The fictional album in the original novel was loosely based on Fleetwood Mac's eleventh studio album Rumours (1977). The cast rehearsed many of the songs at their homes during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. All the songs were recorded and mixed at the Sound City Studios in Los Angeles. The album received generally positive reviews for musical quality and conveying the essence of the fictional band as well as the music of the 1970s.
Background
Series showrunner Taylor Jenkins Reid recruited Blake Mills to produce the album, along with fellow record producer Phoebe Bridgers and singer-songwriter Chris Weisman. "I'm not a musician. I hear something in my head, but it's not anything that anyone could make into a song," she said. "So the idea that people are going to create this album is incredibly exciting to me. I was meeting with one of the guys at Amazon, and we were talking about the music, and he was saying he was very daunted by the task of having to create the song 'Aurora'. He was like, 'You have made it out to be the greatest album of the 1970s!' And now he has to go figure out a way to make it. I'm just glad it's not my problem."[1] According to Blake Mills, who was interviewed by Jonathan Bernstein of Rolling Stone in June 2020, "there's an opportunity to subvert and create a guitar personality that could have been present in the Seventies, and wasn't [...] People just loved guitar at that point. So I’m trying to find an appreciation for the instrument and try to bend it to my will a little bit."[3]
Release history
The album was announced on January 25, 2023, with the track list also being revealed.[4][5] It was planned to be released on March 3, 2023 coinciding with the series. But the MP3 album released two days earlier than scheduled, whereas the physical form was released on vinyl by Ellemar Records (the fictional record label in the original novel) on March 2. The LP edition was issued as a two-sided 180-gram disc, on multicolored vinyl with variants such as orange, blue translucent, yellow translucent and teal.[6] The latter was released as a special edition through Barnes & Noble retailers.[7]
Singles
The album was led by the first single "Regret Me" released on the same day as the album preview on January 25, 2023. The album was performed by Keough and Claflin along with Nicki Bluhm and James Petralli performing the background vocals.[4] The second track "Look at Us Now (Honeycomb)" was released on February 15, 2023.[8] Two versions of the song were released: a single edit that runs four minutes and 30 seconds, and a five minute, thirty-two second longer version. [9][10] Mumford subsequently released his own version of "Look at Us Now" alongside Maren Morris.
Writing for Pitchfork, Pete Tosiello scored the album 6.6 out of 10 and wrote "Aurora is the soft-rock holy grail, an achievement that transforms American music and rends its creators in the process. The series is burdened by the same strictures as folk musicals Begin Again and Juliet, Naked, not to mention low-prestige cable dramas Vinyl and Dave: In dramatizing the creative process and the difficulty of genius, the work becomes secondary. Logistically, a narrative hinging on transcendent music is undone when the songs are just pretty good. The album struggles to apprehend Fleetwood Mac's audacity, conflating a '70s rock pinnacle with easy-listening ballads. Aurora is bold only as far as tribute-band supergroups go."[14] Tilly Pearce of Den of Geek summarized "for an album based on a TV show, Aurora has no right to be this dang good – full of earworm tracks that will remain in your head for ages."[16]
Vicky Greer in his review for The Line of Best Fit gave 7/10 and wrote "Purists might be jarred by the fact that the series' version of Aurora bears little resemblance to the book, but don't let that put you off – this album captures all the magic and intensity created by Taylor Jenkins Reid."[13] Cate Pasterchick of Beyond The Stage also rated the same and summarised "While the album could never outdo its non-fictional equivalents, Aurora serves its purpose of emulating the greats. Aurora is nostalgic, but it's not the heart and soul of 70s music. That kind of magnetism can only be found in the original era. With that being said, Daisy Jones & The Six's one and only album beautifully immortalizes the beloved book."[12]Will Hodgkinson of The Times stated, "For a Seventies band who never existed, this is pretty authentic".[15] Marcy Donelson of AllMusic wrote: "In the end, while Aurora plays out more like a cast album than unearthed period vinyl, it does hover on the spectrum, and the actor/musicians come to play while songs suggest the intended period Los Angeles music scene, if they rarely stand strong enough on their own to create their own legend."[11]
