I was pleased with the EP overall, but believe it could have been stronger. "Sad Angel" and "It Takes Time" are both excellent in my opinion, but "Without You" is lacklustre and "Miss Fantasy" plods along at an ill-suited pace. Both of these could have been improved with more appropriate production.
Of course, Stevie's minimal involvement and apparent lack of enthusiasm for the project were most evident. Lazy old bugger that she is.

I think having Christine's keyboards on "Miss Fantasy" would have helped the song's pace, but the actual production sounds fine to me. Then again, I'm a huge fan of Mitchell Froom's producing.

I bet that's recently changed :laugh:

This is what I'd really love to see Christine do live on stage.
FARMER'S DAUGHTER!!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2djQ7mevblo

finally some positive words about the EP. i'm completely puzzled by all the hate. :confused: yes, it threads mostly old grounds (recycled old song, and 2 songs that are sounding pure like FM formula), but listening through new songs of the band one is such a huge fan just once is just incomprehensible to me (i even listened to IYD 5-10 times!!). i can understand it for SN fans, since she's barely there, but FM fans? just don't get it. Sad Angel may be a formula song, but it's a great formula. and Miss Fantasy... well it's really poppy. both songs are nicely produced so i don't see that's the problem. It Takes Time is interesting departure... one may not like it, but can't say it's not different and interesting. people seem to be really divided on that one - some absolutely love it, others hate it. and yeah all 4 songs together are not cohesively produced... maybe they should have gone with Lindsey's original "throwing 2 songs on itunes" instead of Stevie's "let's have an EP" as far as cohesiveness goes, but i'd much rather have 4 songs than 2.

I agree about this. I may listen to some things just once, but I would never claim to have an opinion on them (much less a strong and static one) based on a single listening, not when I know it took me two YEARS to recognize the beauty in Trouble in Shangri-la.

In fact, even on a long album like SYW, I don't skip over the songs I hate, just in case time might change my mind. The songs I dislike on that album I've heard at least 100 times.

Michele

If they come back out after Songbird and close with Farmer's Daughter again, I will be wild.

But honestly, any song they can find a way to do all on the floor together at the end would be really nice.

Michele

I haven't spent enough time listening to Miss Fantasy or It Takes Time - this is something I need to do. Without You hasn't really grown on me, but I can understand why it had its place on the EP. But just to say....I thought Sad Angel live was amazing. I liked it before I went to the concert, but played live it really stood out for me. It ended up being my favourite part of the show. It sounded fresh, uplifting and vibrant. I'm so pleased with Lindsey's determination to bring out new music.

???:shrug:

Is this an "IDK" response or an I don't understand what you are saying response. haha

Not sure... I personally haven't seen them live with her sadly but I took my mom and cousin to the Toronto show and my mom kept asking me "Where's the other blonde."
I had to tell her there was only one now :/ Then I had to explain to her that she just moved back to England for a long break before she starting assuming the worst.
There were evening a few people older than me in line for mercy that asked me why she wasn't on any of the tees (probably because i was head to toe in black chiffon and I looked like a mini Stevie myself back then when I had my blond hair)
I think it will be much different. As Lindsey has said, since she's left they've made it into more of a rock band and if Christine came back it'd be different because the member that added that taste of pop and blues to it so I think if she does there will be massive changes.
Hopefully positive minor changes

i don't know. Lindsey said forever that FM on stage is a rock band, while their albums are mostly glossy pop. it was always like that, with Christine or not (with the exception of SYW album, i guess - which average FM fans don't really like that much). and even with the 4, most of Stevie's songs they perform are either ballads or adult contemporary-ish while his are more of a rocking pop or slightly punkish. so there's a huge dichotomy there with the 4 too. i don't see that it will be that big of a change with the addition of Christine's songs, but it will also depend on which songs they choose to add.

that said, that's why i prefer LB solo to FM... other than SOTM and silver springs, i really didn't enjoy much of the SN songs, even though i love GDW and landslide in general. i got bored with the current version of mac live. LB solo shows, especially OMS, i never got bored with, no matter how many times i've seen the same show. there was always something new and exciting to discover, and there was so much more music served to a fan in the course of each show.

With or without Christine, they are not really a heavy rock band. Lindsey isn't the most masculine music writer either. But I think that's what makes the chemistry so great. They all blend well together.

nope. after all, Neale is the one who wrote Come. :D

for the most part, they are not even rock band, let alone heavy.

i think Lindsey considers himself pop, but the stuff i like from him is either folkish, punkish, or rock, or those songs of his based on cascading fingerpicking guitar. i can't stand Trouble (with the exception of it's quirky start). or most of his Mirage or Tango songs. there's a lot of LB's music i don't really like, but the stuff i do like i love so much that it way outweighs the other stuff. while confused at first with his musical diversity of styles i can appreciate his having that huge range now.

Christine is pop master. she is the McCartney of that band. of course, i prefer Lennon. which nobody is in FM. or Harrison.

when i first heard Greatest Hits i was disappointed. i expected FM to be more Peter Green-era like. GH is Christine-heavy. pure happy pop. nothing wrong with that but not what i expected or wanted from FM. i couldn't believe that's the same band as the one with Albatross and Oh Well (well, it really is not). i bought GH back in 1992 maybe, listened to it a few times searching for something to like, couldn't believe what i was hearing, hated it and put it down. i was young. i enjoyed grunge. in 2009 when i finally decided to dive into LB's music after hearing Second Hand News over and over on the radio i listened to GH again, and enjoyed it. all those bubbly Christine songs made me happy. and a bit nostalgic, from hearing them all those years before, i guess. ;)