Arguments to be made for several, and I love Tusk to death, but Rumors was lightning-in-a-platter.

― Vornado, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 18:07 (nineteen years ago)

Thanks for bumping this. Felt the need to point out that the 24 minute live version of Rattlesnake Shake is often godlike. Thank you, and back to Rumours vs. Tusk. Yawn.

― dlp9001, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 19:12 (nineteen years ago)

Self-titled '75 for me. In the words of David Crosby, "We tune because we care".

― Myonga Vön Bontee, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 19:35 (nineteen years ago)

I love the Peter Green era, but I gotta go with Rumours. I would pick Tusk - if it weren't for all the painfully boring non-Buckingham tracks.

― will, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 21:27 (nineteen years ago)

btw I really like Nicks and McVie, but they are left in the dust on Tusk.

― will, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 21:28 (nineteen years ago)

i voted for bare trees. i think it's my current favorite, at least for my mood.

― félix pié, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 23:20 (nineteen years ago)

I picked Rumours just to be a cunt.

― Saxby D. Elder, Thursday, 3 May 2007 04:29 (nineteen years ago)

I suspect that Tusk will win in a felicitous example of ILM revisionism.

Relistening to Tango in the Night yesterday, I was struck by its weirdness. Synth-pop, sure, but lots of space in the music, and when Buckingham wants to fill it he'll use harmonies or chimes instead of the keyboards.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Thursday, 3 May 2007 14:46 (nineteen years ago)

i'm not sure a tusk victory would count as ILM revisionism. that's been the critic's fave for years, hasn't it?

― fact checking cuz, Thursday, 3 May 2007 14:50 (nineteen years ago)

No one would have predicted it in 1997.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Thursday, 3 May 2007 14:53 (nineteen years ago)

ILM didn't exist in 1997, so no revisionism.

― Rock Hardy, Thursday, 3 May 2007 15:25 (nineteen years ago)

Tusk has a lot of great stuff, and (in my view) a fair bit of middling stuff as well, and it's definitely their most unusual album ever (Greil Marcus reviewing it as a punk album probably helped spread its reputation some). If it's an overwhelming favourite here, then I would agree there's some serious revisionism going on (in that, yeah, it was hardly the majority favourite for a long time, and was not particularly loved in its time). I definitely prefer Tango in the Night, which is also uneven but just has amazing singles.

― sw00ds, Thursday, 3 May 2007 15:27 (nineteen years ago)

by "in its time" I mean "upon release." it was kind of considered a bomb at the time, wasn't it? Commerically, for sure, but even critically for the most part, I think.

― sw00ds, Thursday, 3 May 2007 15:28 (nineteen years ago)

It was an "Ishtar"-like butt of jokes for a long time, yes.

― Stormy Davis, Thursday, 3 May 2007 15:30 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah, I was first aware of it as an object of scorn (mostly because of "Fleetwood Mac Day" on the radio stations). Simon Reynolds picked it as his great unknown album in 1995 and wrote an essay mostly about "Sara": he wasn't the first critic to like it, obviously, he was just the first one I read. Around that time I started noticing a lot of positive mentions of Lindsay B as a lost production genius, and full-scale critical revival seems to have taken hold in the last 5 years or so.

― Groke, Thursday, 3 May 2007 15:33 (nineteen years ago)

Tusk hit me hard like the punk that it deigned to be when I first heard it, but it's worn a little thin. My parents played Rumours and the self-titled one to death in the 70s and I still want to listen to them, so Rumours it is. Plus, whatever is more popular is just better.

― pj, Thursday, 3 May 2007 15:35 (nineteen years ago)

I don't necessarily take issue with this kind of revisionism, by the way (it's not like rewriting history books or something), and it kind of makes a difference as well who's propping it up (in other words, can you call something "revisionist" if those doing the "revising" weren't even there the first time around? If I first came to Fleetwood Mac in the nineties, I might've gravitated towards Tusk also, who knows?).

