[Macfan4life]

Originally Posted by bwboy

Yes, definitely.

Two thoughts regarding Patrick Leonard; first, while the glory days for FM at that point were past, I can’t help but wonder what a full album of songs produced by Patrick would have sounded like. Judging from the two songs he did produce, they would have been incredible, and Christine would have finally come into her own. Could Patrick have also worked wonders with Billy’s songs, too?

Second, what would Patrick have been able to do with Stevie’s material then? Most of us agree that her writing well had been tapped since the Wild Heart- When I See You Again, Welcome to the Room Sara, Paper Doll, Freedom, the Second Time, Affairs of the Heart, most of Rock a Little, OSOTM, and Street Angel were all evidence of that. Could Patrick have done something better with Affairs of the Heart? He made Christine’s songs sound so lush, I think he could have done the same with AOTH. Also Planets of the Universe, if anyone would have thought of that old nugget.

I love Behind the Mask, but knowing the album underperformed and many fans don’t care for it, I can’t help but wonder what the end result would have been if FM had paid out big bucks to Patrick Leonard to produce or at least co-produce Behind the Mask. Imagine Heart of Stone and Love Shines on that album and already the album jumps up several notches. Its a good album or at least half of it is. The other half is meh to ok. But if they went commercial it would have been a disaster IMHO. I think its a very underrated album.
If only…

I dont really disagree with you. But its important to remember that BTM was not chasing pop success the way Tango was. The band dove deep back into blusey sound and did not embrace a pop sound. Having said that, YES Chris still can write some good pop songs like Save Me and Skies The Limit. But the album is good IMHO because it stands on its own. All the songs have real instruments. Chris plays keyboards all over it and no drum machines. That is something I did not like on Tango. Stevie's songs were the weakness of the album as crazy as that sounds. Long story short, I admire them for going what was pleasing to their ears compared to chasing Tango's sugar pop radio success.