Fleetwood Mac - Rumours

Kevin Bresnahan · April 18, 2011

Fleetwood Mac's "Rumours" has finally been reissued on vinyl. Over on the Steve Hoffman forums, they've been anticipating this reissue for several years after Hoffman described how difficult it was for him to find the best tape versions of each song. Apparently, there were a lot of pressing variations with different endings spliced onto "Gold Dust Woman" and changes in fade ups and downs. Hoffman said that when we heard this LP it would be revelatory.

Anyway, I grabbed a 33 rpm (available 45 rpm too) copy on Record Store Day and I have to say, the hype was worth it. It sounds incredible... except for one thing. To my ears, the song "Dreams" sounds just a half beat faster than usual. I've probably listened to this album a couple hundred times by now. It's one of my wife's favorite albums. I have it on LP, CD and DVD-Audio. I compared the CD and DVD-A to the LP and the LP sounds better than ever, but the beat on "Dreams" is just a bit faster than usual.

I thought I should ask the mastering engineer if he found out that the master tape was a bit fast. Maybe this was what we were supposed to hear? But I can't ask this over there. It seems that this cannot be discussed. I asked in this thread and Steve Hoffman's initial response (now scrubbed away) was "Stop being silly". I responded to this and that was scrubbed away too. This morning, someone else posted, "Yeah, I hear it too, but maybe the other editions had it slowed." That post has since been edited (with no indcation of an edit) to say, "Thanks Steve! I can't wait to hear it".

So I guess if I want to discuss this, I have to do it here.

Did anyone else buy this LP? If you did, do you hear "Dreams" being faster or am I crazy? BTW, "both" is a valid answer.

Kevin

Edited April 18, 2011 by Kevin Bresnahan

J.A.W. · April 18, 2011

Actually, the title of the album uses the British spelling, Rumours. I have edited the thread title to make searches easier

41fgsnsUFhL._SS500_.jpg

six string · April 24, 2011

I've listened to this album a couple of times so far and I can't be sure about the speed thing on that one song. Full disclosure though, I haven't heard the album since I saw the Rumours Tour as someone broke into my house and cherry picked through my lps including all of my Fleetwood Mac albums except the one on the turntable. I will say that it sounds fantastic. The bass and drums in particular really shine and I'm hearing things like little guitar parts and background vocals that I never noticed before.

Rooster_Ties · April 24, 2011

Beware -- I read there are two different masterings of this thing being released nearly simultaneously, I guess by two different audiophile labels. I only just skimmed a thread about it (on the Steve Hoffman board, where else!), and something about the two masterings not necessarily using the same sources.

(I have little patience for such audiophile discussions, so that's about as much as I know. Next time I stumble on the thread about it, I'll update this post with a link.)

Edited April 24, 2011 by Rooster_Ties

Quincy · April 24, 2011

I'm visiting my folks and found my original copy. Unfortunately I no longer have anything to play it on.

six string · April 27, 2011

Beware -- I read there are two different masterings of this thing being released nearly simultaneously, I guess by two different audiophile labels. I only just skimmed a thread about it (on the Steve Hoffman board, where else!), and something about the two masterings not necessarily using the same sources.

(I have little patience for such audiophile discussions, so that's about as much as I know. Next time I stumble on the thread about it, I'll update this post with a link.)

Although they are audiophile quality, they are not on audiophile labels. The U.S. version is on Warner Bros. and the E.U. version may be on Warner too, I'm not sure. If the back cover says Made In U.S it is the Hoffman/Gray version. If it says Made in the E.U. it is mastered by someone else. No one has been able to find out who did the E.U. version but as you can imagine, having two versions released simultaneously has caused quite a stir on the Hoffman board. There is another one that plays at 33 1/3 that seems to be only available with the Hoffman/Gray mastering and it is getting good reviews from people who have heard it. It is much cheaper than the 45rpm version too.

Kevin Bresnahan · April 27, 2011

I have the 33 1/3 rpm version of "Rumours". I think it's one of the best sounding versions of this LP that I've heard. The DVD-Audio disc may beat it simply due to the surround mix, but for stereo, they are very close.

I absolutely refuse to buy 45 rpm versions of 33 1/3 rpm LPs. The supposed improvement is not worth having to get up every 10 minutes. Personally, I think 45 rpm LPs are a money grab. Double the price for a single LP - only way to justify it.

Dave James · April 27, 2011

Link below to Elusive Disc. They have the Gray/Hoffman mastered Rumours for $24.99. If your total order exceeds $75.00 and you order by May 3rd,, shipping is free. These are the guys who market Blue Note XRCD's and Impulse SACD's. I've done business with them before. Very satisfactory. If you haven't visited this site before, there are lots of swell ways to get rid of some of that lazy cash that just sits around doing nothing.

My link

Edited April 27, 2011 by Dave James