For the BuckinghamNicks era, the first three FM albums were the ones where all three writers were basically firing on all cylinders. I do think McVie didn't produce as sharply hook-y pop songs on Tusk as she did on other albums, but that album is so brilliant otherwise that it's easy to overlook that.
Mirage suffered from Buckingham being subdued due to the backlash from the commercial "failure" of Tusk, TITN suffered from Nicks songs not up to the usual very high quality of previous FM albums, SYW was over-long but an otherwise very good album.
BTM definitely suffered from the lack of Buckingham, and I didn't even bother with Time.
I definitely think FM has more to give album wise - both Buckingham and Nicks have released a series of brilliant late career solo albums.
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