Considering I was five when it was released, I’ve never known Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours as anything but a classic, record-breaking album. It is the 9th best-selling album in the United States and 10th in the world.

How great must it have been when this was just the new Fleetwood Mac album? When songs like ‘Dreams,’ ‘Go Your Own Way’ and ‘Don’t Stop’ emerged from your speakers for the first time, did they already sound like classics?

They certainly sound that way now — the whole album does, start to finish.

Rumours is at once a collection of masterfully written and performed songs and a snapshot of a band caught up in all the agony and ecstasy of 1970s decadence. Lindsay Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, who joined the band on the album before this one, stirred up a whirlwind of romantic and artistic turmoil that the band seemingly thrived on.

The band members took turns hating and sleeping with each other while in their spare time they whipped together a record that still feels fresh 35 years later (hell, even Glee dedicated a whole episode to the album).

I wonder if any albums recorded in the past five years will endure the way Rumours has. Adele’s 21 is a smash hit, no doubt, but it doesn’t have an identity the way this record does. Perhaps the album era is truly over.