By the time of this album's release,
Jeremy Spencer had been replaced by
Bob Welch and
Christine McVie had begun to assert herself more as a singer and songwriter. The result is a distinct move toward folk-rock and pop;
Future Games sounds almost nothing like
Peter Green's
Fleetwood Mac.
Bob Welch's eight-minute title track, featuring lead guitar from Danny Kirwan, has one of
Welch's characteristic haunting melodies, and with pruning and better editing, it could have been a hit.
Christine McVie's "Show Me a Smile" is one of her loveliest ballads. Initial popular reaction was mixed: the album didn't sell as well as
Kiln House, but it sold better than any of the band's first three albums in the U.S. In the U.K., where the original lineup had been more successful,
Future Games didn't chart at all; the same fate that would befall the rest of its albums until the
Lindsey Buckingham-
Stevie Nicks era. [
Future Games was re-released on LP in 2015.] ~ William Ruhlmann