Favorite Welch-era record?
 

I'm new to the board, so please do forgive me if this is a tired topic. The Bob Welch era of the band seems to be the forgotten or lost era, I know that I'd heard the B&N and the Peter Green records before I ever knew about Bob Welch. So when I started recently getting interested in Fleetwood Mac again I decided to check out and immerse in those albums. I am loving a lot of things about that era, it's by turns funky and sublime. Right now I have Bare Trees on, for example, and Christine's "Homeward Bound" has become one of my all-time favorite songs by her. I also think "Why" is a more gorgeous ballad than "Songbird" (!) and Danny Kirwan's guitar makes me swoon. Bob's title track on Future Games is genius.

The only record that hasn't wowed me yet is Penguin. I'm having trouble deciding which is my favorite of the rest though. What do you think? What's the best Mac album of the first half of the 70's? I never know to include Kiln House with this era or the previous, so, your choice :)

Mystery To Me. Hands down!

Tie between "Mystery To Me" and "Future Games", but for very different reasons.

Mystery to Me is my favorite record from the Bob Welch era. The Welch lineup made some beautiful records together.....simply sublime.

I also love "Come A Little Bit Closer from Heroes are Hard To Find.

Well, for one thing, welcome here :angel:.

Thank you very much, glad to be here :)

I'm semi- new here myself. I joined this forum at the first of the year. Anyways my first Welch era album is Penguin. It is soooo underrated.

Hello :) What about Penguin do you love? Which songs? It doesn't stand out to me but I do love the cover ;)

Might I ask the reasons? I love both, and Bare Trees as well.

I don't think there's a bad song on "Future Games". There's a beautiful folky, jazzy quality that never forgets that it's supposed to rock first and foremost. It's the album the band had been working up to since at least "Then Play On". The songs are more extended, and the beauty of Kirwan's playing really shines through on this like on no other record. As a whole, it's completely unlike anything the Mac has ever done before or since. It may actually be my favorite Fleetwood Mac album ever.

"Mystery To Me" is great because by this record, Welch figured out his role in the band, and was contributing some monster songs. Christine also contributed some monster songs. Bob Weston's leads were a perfect compliment to those songs. It's not a perfect record, but the high points are amongst the highest in Fleetwood Mac's catalogue. "Believe Me", "Hypnotized", "Miles Away", and "Why" are every bit as good, if not better, than any of the "Rumours" singles, IMO. Weston's lead are stunning in a '70s kind of way.

FG is more "roll with it", whereas MTM is more carefully thought out.

Yes it is the most underrated of the FM albums (well that and "Time").

There are five albums in a row that are great FM albums and Penguin was the first. It was when FM really hit the peak of their abilities between 73 and 77.

I don't really have any specific reasons. Penguin is just a great rock n toll album.

Mystery To Me and Heroes seem more like designed aims at the charts (which I don't say as a bad thing, just observing). Also probably an effect of losing melancholy intense Danny Kirwan meant Bob Welch's sensibilities dominated more. Christine always seemed to me like a person who could adapt to the flavor of the moment.

Mystery to Me followed by Penguin.

Why? Because not only do they have Bob Welch, but they have Bob Weston.

While neither has the PG/DK/JS guitar mystique, they were both excellent players. I liked Welch's jazzy feel in composition and rhythm and Weston plays a lot of fiery leads which sometimes gets buried in the mix.

Plus, once one stops expecting FM v1, and listens to what is, effectively, a completely different band on its own merits, you find Welch doing some great songwriting and Weston playing some outstanding guitar in support.

I love Future Games. The overall sound of the record is so relaxed and spacious. My only complaints about the album are Christine's vocal on Morning Rain, which is uncharacteristically bad, and the short total running time. Easily one or two more songs could've fit on it. I don't see why, for instance, any number of Christine songs tried out on the Kiln House tour couldn't have gone on it. Still, this is all a quibble. In terms of a consistent album sound, Future Games has it.

All of the Welch-era albums have some great material on them but it's hard to pick a favorite or to praise one as a fully-realized record. They all seem fertile, full, occasionally bursting with ideas, but somehow transitional. Mystery seems the most forcefully realized of these records--but I'm not crazy about the mobile unit, and would have preferred the band recorded in a studio, as they did on FG and Heroes. Some of the Mystery songs, in particular, seem too close to the speakers or something. In terms of the engineering and mixing, Miles Away sounds the best.

Heroes Are Hard to Find. Great way to go out for Bob and the Mac. just adding that it comes after my least fav Welsh era record......so i'm in the minority there, so far:laugh:

Mick