Behind the mask
 

Is this album worth getting? I thought about getting it last Saturday, but ended up getting Time, just to see whether it was any good.

Behind the Mask is a very good album and is definitely worth getting. My favorite songs on the album are When The Sun Goes Down and the title track, Behind The Mask. In my opinion, it's a lot better than Time.

Two thumbs up for Behind the Mask!!! :D

A DEFINITE must for your collection! The songs are fantastic!!!

There's this one guy that sings on there, I think his name is Billy Burnette...maybe you've heard of him?:laugh: He is AWESOME!!!

Go back and get it before it's gone! Let us know what you think too!


Michele :wavey:

You definately would have been better off getting BTM instead of Time. BTM is really an awesome album :) Go get it next time! :)

Matt

Re: Behind the mask
 

It's not a favorite of mine -- I find it lacks conviction, the perspective on the songs is so formulaic, & all in all is just not terrifically bracing or rewarding -- but by all means check it out if you're curious. Any album is always "worth getting" if you feel like hearing something new, particularly an album like "Behind the Mask," about which opinion seems to be divided.

ANY album by Fleetwood Mac is worth getting!!!

"Behind The Mask" isn't one of my favorite Fleetwood Mac albums (as a whole), either, but it DOES have a few of my favorite Fleetwood Mac SONGS:

In The Back Of My Mind
Do You Know?
When The Sun Goes Down
Save Me

Plus, it's the only full album with Rick Vito & Billy Burnette as members...it's just too bad that the album didn't really reflect how good this incarnation was compared to how they came off live. They had SO much untapped potential, it's a shame that they only did one album together.

"When the Sun" is probably the album's high point for me. They ran through that one a couple of times live, too -- up at Cal Expo in Sacramento. Nice, bright & chirpy.

My Japanese students all liked it the best from Fleetwood Mac, oddly enough.

I won't be able to get until at least Noivember, or even Christmas, but I will tell u what I think when I get it.

Behind The Mask is a very good album.

At some points you get the feeling that they are losing the perspective, but you also get to hear more collaborations between members of the band (see the credits: Nicks/Vito, Vito/Burnette, McVie/Burnette) which is something we hadn't seen before and makes it insteresting.

Another good thing is that in almost every song you get the feeling that Fleetwood Mac at that point was a band with four very good singers. Stevie is heard amongst almost each and every track, and, taking "In The Back Of My Mind" as an example, I hear Billy's, Stevie's and Christine's voices singing lead, not all together necessarily. I suppose that feeling of collaboration was something that they never had (at this level at least) in the Rumours incarnation. Of course there is friendship and everything, but at this moment I think the band was confused enough with Lindsey's departure that these collaborations and "team spirit" were something naturally born, that makes the album get richer and richer. Of all of the four songwriters, only Christine shines, though, with all of her offerings ("Skies The Limit", "Save Me", "Behind The Mask" and "Do You Know") being fantastic high points. While Stevie gets applauses for "Affairs Of The Heart" and "The Second Time", I don't quite like "Freedom"... Rick is only 'allowed' to do three songs... his own "Stand On The Rock" which is pretty cool; the "Love Is Dangerous" collaboration with Stevie; and the "When The Sun Goes Down" collaboration with Billy. Mr.Burnette does a good job in his own "In The Back Of My Mind" (a very interesting track with weird sound effects) and in his collaboration with Christine ("Do You Know") and "Hard Feelings".

Overall, a good album, not the best from the band, but anyway something worth getting.


Song of the moment - In The Back Of My Mind

I picked up 'Behind The Mask' the day of its release, and played it non-stop for months... and, to this day, it's still an album I listen to a lot (Have it playing right now, in fact).

At the time, I was thrilled that Fleetwood Mac recorded an album with a little more of a rock and roll feel. 'Tango In The Night' was an awesome album, but it was very "pop"... so the harder edge of 'Behind The Mask' was very exciting at the time.

In hindsight, i wish the production had been a little brighter, and not so murky sounding... but that's only a minor quibble.

There are a lot of highlights to be found there, and a great number of songs stand up quite well next to Fleetwood Mac's more well-known songs.
"Save Me," "Freedom," and "In The Back Of My Mind," are my main favorites.
I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with "Do You Know" though. Sometimes I can listen, and enjoy it on certain levels... but most times I just find it downright boring.
Conversely, I'm very fond of "The Second Time," and I think it made an excellent closer for the album... though I realize that it's not a favorite of very many people.
But I guess we can't all love *every* song. :)

Speaking of favorites.... I remember the host of the Japanese show Sound Gig also citing "When The Sun Goes Down" as his favorite from the album.
It's interesting that it was this song in particular that they responded to.


Johnny Stew

Re: The Second Time
 

If anything, this one and Christine's "All Over Again", from Time are sister songs... To me they both are their personal way or saying goodbye to the band.. Stevie in her own ethereal way, and Christine more clear, showing all the love in her heart and letting it flow oustide. :) I really like "The Second Time", by the way. :)


Song Of The Moment - In The Back Of My Mind

And, some (myself included) rank it as either THE worst Fleetwood Mac song of all, or #2 in that category (behind "When You Say")

chili... you forgot Christine's "One More Night"!
:)


Johnny Stew

I like 'When you say'

Conversely, I say "When You Like."
When I like, you say.

Say, you, like, when? ...again?

I don't think When You Say is that bad. It's not Danny Kirwin's best, but it's OK. In my opinion, When I See You Again and The Second Time are right up there among the worst Fleetwood Mac songs.

