Without the 1950s leanings of departed guitarist Jeremy Spencer, the band moved further away from blues and closer to the melodic pop sound that would finally break them into America four years later. After the band completed the album and turned it in, the record label said that it would not release an album with only seven songs, and demanded that they record an eighth. "What a Shame" was recorded hastily as a jam to fulfill this request.
Track notes
There is an early version of "Morning Rain" with the title "Start Again", as recorded in a BBC session on 5 January 1971. "What a Shame" featured saxophone from Christine McVie's brother John Perfect whose son Dan later co-produced and featured as guitarist/co-writer on McVie's 2004 albumIn the Meantime. The title track, written by then-newcomer Bob Welch, was later re-recorded for his 1979 solo album The Other One and again for His Fleetwood Mac Years & Beyond in 2003. The original version is featured in the 2000 movie Almost Famous. A heavily edited version of "Sands of Time" was an unsuccessful single in the United States and some other territories. This version was also released on the deluxe edition of the 50 Years – Don't Stop compilation in 2018. An alternate version of "Lay It All Down" appeared on the 1992 compilation 25 Years – The Chain.
Artwork
Early UK releases of this album, and some non-UK issues, have a yellow background to the picture of the two children and cover text. All subsequent releases have a green background. The 2013 vinyl reissue by Warner/Rhino available in the Fleetwood Mac: 1969 to 1972 4-LP box set restores the original yellow background to the album artwork and it was released as a standalone LP two years later.
Commercial performance
Future Games debuted at number 186 on the US ''Billboard 200 chart dated 30 October 1971. The album reached its peak at number 91 on the chart dated 18 December 1971, after being on the chart for eight weeks. The album ultimately spent a total of 12 weeks on the chart. On 4 October 2000, the album was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America for sales of over 500,000 copies in the United States.
Track listing
The song timings listed here are not as indicated on all CDs, since some of the timings on some releases are inaccurate. On some versions of the album, the notes state that the track "Woman of 1000 Years" runs for 8:20, when in fact it runs for 5:28. Similarly, "Morning Rain" is listed as 6:22 and runs for 5:38, while the track "Sometimes" is listed to run for 6:25 and only runs for 5:26.
