Better album: Led Zeppelin IV or Fleetwood Mac's Rumours?

[rousseau]

Partner and I were loafing about today listening to oldies we hadn't heard in a while, and it struck me how incredible both of these albums are. Obviously they're hard to directly contrast with each other, which I think is what makes the question so interesting.

Vote for whatever reason you like: IV vs Rumours

 

[Tars Tarkus]

I went with IV, but admit, after skimming Rumors playlist, that I only know a few songs by their titles, so its more a matter of not having heard enough of it.

 

[WAB]

I like Zep a whole lot more than Mac, but the Rumors LP is dynamite all through: every song a winner. Add in the variety of vocalists and mix of hard and light. I adore the Zep IV album, but it contains the dreadful "Rock and Roll", and the sub-par "Four Sticks"; add in much padding with "When the Levee Breaks".

By and large both LPs are classic and excellent.

 

[OLDMAN]

I'm more into rock, but when an album has it, it has it. So both.

 

[Ford]

Tough choice.

I was never really a big Zeppelin fan, but listening to album rock radio growing up I heard it a lot.

My ex wife is a huge Stevie Nicks fan, so during the years we were together I heard Rumors more than I ever wanted to. When we split, I didn't want to listen to any Mac song ever again. Except for some reason "Go Your Own Way." Hmm...

I have to go with Rumors. While Plant is one of the great rock frontmen, and Page is an iconic guitarist, Mac was a much more well-rounded band. It basically had three lead vocalists (Buckingham, Nicks, and McVie) with three very distinct styles (featured on their "own" songs), and then when they got together on "The Chain," it was incredible. Zep had just the one guy.

The circumstances around the writing/recording of the album are of course legendary, with relationships falling apart and infidelity everywhere, making a record with some emotional depth. Finally, I think the arrangements on Rumors are just better. I once say (I think it was on VH1) Buckingham break down "Go Your Own Way" track by track. It's great on so many levels.

 

[Bronzeage]

I had both albums in my collection. If I walked into a record store, circa 1970-something and had only $10(that's about what they cost), I'm taking Led Zeppelin home and listen to it straight through. If I'm with my girlfriend, I'm buying Fleetwood Mac because I know she's not going to sit through The Battle of Evermore.

 

[rousseau]

I've been re-visiting them, and really listening to both more intently than I'd done before over the past few days. Going to California is a hell of a song, but I have to go with Rumours and Ford's analysis. Led Zeppelin is obviously more technically proficient, but the album sounds like it's trying to win more with prowess and shock value rather than pure song-writing ability. Stairway and Going to California are still monsters, but Rumours is pretty incredible on a number of levels from front to back.

 

[ZiprHead]

#26 on Rolling Stone's Top 500 Albums Of All Time.

Fleetwood Mac, ‘Rumours’
Warner Bros., 1977

On Rumours, Fleetwood Mac turned private turmoil into gleaming, melodic public art. The band's two couples – bassist John and singer-keyboard player Christine McVie, who were married; guitarist Lindsey Buckingham and vocalist Stevie Nicks, who were not – were in the midst of breakups during the album's protracted sessions. This lent a highly charged, confessional aura to songs like Buckingham's "Go Your Own Way," Nicks' "Dreams," Christine's "Don't Stop" and the group-composed anthem to betrayal, "The Chain." The Mac's catchy exposés, produced with California-sunshine polish, touched a nerve: Rumours became the gold standard of late-Seventies FM radio and the seventh-bestselling studio album of all time.

#69 on Rolling Stone's Top 500 Albums Of All Time.

Led Zeppelin, ‘Led Zeppelin IV’
Atlantic, 1971

"I put a lot of work into my lyrics," Robert Plant told Rolling Stone in 1975. "Not all my stuff is meant to be scrutinized, though. Things like 'Black Dog' are blatant let's-do-it-in-the-bath-type things, but they make their point just the same." On their towering fourth album, Led Zeppelin match the raunch of "Black Dog" with Plant's most poetic lyrics for the inescapable epic ballad "Stairway to Heaven," while guitarist Jimmy Page veers from the blues apocalypse of "When the Levee Breaks" to the torrid Little Richard tribute "Rock & Roll" to the mandolin-driven "Battle of Evermore." ("It sounded like a dance-around-the-maypole number," Page later confessed.) Maypole or no, IV was the peak of Seventies hard rock.

 

[Ruth Harris]

Hands down, Led Zeppelin for me. I was always a big fan of their music.

I never understood the fan worship of Stevie Nicks. Sure, she is a talented singer/songwriter but there are a lot of equally talented people out there.

Ruth

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Hands down, Led Zeppelin for me. I was always a big fan of their music.

I never understood the fan worship of Stevie Nicks. Sure, she is a talented singer/songwriter but there are a lot of equally talented people out there.

Ruth

At the time? Not many female faces at the head of top bands. Fleetwood Mac achieved very rarely seen heights. I don't think her solo career was anywhere as solid, but I think she had ascended much higher than most women ever had in a band.

 

[thebeave]

Hands down, Led Zeppelin for me. I was always a big fan of their music.

I never understood the fan worship of Stevie Nicks. Sure, she is a talented singer/songwriter but there are a lot of equally talented people out there.

Ruth

Yep. I'm much more of a Christine McVie fan. Better songwriter, singer and musician than Stevie Nicks, IMHO, and she is highly underrated. My understanding is that Stevie Nicks regularly needed Lindsay Buckingham to step in and polish up her rather rough songs.

 

[Ruth Harris]

Hands down, Led Zeppelin for me. I was always a big fan of their music.

I never understood the fan worship of Stevie Nicks. Sure, she is a talented singer/songwriter but there are a lot of equally talented people out there.

