Major problem...I like them all about equally...a ever so slight dip in quality on
Kiln House &
Penguin counterbalanced by the peaks on
Then Play On &
Mystery To Me...and dips & valleys all on one album (
Bare Trees).
Although I do think had it not been for the off-stage foibles during the
Mystery To Me tour (or if they could've channeled that pain an anguish like they did just a measly 3 or 4 years later), it could've been what
Rumours ended up being (odd how interpersonal relationships almost killed the band after one album, yet a very similar situation after another launched the band into the stratosphere of popularity which was the glue keeping them together)
Looking back from nearly 40 years on, there really wasn't a major shift in the band's sound from album to album despite personnel changes. It was just a slight blending from album to album...like the songwriters knew what was coming even if they weren't going to be around. You go from "Rattlesnake Shake" on
Then Play On to "Tell Me All The Things You Do" on
Kiln House to the "Dragonfly" single A-side having a
Kiln House feel to the B-side "Purple Dancer" almost being a major announcement of what was coming on
Future Games...then with
Bare Trees being the first album in a while to have the same lineup as the album prior and "Child Of Mine" & "Homeward Bound" being lead-ins to
Penguin and "Dissatisfied" & "Bright Fire" also blending into the entire
Mystery To Me album followed by
Heroes Are Hard To Find blending tunes with sounds of what came just before ("Bermuda Triangle", the title track) and a sound that the founder gave ("Safe Harbour" being Welch's attempt at an "Albatross" type track), to Welch forseeing the sound of the next incarnation with "She's Changing Me" & "Angel", neither of which would have been out of place on the 1975 self-titled album.