Don’t Stop: Why We (Still) Love Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Rumours’

Music journalist Light (Let’s Go Crazy) takes a lively look at why Fleetwood Mac’s 1977 record Rumours has become the “single classic-rock album that continues to attract young listeners.” For the less initiated, the author shares behind-the-scenes details about the album’s legendarily tense recording sessions, describing them as a “cauldron of intraband romantic turmoil” fueled by “voracious drug intake.” But what distinguishes the book is its investigation into why the album has stuck, with younger listeners encountering it via TV shows like Glee or Nathan Apodaca’s viral TikTok video in which he lip-synchs “Dreams” while skateboarding. Gen Z and millennial fans cite, in interviews with the author, the album’s “organic and uncluttered” sound and the universality of its focus on “romantic agony and ecstasy.” Fans also reference the sound and songwriting resulting from Fleetwood Mac’s mixed-gender lineup, which was ahead of its time and remains so in a world where rock is largely dominated by white men. Combining vivid anecdotes and perceptive analysis, Light delivers both an unapologetic love letter to the album and a nuanced consideration of how music evolves along with its audience. Fleetwood Mac fans old and new will be enchanted. (Nov.)