Customer Rating: 
Summary: a lack of Mac
Comment: This is the next door neighbor complilation of Fleetwood Mac. You borrowed it to play, maybe cassette tape your favorite songs. otherwise you would have bought the essential LPs from which these songs were culled.
Nothin' sweeps across the mid/late '70's like "Don't Stop", "You Make Lovin' Fun", "Dreams", "Go Your Own Way".
This is a wrong-headed swirl of cuts/hits from "Fleetwood Mac" (1975) "Rumours" (1977) "Tusk" (1979) and various so-called rarities. There is no historically true timeline of compostion and no booklet that explains the intrigue of the songs.
The sound is embarrassingly mediocre, the old scratched LPs have a better sense of depth and detail. This CD is for those who pop it in the
Toyota and travel back....
Customer Rating: Summary: Big Mac Attack
Comment: When Fleetwood mac took a longshot chance on an obscure Los Angeles duo named Buckingham/Nicks, even they probably had no clue just how greatly their fortunes would turn. But the creative chemistry was almost immediate: the Fleetwood Mac album made huge inroads in the US and "Rhiannon" became the greeting card that marked the arrival of
Stevie Nicks.
That is where this double CD Best Of picks up the story. For all you whiny purists who grouse that the pre-Buckingham/Nicks material is not here, this is a HITS compilation. It covers a quarter century of a band that centered on the core members (even as they revolved in and out) from 1975 on. While Bob Welch and Peter Green each contributed, they came and went quickly and the alchemy that gelled when the band entered the studio for Rumours, frankly, didn't happen until this line-up was in place. Nicks' sensual spaciness balanced Christine McVie's earthiness, Buckingham's guitar playing brought new spark to the band, and his sonic ingenuity prodded Mick Fleetwood and John McVie to new heights.
Which means that most of these songs are from that incredible one/two punch of "Fleetwood Mac" and "Rumours," with the band baring themselves even as their emotional lives were splintering. It makes songs like "Dreams" drip with emotion, even as "Go Your Own Way" cajoles the lover on the way out the door. It was impossible not to relate to at least something there, making "Rumours" one of the best selling albums of all time.
After that, where would anyone go? Since the relationships had hit their peaks of instability already, the band took advantage of their status to experiment with the wildly ambitious (but overblown) Tusk. Featuring one of the most bizarre top ten singles from a star band ever in the title track, it also has to claim responsibility for the wave of pop songs incorporating marching bands. The mad tinkering was balanced by the hits, which included Nicks' "Gypsy."
By now, the band was also feeling their own personal creative powers, which meant just about all members hitting the solo spotlight (and the bona-fide superstardom of Nicks once Bella Donna emerged). When the band reconvened for Mirage, the results were still pretty...but not revelatory. The album hit number one, both Nicks' "Gypsy" and McVie's "Love In Store" captured the sound, but the fire that burned in "The Chain" was nowhere to be found. Same for Tango in the Night, which often felt like Buckingham's solo work with "Family Man" and "Big Love" leading the parade. Even so, Nicks and McVie balanced things out with "Seven Wonders" and "Little Lies." Buckingham split at this point, and his creative sense was missed on Behind the Mask (represented here by only one song). Even though the band reunited once President Bill Clinton asked them for a performance of "Don't Stop," the only album they recorded together was the live The Dance, and three songs are from that (including Buckingham's solo "Go Insane"). The studio versions would have been better, hence the four star ranking.
However, if you were listening to the radio from the mid-70's through the end of the 80's, these were the songs and sounds that filled the airwaves. For many of us in our 40's and 50's, a great part to the soundtrack of our lives. To this day, "The Chain," "Don't Stop" and "Rhiannon" can lift memories from the past.
