‘Rumours’: The “perfect” Fleetwood Mac album that changed Lorde’s life
Fans naturally make a connection between New Zealand pop sensation Lorde and the sound of Fleetwood Mac. Ostensibly, this comes via the parallels that can be found with Lorde and Stevie Nicks. Both possess unique voices and have written a range of pieces that have the ability to strike at the heart in more maudlin moments or rouse in heady, anthemic bursts of passion. Ultimately, Lorde and Nicks are hailed as two of the definitive pop queens, so of course, fans draw parallels.
Unsurprisingly, Fleetwood Mac and Lorde share a great respect for each other. Nicks made headlines a few years back when she discussed the New Zealander during a show. She was so full of praise for her younger counterpart that she suggested that if they were of the same generation, Lorde might well have been the “third girl in Fleetwood Mac”.
Nicks said: “I actually don’t know her, and I wish she was here. I was hoping I would get to cross paths with her. But I think she is so very talented. Like, if she had been my age, and lived our age, she probably would have been the third girl in Fleetwood Mac. So, if you run into her, please tell her that I’m looking for her.”
Then, during a 2019 Fleetwood Mac show in Auckland, Stevie Nicks dedicated the song ‘Landslide’ to Lorde. Before performing the track, she expressed that she is “very, very inspired by” the young singer.
Lorde herself has also influenced the online conversation connecting her and Fleetwood Mac. On numerous occasions, she’s given lengthy statements about her love for the Anglo-American troupe. Famously, she adores the band so much that she told Vevo that the record long believed to be their masterpiece, 1977’s Rumours, is a “perfect record”.
Elsewhere, in a long Instagram post, Lorde explained to her followers how significant Fleetwood Mac and Rumours have been to her life. She said: “never before has a band given so much to me…every song had a place in my heart, in the fabric of my childhood and my family life,” she wrote. “It made me believe what Lindsey [Buckingham] said about the making of Rumours and where they are now — that it was destiny.”
Of Stevie Nicks, Lorde enthused: “Stevie’s voice was sharp and clear and full. How purely magical it was to see her in front of me, my crescent moon mother, in the flesh, all in black, her hair playing tricks with the light.”
