Oh yes, totally forgot about that one. "Behind The Mask" was very well done.

The song Behind the Mask is one of Christine's best crafted songs, it's just great and is the stand out on the album. I thought Stevie sounded great on Love is Dangerous and parts of the Second Time, but we'd heard enough of the hallways, stairs and staring on When I See You Again. Those honey coloured doors and long hallways ruined the fun of Affairs of the Heart, it was just not that good.

My love of Stevie's voice changed about this time, too. I know exactly what you mean.

Gosh, I hated this album when I first heard it. I still do. The title track and "Save Me" are the only songs I like (and I like them despite the production).

I remember thinking it was just such a sad showing of the combined talents. I could tell Vito was a stellar player, I could tell Stevie still had fire, I could clearly see Christine could still make great pop--but somehow they made all the wrong choices on this one. The cover art, the production, the arrangements, which songs were kept and which ones were dropped. If you're going to change the lineup, wholly embrace the changed lineup. Here it seemed a half-assed attempt to do so.

The album also has one of the worst Mac songs I've ever heard: "Skies the Limit." Anyone on this board knows I'm a HUGE Christine fan, so for me to outright hate one of her tunes means something is amiss. For me it's the generic chorus, the ungrammatical title, the rather washed-out lead and backing vocals...the whole song is just ugh.

It really is difficult to get through listening to this album without feeling embarrassed for either yourself for being a completist or for the band for having putting it out. I read a recent Christine interview in which she called the two nineties studio albums "terrible" and said "don't listen to them".

I wouldn't go that far for Time, oddly, but something clearly wrong with BTM. The one track I love is the title track. I don't get the criticism of the production- it sounds moody and mysterious, almost harking back to parts of Mystery to Me.

I've recently been putting together four CD-length compilations in which each Mac album and the EP have to have a representative included, and it's been a real struggle with this album. I opted for Behind the Mask, When the Sun goes down which sounds OK-ish sandwiched between Sad Angel and Mission Bell, The Second Time I have tried to put somewhere where its brevity will mean it won't get noticed to much, and I've been reduced to slotting in Freedom between the light, airy and underappreciated Nights in Estoril and Monday Morning .

People who bought and listened to this record on a roll from TITN must clearly have had it in their memory when the sales disaster of Time occurred, although the latter's lack of promotion can't have helped.