If you were just a casual fan of pop music, I suppose you’d be forgiven if you thought this to be Fleetwood Mac’s debut album.

After all, this is the first album to feature the ‘classic’ lineup of Lindsay Buckingham, Stevie Nicks, and of course Mick Fleetwood and both McVies, John and Christine. The truth, though, is that a band called ‘Fleetwood Mac’ had been making records for nearly a decade, reliably releasing at least one album per year, while the personnel constantly shifted. For that reason, the lineup for the new, ‘revised’ Fleetwood Mac did not come as much of a surprise to those familiar with the band.

What was surprising, though, was the drastic shift of style that this album represented. Until now, Fleetwood Mac were primarily a blues-based outfit with a bent toward the unusual, but the Buckingham/Nicks team brought an entirely new sensibility to the band. That, and the combination of two independent woman songwriter/vocalists made them a force to be reckoned with. While singer/songwriters were controlling the pop charts, the pairing of Christine McVie and Stevie Nicks made the band sound like nothing else, at a time when empowered women were finally getting recognition that equaled their male counterparts. It is almost impossible to overrate the musical growth of Christine McVie, just as the powerhouse couple of Buckingham/Nicks joined the band. The band’s name may have been derived from the perennial rhythm section, but it was the three songwriters who were about to renegotiate the direction of pop music.

Featured tracks include:

Monday Morning

Warm Ways

Blue Letter

Rhiannon

Over My Head

Crystal

Say You Love Me

Landslide

World Turning

Sugar Daddy

I'm So Afraid

July 1975 - Billboard Charted #1