My Fleetwood Mac BOTTOM 5
 

1) The Second Time (Behind The Mask)
2) When You Say (Then Play On CD)
3) Welcome To The Room...Sara (Tango In The Night)
4) Roadrunner (Penguin)
5) When I See You Again (Tango In The Night)


(Even Mrs. Scarrot's poem doesn't suck bad enough to make the bottom five)

"Only Over You"
 

Don't forget "Only Over You" which is the only Fleetwood Mac song known to create motion sickness in listeners...

So you all think "Family Man" is a good song??? It comes real close to a total stinker to me, and it's the worst FM song I've ever heard... kind of tied with "Roadrunner", though.


Song of the moment - Fireflies

I like Family Man. I hated it the first time I heard it and would always laugh when that voice says(after Lindsey say a family man)'a family man.'

Count me "in" on Family Man, too...I don't think it's a well crafted song, but the guitar work on it is just brilliant; which, being a guitar player myself, takes precidence. :)

I love what I call the "bass B-3" sound on "Empire State", VERY Brian Wilson-ish. Ya know, Mick, in his book, says that "Empire State" was kind of a "make-up" song for the bad vibes of Welch's "The City"...I'm not so sure I agree with that. I think that there's such a "competition" (subconciously ingraned in people) between NY & LA...Lindsey had just released a song called "That's How We Do It In L.A." on Law & Order...and to not alienate his NY fans, wrote "Empire State" for his subsequent album (which ended up being a Fleetwood Mac album instead).

What?? Do you remember me saying "One More Night" was a stinker at some point?? I CERTAINLY don' think so (NOWadays, anyway!)

*lol* No, you never said it was (that I know of)... *I* was saying it was! :laugh:

It's not horrible really, just... boring.
IMHO.

As far as my least favorite Mac songs... those pretty much all belong to Jeremy Spencer.
As hard as I've tried, I've just never gained much appreciation for him.
Don't get me wrong, there are a few songs that Jeremy sang and played lead on, that i *do* really like... but there's only a handful of them.

I've pretty much always felt though, that even the lamest Mac tune is still better than many artists' best work.
Which is why I really don't tend to bash any of Fleetwood Mac's songs.


Johnny Stew

Re: "Only Over You"
 

Black Label Society makes me more motion-sick than a Christine McVie song ever could.

"Only Over You" features some of the most beautiful passages in all music -- I refer to the chord progression underlying the "Angel please don't go/I miss you when you're gone" lyric.

"Family Man" may just be the most brilliant piece of pop music ever conceived by a North American. But of course you with your Chilean ears may not hear quite what I'm hearing with my Californian ears. That's the drawback of geographical distance.

Of course, my third world ears could really be causing me confusions... However there is no absolute "good" or "bad" at anything, so we're allowed to disagree peacefully.


Song Of The Moment - Alice

I like When I see you again, but I don't like These strange times that much.

The Second Time is the WORST. I've never heard When You Say. I still like to think Danny Kirwan can do no wrong. Of course the only danny CD's I own are bare trees and future games, so i don't want to ruin his record:rolleyes:

"When You Say" is Danny's ONLY stinker...out of all the tunes he did with FMac:

Jigsaw Puzzle Blues
Like It This Way
Only You
World's In A Tangle
Talk With You
One Sunny Day
Without You
Something Inside Of Me
World In Harmony (mostly Danny's tune, but Peter wrote the middle bit, so Danny gave him co-write credit)
Although The Sun Is Shining
Like Crying
Station Man
Tell Me All The Things You Do
Jewel Eyed Judy
Tell Me From The Start
Earl Grey (aka Farewell)
Sands Of Time
Sometimes
Woman Of A Thousand Years
Child Of Mine
Dust
Danny's Chant
Bare Trees
Sunny Side Of Heaven

To have ONE song that was pretty awful out of THIS list, is really allowable! :thumbsup: (But, why Christine decided to record a version of it is beyond me! :confused: :laugh:

And, also...don't avoid it just because I call it a "stinker"...listen for yourself...you might LIKE the song. (nothing against you if you do...there's some songs that a lot of folks here don't care for that I do & vice versa...your own ears are the best judge of how good a song is to you.)

I feela bit foolish now - I don't have any pre-BN albums (I saw an LP of Then play On in a shop - $A30 - worth it, in a sentimental sense? I have the Rumours LP, but no player. I know Then Play On is a great album).

Yet When Say On is one of my few pre-BN songs and I am a fan. It's very soothing and the climax just builds nicely like Over & Over. I would love to hear the Christine version - but where is that? Was it released on something?? The Legendary CP album?

BTW some thoughts on BTM (remeber the thread topic? lol). Was it so wise to have what looks like aband but is not FM on the cover? If I showed it to my friends they'd think that was the band, not the impressionistic strange thing it is.

Secodnly, its proabbly just that harmonica/accordion sound, bbut I JUST noticed a slight similarity between Affairs of the Heart and I Know I'm Not Wrong!! lol

Yes, Christine's version of When You Say is on her solo Christine Perfect album. I think her version is a bit better than Danny's version. While When You Say is not one of my favorite songs, I definitely don't hate it. It's an OK song.

I also think it was strange that the band didn't appear on the BTM cover, especially since this was the first studio album with this particular lineup of Fleetwood Mac. Maybe, it may have confused some people not very familiar with the new lineup when they saw the cover.

Take a gander back at their album covers...how many covers actually HAVE the band pictured?? I can't off the top of my head THINK of one. Sure, a couple have Mick (English Rose& HaHtF), the white album has Mick & John, Rumours has Mick & Stevie; that's it. Oh, wait..."Mirage" has Chris, Lindsey & Stevie.

Is it worse than These strange times?

OH YES it is. I like These Strange Times quite a bit. But i can easily see how it could be dis liked.

Re: THESE STRANGE TIMES...
 

Maybe u r right.

It's not that bad, it's amazing.