You might not usually like listening to music that’s many decades old, but even if that’s the case, there’s a not bad chance you make an exception for Fleetwood Mac. If not, that’s okay, but that guess/assumption is made because Fleetwood Mac feels particularly approachable for a pop/rock band of their era (when they were at their peak, in other words), and some of the band’s music is pretty close to timeless. In fact, they’ve got an entire album – 1977’s Rumours – that really does feel timeless from start to finish.
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It’s boring to call it the band’s best album, but it is, though that’s not a suggestion that other memorable releases of Fleetwood Mac’s were bad or anything. There’s one other album of theirs included below, plus some other albums that might scratch the same itch. They’re broadly definable as rock, but often a mellower sort of rock, in line with the pop/soft rock sound of Rumours. So, if you want Led Zeppelin or Metallica or something harder, maybe look elsewhere.
10
‘Aja’ (1977)
Steely Dan
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Steely Dan is a strange band, much of that coming about because they epitomize a genre that is genuinely called “yacht rock,” and because they’re literally called Steely Dan. Who calls a band Steely Dan? It turns out, there is a reason, or a source of that name, but if you go digging trying to find out, you might regret it. It’s a possible case of “the less you know, the better.”
Aja is being included here because it is a mellow sort of rock that you kind of just put on and zone out to.
Of all the Steely Dan albums, Aja tends to get brought up as their best, or maybe the album of theirs most worthy of classic status. It’s being included here because it is a mellow sort of rock that you kind of just put on and zone out to. So, the lyrics here don’t tend to be as affecting as what you might find on those hard-hitting Fleetwood Mac songs, nor some of the other albums mentioned here, yet the energy/vibe is kind of similar, and Aja was also released the same year as Rumours, so…
9
‘The Nightfly’ (1982)
Donald Fagen
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Hopefully not too much of a hot take, but Donald Fagen’s solo album, The Nightfly, might be better than any of the other albums he did as part of Steely Dan. There’s even more of a lean toward pop here, over rock (rock of the yacht variety or otherwise), and it’s all almost a bit too smooth. Yet The Nightfly makes it work, or maybe it’s just that the shortcomings are easier to overlook when you’ve got a song as great as “I.G.Y.” kicking the whole thing off.
Lyrically, this one’s got quite a bit going for it, with the unusual and bittersweet way it looks toward the future, but from the past, and then you listen to it now, and it still sounds kind of futuristic lyrically, yet you put it in the past even more because it just sounds so ‘80s. Anyway, the rest of the album’s also very good. It shouldn’t be overlooked, just because it’s a Donald Fagen solo album rather than a proper/full-on Steely Dan one.
8
‘Tusk’ (1979)
Fleetwood Mac
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Two years on from Rumours, Fleetwood Mac kept the momentum going to some extent, with Tusk, as there are songs here that are appealing in similar ways to many of the songs from Rumours, though it’s also a bit rougher and more intense at other times. It’s a double album, running for nearly 74 minutes, and with 20 tracks all up, so there are, pretty much literally, twice as many opportunities to play around and experiment a bit.
Tusk doesn’t experiment to the same extent as, say, the self-titled Beatles album that was also famously a double album, but nothing else in popular music history really does, so you can’t hold that against Tusk. Maybe Tusk is more comparable to the eclectic and ambitious London Calling, by The Clash, which is a great punk/rock album here, but harder to recommend when you’re specifically talking about Rumours-esque albums. For obvious reasons, Tusk is, on the other hand, not difficult to include here.
7
‘Graceland’ (1986)
Paul Simon
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Very mellow as a rock album, and probably more pop, all the while also having other influences from a wide variety of genres, here’s Graceland, which could well be the best album Paul Simon was involved with (and that does include those he did while part of the duo Simon & Garfunkel). It’s musically creative and then lyrically, Graceland also tackles a whole bunch of topics, with some songs being socially conscious, and others being a little more introspective.
It feels like a product of its time, just not really in a bad way. Like, the quality of the songwriting and most of the production holds up; you can just tell, in some ways, it’s an album that’s now about four decades old (and counting). But then again, the thing still sounds great and largely delivers, so complaining about Graceland feels a little like nitpicking, in the end.
6
‘Tapestry’ (1971)
Carole King
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The softness of the rock here is so soft it might well be a marshmallow, yet it’s still a classic and probably the kind of thing most people who like Fleetwood Mac would also like, so here’s Tapestry, by Carole King. It leans more toward the singer-songwriter side of things, with soft rock being a secondary genre, and it is quite mellow and gentle in sound, while having introspective and sometimes bittersweet lyrics that aren’t afraid to get emotional.
