A veteran band with waning prospects, personnel churn, and management issues. A largely unknown duo whose eponymous debut flopped. An impromptu meeting in a supermarket that led to a fact-finding trip to Sound City Studios. The backstory behind Fleetwood Mac’s self-titled album is nearly as incredible as the music on the 1975 recording — a blockbuster that altered pop-rock history and found newcomers Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks permanently changing the profile and popularity of the British ensemble.

Sourced from the original analog master tapes, pressed at Fidelity Record Pressing in California, and strictly limited to 7,500 numbered copies, Mobile Fidelity’s UltraDisc One-Step 180g 45RPM 2LP box set of the nine-times-platinum effort plays with reference-level transparency, dynamics, and detail. Benefitting from stellar groove definition, an ultra-low noise floor, and dead-quiet surfaces, this vinyl edition captures what went down in the California studio with arresting presence, tube-like warmth, and sumptuous tonality.

Honoring the striking elements that make Fleetwood Mac a generations-spanning favorite, the industry-leading presentation of this UD1S version confirms the reissue’s definitive standing. Housed in a gorgeous slipcase, it features premium foil-stamped jackets and faithful-to-the-original graphics. This keepsake is for listeners who want to immerse themselves in everything involved with the album, including the recognizable cover art positioning Mick Fleetwood and John McVie before a doorway — as well as a crystal ball showing their reflection. The hand-drawn script depicting the band’s name is now inextricably associated with the quintet’s “White Album” and identity.

Side One:
1. Monday Morning
2. Warm Ways
3. Blue Letter

Side Two:
4. Rhiannon
5. Over My Head
6. Crystal

Side Three:
7. Say You Love Me
8. Landslide
9. World Turning

Side Four:
10. Sugar Daddy
11. I’m So Afraid

The second eponymous record, and with its name alone screaming the band’s sheer confidence regarding their metamorphosis, this is a full embrace of polished pop without falling into the cliché and has thus rightly now become known as a classic amongst classics.

Thanks to Buckingham’s blue-influenced, melodic guitar playing and the mesmerizing, dreamy quality of Nicks’ vocals, songs like Rhiannon and Say You Love Me - with simple yet incredibly hooky melody lines - paired with equally simple, yet also danceable grooves, bringing forth songs that were instantly memorable.

Monday Morning is a straight out banger with twangy guitars and fantastic drumming from Mick. Warm Ways is how the track suggests, a warm wavy guitar that strings with Lindsey’s smooth voice. Blue Letter with punchy drums and hooks comes across as sharp as a world-class boxer. Rhiannon is a classic, we all know it, but did you know it was a song about an old Welsh Witch? Well, now you do.

Over my Head’s warm piano creates a pleasant background for the soundscape, but in truth, every song has a formula that doesn’t get old for me. It feels like they achieved some form of radio-play perfection on this album that would be continued on with the equally now-classic soundscape known as Rumours.

Oh, and Landslide is one of the greatest songs I’ve listened to. Can the child in my heart rise above, Can I sail through the changin’ ocean tides, Can I handle the seasons of my life? is just one of the heart-hitting lyricisms that is poured into this pop formula that they had constructed during their time; that took in many elements of other genres before this most magical juncture.

Constituting the old Fleetwood Mac in name only, Fleetwood Mac is the sound and style of an entirely new entity, a rebirth, and a reward for perseverance and a little bit of chance fortune. Above all, however, the album — which peaked at No. 1 on Billboard more than a year after its street date — towers as a testament to then-novel combinations of hook-laden power pop, mystical folk, cool R&B, melodic rock ‘n’ roll and a wondrous balance of perfection and pragmatism, delicate and deliberate, mellow and maverick.

Indeed, from the ocean-swept breeziness of the opening “Monday Morning” through the optimistic vibes of the building “Over My Head” to the stacked structure of the closing “I’m So Afraid,” Fleetwood Mac contains not a single dull moment or wasted note. In short order, the band would attain even greater commercial success with the subsequent Rumours. Yet the restless energy, innovative spirit, breath-of-fresh-air newness, and across-the-board fantastic performances of Fleetwood Mac would never be surpassed.

Hear their 1975 self-titled blockbuster in Reference Sound now on Mobile Fidelity’s UltraDisc One-Step 180g 45RPM 2LP Box-Set which is strictly limited to 7,500 Numbered Copies and features extraordinary definition. It has been cut as a 1/4” / 30 IPS Dolby A analog master to DSD 256 to analog console to lathe.

Official Purchase Link

www.fleetwoodmacofficial.com