Ruth

At the time? Not many female faces at the head of top bands. Fleetwood Mac achieved very rarely seen heights. I don't think her solo career was anywhere as solid, but I think she had ascended much higher than most women ever had in a band.

Well, this is just off the top of my head but in that same era I can think of these women who qualify:

Chrissie Hynde and The Pretenders
Janis Joplin and Big Brother and the Holding Company
Debbie Harry and Blondie
Grace Slick and Jefferson Airplane/Jefferson Starship/Starship
Gladys Knight and The Pips
Joan Jett and The Runaways

And these are just the ones who performed with bands. There were innumerable female singers/songwriters who were big hits as solo artists in that time.

Ruth

 

[abaddon]

Rumours appealed more when I was a teen and I enjoyed pop rock better. But the whole world felt different after I discovered and started exploring Led Zeppelin - I became a life-long zealot. I've had virtual mystical experiences listening to LZ (more-so Physical Graffiti than IV though).

Rumours is the only FM album I like. There are a few songs off other albums I enjoy. I always skip Songbird and Oh Daddy - can't stomach sugary soft-rock songs.

So, one superb pop album against one of hard rock's behemoths... but then you're only comparing these two albums. I do think these two albums are excellent and both made big impacts so I picked the "equally good" option.

 

[WAB]

Hands down, Led Zeppelin for me. I was always a big fan of their music.

I never understood the fan worship of Stevie Nicks. Sure, she is a talented singer/songwriter but there are a lot of equally talented people out there.

Ruth

At the time? Not many female faces at the head of top bands. Fleetwood Mac achieved very rarely seen heights. I don't think her solo career was anywhere as solid, but I think she had ascended much higher than most women ever had in a band.

Well, this is just off the top of my head but in that same era I can think of these women who qualify:

Chrissie Hynde and The Pretenders
Janis Joplin and Big Brother and the Holding Company
Debbie Harry and Blondie
Grace Slick and Jefferson Airplane/Jefferson Starship/Starship
Gladys Knight and The Pips
Joan Jett and The Runaways

And these are just the ones who performed with bands. There were innumerable female singers/songwriters who were big hits as solo artists in that time.

Ruth

Someone should mention Heart.

 

[rousseau]

I think some of my perspective and leaning toward Rumours comes from being a strong introvert. As my life's progressed I've realized that there is a lot of 'harder' stuff that I can appreciate, but am never in the mood to actually listen to. Led Zeppelin might fall in that category for me. Incredibly talented band, but I can't imagine many situations I'd want to settle in for the night and listen to Black Dog.

For the past five years I've spent most of my time listening to jazz, R&B, low key hip-hop, and some soft acoustic stuff.

 

[WAB]

I think some of my perspective and leaning toward Rumours comes from being a strong introvert. As my life's progressed I've realized that there is a lot of 'harder' stuff that I can appreciate, but am never in the mood to actually listen to. Led Zeppelin might fall in that category for me. Incredibly talented band, but I can't imagine many situations I'd want to settle in for the night and listen to Black Dog.

For the past five years I've spent most of my time listening to jazz, R&B, low key hip-hop, and some soft acoustic stuff.

I spent a lot of time listening to classical music - it's probably my favorite music of all. Particularly symphonic music.

 

[abaddon]

I think some of my perspective and leaning toward Rumours comes from being a strong introvert.

How would introversion/extraversion have anything to do with the choice?

I spent a lot of time listening to classical music - it's probably my favorite music of all. Particularly symphonic music.

Overall I like symphonic music as well. But mostly 20th century. The actually classical classical music is interesting aesthetically, to listen to and ponder... but it doesn't often "pick me up and carry me away".

 

[rousseau]

I think some of my perspective and leaning toward Rumours comes from being a strong introvert.

How would introversion/extraversion have anything to do with the choice?

It might not be common knowledge, but there's definitely a strong correlation between extraversion and the intensity of music people like to listen to. For example, my wife is slightly more extroverted than me. She likes most of what I like, but much of her listening habits are a bit more intense than mine. Or a cousin of mine who is a strong extrovert, she's primarily into upbeat techno.

It comes down to which music hits your stimulation sweet-spot. In my case Fleetwood Mac is closer to the sweet-spot, than Led Zeppelin.

 

[hurtinbuckaroo]

I think some of my perspective and leaning toward Rumours comes from being a strong introvert.

How would introversion/extraversion have anything to do with the choice?

It might not be common knowledge, but there's definitely a strong correlation between extraversion and the intensity of music people like to listen to. For example, my wife is slightly more extroverted than me. She likes most of what I like, but much of her listening habits are a bit more intense than mine. Or a cousin of mine who is a strong extrovert, she's primarily into upbeat techno.

It comes down to which music hits your stimulation sweet-spot. In my case Fleetwood Mac is closer to the sweet-spot, than Led Zeppelin.

My wife and I are the polar opposite of that correlation. I wasn’t aware of that research.

 

[rousseau]

It might not be common knowledge, but there's definitely a strong correlation between extraversion and the intensity of music people like to listen to. For example, my wife is slightly more extroverted than me. She likes most of what I like, but much of her listening habits are a bit more intense than mine. Or a cousin of mine who is a strong extrovert, she's primarily into upbeat techno.

It comes down to which music hits your stimulation sweet-spot. In my case Fleetwood Mac is closer to the sweet-spot, than Led Zeppelin.

My wife and I are the polar opposite of that correlation. I wasn’t aware of that research.

Just personal observation, mostly. Likely not a hard and fast rule, but it's pretty consistent that my wife puts music on and I 'turn it down a bit', or I put music on and she 'turns it up a bit'.

Pay attention and you'll notice a correlation among people you know.