“The truth about Rumours,” says Stevie Nicks at the very start of the in-depth essay leading off the booklet for this three-disc 35th Anniversary Deluxe Edition, “is that Rumours was the truth.”

The other truth about Rumours is that it's nearly impossible to overstate its significance as a musical/cultural touchstone. Anyone who grew up in the ’70s within a mile of a functioning radio regards these songs like old familiar friends. Yet after three-plus decades of listening to them, they still hold up, because they are timeless.

That is in part a function of their subject matter—Rumours is, after all, one of the classic break-up albums of all time, written and recorded while both of the couples inside the band were in the process of falling apart—but also because of their execution, the effortless melding of Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks' introspective California guitar rock with Mick Fleetwood and John McVie's gritty blues drive and Christine McVie's sunny pop harmonies.

Rather than rehash my prior review of the original Rumours, though, I want to focus on the added material featured in this deluxe edition. I really only have one thing to add about Rumours itself; “Go Your Own Way,” in addition to being a devastatingly good breakup song, gets my vote for best performance by a drummer in a pop single, ever. As my Facebook friend Jimmy Paxson—who, coincidentally, drummed for Stevie Nicks on her solo tour last fall—would say, Mick Fleetwood drives this one like an mfer.

The b-side “Silver Springs,” tacked on to the end of the original album in this set, is a Nicks cut that she’s made quite a fuss over several times over the years, maintaining it should have been on the original album. I beg to differ. It’s a good song, but not a great one, and not better than any of the other Nicks songs that made it onto Rumours. It has a nice build, but pieces of the lyric feel clichéd and underdeveloped.

The live disc is interesting as a historical document, featuring tracks culled from four different shows on the 1977 Rumours tour, including much of the new album plus a trio of choice cuts from 1975’s self-titled disc (“Monday Morning,” “Rhiannon,” “World Turning”). “Gold Dust Woman” and “World Turning,” part of the musical supporting cast in their studio incarnations, earn starring roles here, each extended nicely to show off the group’s powerful ensemble playing.

The only real gripe with the live disc is that the recording quality is a bit suspect in places, which seems to have affected the mixing as well. Just for example, Christine McVie’s organ is up too far in the mix on “Go Your Own Way,” and John McVie’s bass, which is fine elsewhere, is ironically mixed way too low when he takes his solo in the middle of “The Chain.”

About the third disc, a collection of outtakes and demos, I would say this: I’ve rarely heard more compelling evidence of the amount of work that is involved in creating a great album. These bits and pieces are musical curiosities, nothing more—mostly fragments of songs and preliminary, later perfected arrangements, sometimes with different lyrics—but they do serve to reveal just how much effort and concentration and willingness to experiment is required to take a song from demo form to finished masterpiece. For the group to be able to achieve that kind of focus—not to mention results—while the romantic relationships within the band were in the process of splintering apart is astounding.

On the outtakes disc, the most fascinating moment is hearing how “The Chain” initially came together by matching the chorus from a Nicks demo (titled “The Chain,” though only the chorus was retained) with the bridge and solo section from a unreleased Christine McVie tune called “Keep Me There.” It’s a classic case of “That doesn’t quite work, and I’m not too sure about that, but what if we combined them…?”

Last but not least, my wife warned me while we were listening to this album that she would have to consider leaving me for any man who could play “Never Going Back Again” on the acoustic guitar. (A tune which is represented in three forms in this collection, sounding great each time.) Word to the wise: watch out for guys with guitars.

Rumours is a genuine classic, and this 35th anniversary collection only serves to underscore that fact, delivering a fascinating and moving ride through an essential moment in 20th century music.

Rating: A-

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