Kiln House

Kiln House is the fourth studio album by Fleetwood Mac, released in September 1970 on Reprise Records and produced by the band themselves. It is the first album recorded without Peter Green, who had left the band in May 1970 following a mental health crisis brought on in part by his LSD use, and the first to feature Christine Perfect, who joined as keyboardist after Green's departure and married bassist John McVie during this period, becoming Christine McVie. The album is dominated by two contrasting approaches: Jeremy Spencer contributed the majority of the material, which consists almost entirely of loving pastiches of Buddy Holly, Fats Domino, and 1950s American rock and roll, while Danny Kirwan contributed several more melodic, original compositions. Spencer and Kirwan share the songwriting credits almost entirely, with Christine McVie contributing one track; this distribution would shift substantially on subsequent albums as McVie's compositional role expanded. The album was recorded and mixed by the band without an outside producer, a cost-saving and creative-control decision that established a pattern the band would return to for several records. Kiln House reached the UK top forty but did not replicate the commercial success of the Green-era albums, and Spencer's departure to join the Children of God religious cult in early 1971 would force another line-up change before the next record was completed.