Fleetwood Mac (1975)

Fleetwood Mac's eponymous 1975 album was actually the second that bore the name of the band and it's tenth overall; it signaled that this was an entirely new incarnation of the group. Indeed, the band that had started as a British blues-rock ensemble had now turned into one that played Southern California pop, due to the recruitment of two new members. That addition, of Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, was perhaps the most propitious hiring of musicians in the history of rock.

The group had gone through many personnel changes. Founder Peter Green was gone, and his replacement, Bob Welch, had left. The remaining members were drummer Mick Fleetwood and bassist John McVie, who gave the band it's name, and McVie's wife, Christine. They had heard Buckingham's guitar work and wanted to hire him, but he insisted that his girlfriend, Nicks, join as well. This was accepted, and the first album they made as a quintet was a smash (the follow-up, Rumours, would become one of the best-selling albums of all time).

Groups that have more than one songwriter tend to be more interesting. Fleetwood Mac now had three. Christine McVie wrote her own songs, and Buckingham and Nicks also were writers, and each would make a distinctive stamp on the band in that first album. Nicks wrote and sang the hit "Rhiannon," which would establish her persona as a witchy vision in chiffon. Buckingham's hit was "Monday Morning," which would establish his excellence as a writer and performer of consummate skill. McVie's songs tend to be more dreamy and slow, such as the single "Over My Head," but I like her more traditional pop song "Say That You Love Me," which couldn't be better.

The album hit number one on the U.S. charts, and also contains one of the more oft-played album tracks of Nicks' career, "Landslide," which showcases her vibrato and her cryptic, new-age lyrics:

"Oh, mirror in the sky
What is love?
Can the child within my heart rise above?
Can I sail through the changin' ocean tides?
Can I handle the seasons of my life?"

If that weren't enough, Nicks wrote "Crystal," which had been on the only album she and Buckingham made together. Buckingham sings the lyric, but you can tell Nicks is behind it:

:How the faces of love change, turning the pages
And I have changed, oh but you, you remain ageless
I turned around and the water was closing all around
Like a glove, like the love that had finally, finally found me"

Fleetwood Mac is a fine album, and an indicator of what was to come, as Buckingham and Nicks became the faces of the band. I don't believe there was any complaint from Fleetwood or John McVie.