Welcome!!!!:nod:

Hi there! Another newbie here. My name is Chris and I'm 21 years old from Sydney, Australia (in case my extremely ambiguous username hadn't given the game away yet... haha).

Strange forum to begin my Ledge postings in I guess, but I've been listening to 'Behind The Mask' a lot recently.

Best: Save Me, Freedom
Worst: Stand On The Rock.


x

Hi Chris. Strange timing - I've literally just listened to Behind The Mask for the first time in over ten years! My thoughts regarding this album have not been altered upon this latest listening and in fact it has reconfirmed my belief that there is only one great song on this album that has indeed held up over the last 17 years... yes you guessed it - The Second Time.
I'll never understand why this has been so criticised considering that it contains a pretty little tune and a most heartfelt vocal from Stevie. It is slightly marred by that synth line but apart from that, you wouldn't necessarily be able to date it back to that particular era.
I do still like Love Is Dangerous, Behind The Mask and Freedom (shocking mix on this one!) but in terms of being moved, only The Second Time cuts it for me.

Hey Chris,

Welcome to the ledge! I really like BTM and Freedom is also one of my favs on the album. Stevie's tracks are my favourites but I'm total biased cos it's Stevie lol.

all the best,
Chris (also lol)

can't argue with that

my favorite is save me and freedom.i also like affairs of the heart.

I just got this album recently expecting it to be "just okay" since I'd heard a lot of bad things about it. Luckily I was happily suprised! It's a really good album IMO. Only thing that I'm not too keen on is Stevie's lyrics. The first verse of "Affairs of the Heart" actually really annoys me. Almost makes me angry. They're just so banal - they're just too Stevie! It's like a parody... Get's (a little) better after that though.

I couldn't really choose a best yet since I've only listened to it about 10 times, but all of Christine's songs are great, as are most of the guys stuff. "In The Back Of My Mind" and "Hard Feelings" are ones I particularly like. "Stand on the Rock" is a little flat for some reason, but it's still OK. I even think "The Second Time" is alright.

I haven't listened to this album in forever, but I have to agree with Alice on those song choices.

My favorite: Save Me

Least favorite: Behind the Mask

I also love Do You Know, Skies the Limit, Freedom, In the Back of My Mind, the Second Time, Love is Dangerous, When It Comes to Love, and Affairs of the Heart.

Favorite: In the back of my mind
Least favorite: Hard Feelings

I am surprised that only one other person listed Hard feelings as their least favorite. That is the worst Mac song in their entire catalog IMHO. Its horrible. The lyrics are so cheezy stupid. The singing is like nails down a chalk board. The music is so basic.

Behind the Mask is a 50/50 album. Half of it is very good while the other half is not great or terrible. I love how they took a chance and went to left field for In the back of my mind.

My favorites
Behind the Mask
Skies the Limit (and yes I love the way skies is spelled)
In the back of my mind
Freedom
When it comes to love
Do you know
Love is Dangerous
Save Me

The clunkers:
Hard Feelings
Stand on the Rock
Second time
Affairs of the heart
When the sun goes down (its the best of the clunkers)

I hated Hard Feelings for the longest time, and then one day I was listening to the CD in my car and it just snuck up on me and now I like it more than I hate it.

The song I'm surprised to see a lot of people don't like is Do You Know. I think it's a beautiful song and Christine and Billy did a great job with it. Their voices sound beautiful together.

I agree. I just attacked Billy's singing on Hard Feelings but his voice and Christine's sound so good together on Do You Know. I used to sing this song in my car all the time. I also LOVE the keyboard playing. Its so Christine and it sounds so good. That was something missing from Tango....Christine playing keyboards. Too much of that album was programmed. I think Do You Know is a highlight of BTM.

This is, by far, my least favorite Mac record. It sounds so bloated and generic. Nothing many people haven't already made said in this thread.

Many of the songs had a real chance to sound good, but they needed to be stripped down a bit and rearranged more imaginatively.

My favorite tunes are Save Me and the title track. Even with the horrendous production and arrangements, these two songs are inventive and sung with real spirit.

Not to offened anyone, but...
 

To be perfectly honest, the only song I can listen to is Save Me.