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Fleetwood Mac is a universal delight. I’m not even sure if I can call this a review because a two-time Diamond-certified album might not need it.

The perfect harmonies featured in “Rumours,” which garnered worldwide mania are born out of a discordant context. All five band members were in the midst of separation from significant others and to make matters worse, two of these relationships among members of the band itself. They recorded in the windowless Record Plant in Sausalito for two months, and made an album about personal hardship and each other (hence the name).

It’s hard to believe that a track like “Don’t Stop” materialized from such proclaimed torturous conditions, given its message of future bliss: “Don’t stop thinking about tomorrow.” But sadness creeps in in different ways. Just watch Fleetwood himself in the music video; with the sound off, you would never guess that the song he’s playing exudes an emotion even closely related to joy.

Another miracle song is “The Chain,” the only track credited to all five members of the band. Buckingham, Nicks, the separating McVies and Fleetwood all made their mark on the song, resulting in a powerful and surprisingly unified masterpiece that gave us a true look into the fractured state of the band: “Running in the shadows, damn your love,
damn your lies.” It is this song that pulls together the entire album, an album that provides a passage into the struggles within the band through an intimate compilation of experiences manifested as melodies.

Like all of the greats made from an uncomplicated love of music, this album is timeless. Fleetwood told Rolling Stone, “That’s what we were doing. Being part of Fleetwood Mac, playing through the ups and downs.” The band conquered the task of creating a journey that moves you from hope to resentment to betrayal to love, all for the sake of creation itself.