Mention Brit rock act Fleetwood Mac and there should instantly be the sound of unfettered moans hinting at the broad perception of the band as a cheeky, female fronted pop act. That last bit’s true, but the band didn’t reach that point until at least the mid point of its career.

An initial clutch of records finds Fleetwood Mac, as helmed by Peter Green, mining straight blues for a few albums before moving on to an amalgam of bucolic sounds and stoned revelry. Of course, the quick transitioning between approaches didn’t result in the strongest albums recorded during the sixties, but each of these four initial discs is better than what your mom would rock out to while making dinner – for the most part.

Peter Green´s Fleetwood Mac (1968): Even with vocals split between Peter Green and Jeremy Spencer, it’s difficult to pick out the differences between each track. Throw in the fact that there’s not a whole bunch of lyrical diversity and this first long player from the Fleetwoods just sits lazily in the middle of the late sixties’ Brit blues thing. There’s a reason that this particular disc didn’t make the band stars, but a few Elmore James covers make it just this side of listenable.

Mr. Wonderful (1968): Sporting one of the goofiest album covers to come out of any scene, little lone the willfully serious Brit blues scene, this second long player from the Fleetwoods sounds significantly more sure of itself. It’s not that the purposeful inclusion of song intros got ditched – they’re still there. But the group being serviced by a studio horn section doesn’t hurt at all. Adding in a bit more experience in the song writing department and Mr. Wonderful goes from average to pretty decent. Again, this disc didn’t make the band internationally renowned, but it did prove the Fleetwoods capable of sussing out a proper set of blues cops – just not an adventurous one.

Then Play On (1969): Adding guitarist Danny Kirwan to the group subsequent to the release of Mr. Wonderful, the Fleetwoods sound drastically changed from the beginning of this disc. Percussion over runs the first track, but’s accompanied by a stringy guitar line as melodic as it is surprising. The various strains of music the Fleetwoods did and would tred aren’t all represented here, but there’s a much broader sound being related. The band even writes some self referential material – “Show Biz Blues.” And if it comes off as owning a debt to blues, it does. But this is the first album the Fleetwoods actually sound like themselves instead of like some white guys doing blues numbers. Then Play On also marks the end of the band’s dedication to anything remotely ballsy as Kiln House (1970) begins the Fleetwoods’ descent into soft rock.