― sw00ds, Thursday, 3 May 2007 15:46 (nineteen years ago)

Rumours is a truly fantastic record, but Tusk is just so damn weird for a superstar So. Cal '70s album that it just had to get my vote. (Add to that the fact that I actually got to see the band live on the last date of the Tusk tour at the Hollywood Bowl, with Stevie all teary-eyed about the immenent parting of the ways, and the choice was virtually made for me.)

― JN$OT, Thursday, 3 May 2007 15:55 (nineteen years ago)

I put on s/t ('75) last night just to be sure. It made a strong case, but yeah, still Rumours for me. I need to hear Bare Trees though.

― will, Thursday, 3 May 2007 15:56 (nineteen years ago)

Well, I picked 1997 on purpose. That was the year of The Dance, which was a surprisingly huge hit and introduced a lot of undergrads to the Mac. I remember buying Tusk and Mirage shortly before the MTV documentary and playing them endlessly, the former especially. It was also the year that Miami New Times wrote this appreciative article about the band and specifically mentioned Tusk as a forgotten milestone (how Matthew Sweet hired Richard Dashut to produce Altered Beast, etc).

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Thursday, 3 May 2007 16:04 (nineteen years ago)

results...woah!

― sw00ds, Thursday, 3 May 2007 23:57 (nineteen years ago)

that's... pretty cool.

― circa1916, Thursday, 3 May 2007 23:58 (nineteen years ago)

One vote for s/t is hard to believe.

― Mark Rich@rdson, Friday, 4 May 2007 00:00 (nineteen years ago)

I voted for it .. at least, I *thought* I did. MYonga said he voted for it above as well. So, one of our votes didn't take for some reason.

― Stormy Davis, Friday, 4 May 2007 00:03 (nineteen years ago)

Listening to Say You Will right now (particularly the devastating "Thrown Down"), I'm convinced it's their best post-Tusk album.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Friday, 4 May 2007 00:08 (nineteen years ago)

which means I should have voted for it.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Friday, 4 May 2007 00:08 (nineteen years ago)

Surprise surprise

― I know, right?, Friday, 4 May 2007 01:03 (nineteen years ago)

either way, we win.

― poortheatre, Friday, 4 May 2007 04:08 (nineteen years ago)

I guess Kiln House is pretty cool...

― Saxby D. Elder, Friday, 4 May 2007 04:21 (nineteen years ago)

Listening to Say You Will right now (particularly the devastating "Thrown Down"), I'm convinced it's their best post-Tusk album.

i totally agree

― electricsound, Friday, 4 May 2007 10:42 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah, I was first aware of it as an object of scorn (mostly because of "Fleetwood Mac Day" on the radio stations). Simon Reynolds picked it as his great unknown album in 1995 and wrote an essay mostly about "Sara": he wasn't the first critic to like it, obviously, he was just the first one I read. Around that time I started noticing a lot of positive mentions of Lindsay B as a lost production genius, and full-scale critical revival seems to have taken hold in the last 5 years or so.

-- Groke, Thursday, May 3, 2007 10:33 AM (Yesterday)

Tom, I seem to remember Tusk-love in Frank's APA as far back as the days when you were a member.

― Rock Hardy, Friday, 4 May 2007 13:14 (nineteen years ago)

I remember being blown away by Tuskwhen it came out and this was at the height of my punk/nuwave disdain of mainstream pop SO THERE.

― m coleman, Friday, 4 May 2007 13:20 (nineteen years ago)

"That's All For Everyone" was on a tape yes! But that was around the same time (I joined Franks in 1994 or so) and for whatever reason I got the impression it was atypical. I probably wasn't paying attention and they were saying the album was atypical.

Actually I remember now that I GOT that tape in summer 95, after the Reynolds essay, cos I remember listening to it while writing job applications that summer.

― Groke, Friday, 4 May 2007 13:21 (nineteen years ago)

Y'all are making me regret I didn't read Simon's essay.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Friday, 4 May 2007 13:22 (nineteen years ago)

not as accessible as its immediate predecessors perhaps but Tusk has always been esteemed by those "in the know" as far as I can remember.

― m coleman, Friday, 4 May 2007 13:23 (nineteen years ago)

Alfred it was 90% about how great "Sara" is! - which I agree with but if you've read The Sex Revolts you've read what he has to say about it.

