[aleuzzi]

FM is one of those bands where whether a song sounds good or not live depends almost entirely on the collective energy in a performance. Landslide sometimes sounds fantastic live, other times awful. The same can be said of Dreams, Go Your Own Way, or any number of their songs.

But, in general, the live versions of songs that often fail to spark for me on a playback include "Don't Stop," "Gypsy," "Say You Love Me" (as much as it hurts me to type that)--in other words, some of the big hits that sounded great in the studio but benefit from flawless vocals and sophisticated arrangements.

Then there are those songs that really hit during a live show but when heard played back might sound less, uh, wonderful. Consider the Mirage concert video performance of "Love in Store," which had the crowd riled up and where, instrumentally at least, the bad was cooking. But Christine's vocals there were pretty awful on the playback. I've thought that way about versions of "Stand Back" and "Go Your Own Way," too.

"Hold Me" has been mentioned above but I think the live version I heard of it was charming.