It was a classic of its time, and the sort of thing everyone over a certain age surely knows about, since it was monumentally popular in terms of sales and critical acclaim, yet King’s not always talked about as much in some modern-day online circles as much as Joni Mitchell (Blue could’ve gone here, yet describing that as being even rock-adjacent feels like more of a stretch than putting Tapestry in this spot).
5
‘After the Gold Rush’ (1970)
Neil Young
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It was difficult here, as with Neil Young, After the Gold Rush does not feel as rock-focused as some of his other classic albums (like the kinda-sorta live album that is Rust Never Sleeps), though there is still some rock here. It’s folk rock, and occasionally harder rock, and often downbeat. Still counts, though. And it is indeed a gentle album and an oftentimes moving one as well.
Further, After the Gold Rush is an amazing album. It was originally at the top of this ranking, but then it was a bit like, “Wait, why put an album that good not near the end of the ranking, if it’s a ranking?” And “top” here means the bottom. Like, the bottom as in #10. And the top of the ranking is at the bottom of the page. #1 is the top of the ranking but at the bottom of the page. Confused? Just listen to After the Gold Rush, it’ll make everything feel okay again.
4
‘Hats’ (1989)
The Blue Nile
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It’s hard to know what to say about Hats by The Blue Nile beyond being all, “Damn, this thing was really ahead of its time and stuff,” which isn’t very meaningful commentary, but it doesn’t make it wrong. It’s ahead of its time in some ways while also feeling very in line with certain traits associated with music in the 1980s, just in a unique way and with a certain atmosphere that sets it apart from its contemporaries.
The music here belongs to a genre called “sophisti-pop,” and that might make it far removed from rock, and even soft rock, yet it’s too emotionally stirring to not include here. Rumours is heartfelt and an emotional roller-coaster, and so is Hats. Further, Fleetwood Mac kind of dipped their toes into the sophisti-pop genre in at least a few songs on their 1987 album, Tango in the Night, so maybe that counts for something.
3
‘Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs’ (1970)
Derek and The Dominos
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Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs rocks the hardest of all the albums featured here, and so, yes, it probably qualifies most as “classic rock” in the traditional sense, and to a greater extent than Rumours. If the sound isn’t too Rumours, why include it, then? Well, lyrically, Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs is almost aggressively about love and its hardships (it’s in the album’s title and all), and so it works as a possible break-up album in a comparable way to Rumours.
The title track, “Layla,” demonstrates this particularly well, and it deserved to be part of the album’s title, since it is the clear standout moment on Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs. This is also the only album Derek and the Dominos ever released, but Eric Clapton, as the short-lived band’s short-lived frontman, has certainly done a good many other things in the world of rock over the decades, including doing his own solo/acoustic version of “Layla” that is straight-up not nearly as good as the Derek and the Dominos one.
2
‘Hounds of Love’ (1985)
Kate Bush
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It feels a little silly trying to tie Kate Bush to any genre, though if you really want to argue that Hounds of Love is too far removed from rock (like, any kind), then you’re welcome to. But it’s here because it’s a moving and creative album that’s very easy to appreciate and enjoy, even when it’s being kind of unusual and even borderline-challenging (see the album’s second half, for example).
Hounds of Love also has some absolute all-timer tracks on it, with “Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)” being the inevitable standout, though “Cloudbusting” really isn’t too far behind, quality-wise. Whatever Kate Bush was doing here, it’s never really been replicated since. Words can only go so far, when it comes to Hounds of Love, and it’s as much of a classic for its decade as Rumours was for the entirety of the 1970s.
1
‘Steve McQueen’ (1985)
Prefab Sprout
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Back to the sophisti-pop genre, with emotions being unapologetically broad and big, here’s Steve McQueen (don’t mix it up with that actor guy, nor the filmmaker of the same name), which is a bit more rock-focused than Hats. It’s got a bit of energy in some of its tracks, while also having mellower ones too, and the balance here is pulled off incredibly well.
The band behind Steve McQueen, Prefab Sprout, is not nearly as popular nowadays as Fleetwood Mac, but at their best, they do scratch the same itch, and Steve McQueen is ultimately the band at their best. The first half of this album is genuinely perfect, and then the second half being “merely” very good is forgivable. As far as gentle (and maybe even sentimental) pop/rock music of the ‘70s/’80s is concerned, it doesn’t get much better than this album.
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