I love SM too, in fact these are the only 2 songs that I like of that album :(

I liked:
In The Back Of My Mind
Do You Know
Save Me
Behind The Mask
Stand On The Rock
Freedom

My favorites are Do You Know, Save Me and Freedom. This is also one of the few FM albums I can hear from start to finsih, there is no really bad track on it. After TITN it was so great to hear an album made by people who actually LIKE their work. Made by humans for humans, I cannot explain it better. Tango was such a shock to me, I hated the production, the elevator songs (Mystified is sooo bad, I kinda never recovered from that one) and the throwaway lyrics, worst on Family Man, but all over the album. To me, Tango came across with a clear message: "They buy it anyway". On BTM they weren't so sure anymore and that was a good thing. Imho.

I understand that I really must have strange/old fashioned tastes...or maybe I'm just a 70s-80s fanatic, and this explains why :D Honestly, at first Mystified shocked me too, but with the time I started liking it veeery much. It's really relaxing and sweet and I love that kind of "oriental style" sounds that sometime you can find in FM songs. It's a bit like a lullaby.
Mystified, Brown eyes and Warm ways, for example, are that kind of songs that I love to listen with my eyes closed, specially when I'm in bed...so soothing :o
But really, I know that my tastes can be quite incomprehensible at times..

Between Gypsy and No Limits/Zero, the best produced Mac song is "Family Man."

I agree that Family Man was a strong production and the remixes were really special - but I was talking about the lyrics.

This songs I find technically beautiful and I love Christine, but they bore me to tears, I avoid them if possible. That does not mean that I don't appreciate the melodies or the lyrics, It's just that I can't with slow songs in general.

Have you ever heard of poetic license? I think you are over-thinking it. Not all art is supposed to make perfect sense. The way the song was titled took a mundane phrase and made it interesting.

"Behind The Mask" is one of those albums that seems to polarize FM's fanbase. I tend to put myself into a category of fans of this album. Definately it's not their best but for me it's far better than "Tango In The Night" which for the most part was plainly bad (at least Nick' output). For me best songs are:
"Sky's The Limit"
"Do You Know"
"Love Is Dangerous"
"Behind The Mask"
"Freedom"
"Hard Feelings"
"Affairs of The Heart"

I never really thought of it that way, but I guess you're right. I've noticed that there is a massive drop of fans between the Tango album and Behind the Mask. Like for the polls in my various contests, Tango polls got around 50 or so responses, while BTM get about half that.

Of course the major difference between the two albums is Lindsey. Although his songs weren't typically the "hits", it was his producing abilities that made the albums and key songs "hits". With him gone, Behind the Mask lost that thing I've heard called the "Fleetwood Mac sound". :cool:

Save Me SUCKED- such complete predictable & mediocre dreck that Christine sometimes wanders into effortlessly. Skies the Limit is a better constructed song suffering from a bad arrangement! I was embarrassed that FM released Save Me as the 1st single from BTM -- Save me from this song! I don't think I have played it more than 10 x's over the last 22 years:cool:! An edit of In the Back of Your Mind, Love Is Dangerous, Do You Know, or When It Comes to Love would have all been better choices. But ultimately BTM suffered a lack of concrete and solid singles.:shrug: I find it is amazing that BTM was successful as it was.

HUH:distress:

To me BTM lost the signature Mac sound, and Christine's work ended up sounding banal. The boys really tried and there are some good things on the album, but I sure missed Lindsey's production on it. The only BTM song I ever really dig out to listen to is - wait for it - don't hate me - The Second Time. To me it is one of those beautiful Stevie weepers.

The new pieces on Greatest Hits were both, to me, gorgeous stuff - As Long As You Follow (perhaps my all-time favourite from Chris), and No Questions Asked. Delicious. A BTM follow-up disc with more of that would have been perfect.

As for TITN, well, Lindsey's song contributions were irritating overworked fragments except for Big Love. But the production, wow. The rest of the album is sheer perfection, to me, I even love to wallow in Mystified and When I See You Again.

In retrospect, I'm not overly keen on the Rick and Billy line up (although both are very talented musicians), Behind the Mask had some element of creativity to it that makes it a good listen. The Mac took a few risks like In the Back of My Mind and to even open the shows with the tune shows that they were putting in an effort to turn the page and start a new era for the band. I really enjoy the title track and some of Stevie's vocals are really good especially on Love is Dangerous and Freedom. I wonder if this line up would have grown on me with a couple more albums, I guess we'll never know but perhaps they could've had a hit if a full album with As Long as You Follow as the lead single and that awesome duet between Rick and Stevie (Desiree) where Stevie turns in a vocal that rivals anything she's ever done.

"The Second Time" is the ONLY song on BTM that I dislike...no, that's not strong enough...I abhor it! It, for me, is Fleetwood Mac's all time WORST song...even worse than Danny Kirwan's "When You Say".

Even "Lizard People" would've been a better choice to end the album.

Well, that said, Rick's "Stand On The Rock" isn't one of his better songs (even from the BTM sessions), but I still kind of like it.

I think the overall mix of the album is kind of muddy...none of the songs have a crisp sound to them. It's almost like listening to it with a couple of blankets thrown over the speakers.

Also, the running order just annoys the hell out of me. My iPod playlist (which also includes a couple of outtakes I felt SHOULD've been on the album...and a couple of songs that were recorded quite a bit earlier that should've been used for an entire album with the then new lineup instead of as "new" songs on a Greatest Hits album):

When The Sun Goes Down
Behind The Mask
Hard Feelings
Freedom
As Long As You Follow
Intuition
Save Me
Paper Doll
Got No Home
Affairs Of The Heart
When It Comes To Love
Skies The Limit
Love Is Dangerous
In The Back Of My Mind
Do You Know?
Lizard People

I do this too. It's also fun using songs from TOSOTM.

Right now, this is my playlist version (though it has changed over the years):

Skies The Limit
Victim Of Love
Intuition
Affairs Of The Heart
Do You Know
In The Back Of My Mind
Whole Lotta Trouble
Behind The Mask
When The Sun Goes Down
Save Me
Got No Home
Rooms On Fire
The Game Of Love