― Groke, Friday, 4 May 2007 13:24 (nineteen years ago)

Skipping 34 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

really! how so?

― Filmmaker, Author, Radio Host Stephen Baldwin (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 29 May 2010 15:02 (sixteen years ago)

Not saying it would be the right thing to do, for sure, but Mirage holds a really special place in my heart - was one of the first albums I really spent any time listening to in any kind of depth. My parents had a record collection but it was largely country and more easy-listening stuff, and up until that point my own collection was ABBA, so discovering the wonko Buckingham tracks on this had a huge effect on me, in the end. So it's largely a nostalgia/sentiment thing I guess.

That said, even if I rationally admit that the pop songcraft on Rumours was stronger, and the Buckingham tracks were wonko-er on Tusk, there were STILL some killer tracks on Mirage! So even though I realize it's challopsy, I know it doesn't raise the aroma that voting for, say, Time would.

― Sean Carruthers, Saturday, 29 May 2010 15:46 (sixteen years ago)

Mirage is the safest of the Buckingham-Nicks records, but it's got "Hold Me," "Gypsy," "Love in Store," and "Eyes of the World."

― Filmmaker, Author, Radio Host Stephen Baldwin (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 29 May 2010 15:48 (sixteen years ago)

I definitely appreciate Christine McVie a lot more on this record that I usually do, that's for sure!

― Sean Carruthers, Saturday, 29 May 2010 15:53 (sixteen years ago)

(Not to say that I didn't appreciate McVie on Rumours etc, it's just that she was so much stronger than the other offerings on Mirage.)

― Sean Carruthers, Saturday, 29 May 2010 16:09 (sixteen years ago)

two years pass...

42 votes for Rumours but only one for the self-titled? They're almost the same damn album!

― Mr. Snrub, Tuesday, 10 July 2012 03:32 (thirteen years ago)

I heard Christine's "Got a hold on me" for the first time in a long ass time last weekend at a shitty steak house in Heber Springs, Arkansas.
It's still in my head.

― Trip Maker, Tuesday, 10 July 2012 03:37 (thirteen years ago)

I love the outro.

― a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 10 July 2012 11:14 (thirteen years ago)

six years pass...

RUMOURS still the one!

― The Silky Veils of Alfred (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 13 September 2018 14:19 (seven years ago)

kinda incredible this thread tied

mirage and s/t robbed

― niels, Thursday, 13 September 2018 14:24 (seven years ago)

tango ahead of tusk rmde

― rip van wanko, Thursday, 13 September 2018 14:44 (seven years ago)

Yeah the tie with that many voters is amazing !
Mirage way too low indeed.

― AlXTC from Paris, Thursday, 13 September 2018 16:26 (seven years ago)

six months pass...

Is Rumours better than Tusk?

It's really not even close is it?

― Nick Chiveon (rip van wanko), Friday, 12 April 2019 03:38 (seven years ago)

Fleetwood Mac - best album (a poll)

(it was a tie, if you recall)

― Nick Chiveon (rip van wanko), Friday, 12 April 2019 04:12 (seven years ago)

six years pass...

Jon Pareles writes in the NY Times about the first album with Buckingham & Nicks.

― birdistheword, Sunday, 10 August 2025 20:06 (ten months ago)

(Mainly for the 50th anniversary box set.)

― birdistheword, Sunday, 10 August 2025 20:06 (ten months ago)

five months pass...

so i've been doing a really exhaustive discog runthrough, like i even made it through behind the mask and time for the first... time. i didn't care for behind the mask, or at least it doesn't seem up to much, not even the mcvie songs, and the album as a whole sounds brittle and thin in a way that tango in the night never did. but time is... perfectly ok? the production is AWESOME, the band sounds amazing, and even though christine mcvie characterized this record as a hostage situation, her songs are phenomenal pieces of songcraft and atmosphere (so i guess business as usual), especially this one

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTVXpicB4Dc

― ivy., Wednesday, 4 February 2026 21:00 (four months ago)

Good tune!

― The Luda of Suburbia (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 4 February 2026 21:46 (four months ago)

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