Rumours Review

The story is famous enough to overshadow the work, so start with the work. Nothing here is longer than it needs to be, every song has a hook inside the first fifteen seconds, and the three voices are used like three instruments rather than three egos, which given the circumstances is remarkable. Caillat and Dashut spent close to a year getting the drums and the acoustics to sit exactly right, and the result is a record that gives you the same thing through a phone speaker or a good system.

Critics then and now praise the same two qualities. The arrangements, which are close to unimprovable, and the honesty, since Go Your Own Way and Dreams are a couple arguing across two sides of a record and both of them meant it. If there is a reservation, it is that the surface is so smooth the pain can slide past on a casual listen, and a few lyrics settle for the general when the situation was anything but.

It hardly matters. All four singles reached the top ten in America and Dreams went to number one, it took album of the year, it has sold more than forty million copies, and it is still the high-water mark for how good a pop record can sound.