Same with Jon Anderson. His whole mountains/river/sea/heart schtick only just recently started getting irritating when Yes started making sub-par albums. He's been doing that for years now, and unlike Christine, we get to hear him on EVERY song of EVERY Yes album. I could listen to him sing Charlottes Web though and still love it.
After hearing them a few times, I've come to the conclusion that neither album is spectacular, but both have their merits. Heroes actually is good enough and the far superior one of the two and contains a fair share of tracks I like, mainly all of Christines (I LOVE Prove Your Love, and Heroes and Come a Little Bit Closer about equally) and She's Changing Me may very well be Bob's catchiest tune he wrote with the band, which has stellar vocal harmonies. I also like the psychedelic Coming Home quite a bit too, along with Born Enchanter and Silver Heels. Hell, Angel is cool too. I'd say it's a 3 1/2 star album. There's nothing on it I dislike and I can see it growing on me.
Penguin, the more I hear it, the more "off" it sounds. It's been said many times and I have to agree that Dave Walker was totally unnecessary. Does he even ever sing any backup vocals or just his two songs? I dont hear him on the rest of the CD. So they get this guy, and the best contribution he brings to the band is a cover tune? What a waste of flesh! The Derelict isn't that bad but it's nothing that warrents having the extra member to pay. Plus, he's really ugly. Not that that is important or anything, but it's just one more thing.
I love all of Christines songs here, especially Dissatisfied and the carribean Did You Ever Love Me. That song makes me want to hang on the beach with a pina colada, nice vibe.
Bob's Night Watch is also pretty cool, and the mellotron was used to much better effect on this track than the aimless mellotron noodlings of The Ghost. I wonder if that was Christine playing it. Either way I always find myself wanting to hear more mellotron on the older Mac stuff, especially on the dreamy instrumental stuff like Sunny Side Of Heaven and on some of the ballads.
Glad I have Penguin for the few songs on it I do like, but I could never see myself putting it in and not skipping anything.