While each Lindsey album offers completely different things, and I think Out Of The Cradle without a doubt the most powerful emotionally, I picked Gift Of Screws. It's just the perfect rock/pop album. Every song is worth it's weight in gold, and there's nothing on there that shouldn't be. The album is paced perfectly, and has the right mix of songs to keep it flowing, and it doesn't bog down. There are faster and slower paced songs, experimental and familiar sounds, but they just all fit together. I don't know, I guess I feel that Gift Of Screws is the album that took him nearly 30 years of being in the business to craft. Unlike some artists, Lindsey grows and gets better at his craft. And I truly think Gift is proof that he has whittled his talent and artistic statement to a fine point. There's just a certain wisdom to it. It's like after 35 years of trying, he finally hit his target as perfectly and cleanly as he'd always been trying. It's sort of a culmination of everything he's done: the experimentation of Tusk and Go Insane; the beauty of Fleetwood Mac, Rumours, and Out Of The Cradle; the independent nature of Law And Order; the pop sensibility of Mirage and to a greater degree, Tango. I think with Gift Of Screws, he finally figured out that all those virtues indeed were NOT mutually exclusive, that they could all coincide on one album, without negating each other, or being overbearing. I really hate that even his diehard fans haven't seen all these things, because I feel without a doubt that Gift Of Screws is the textbook definition of Lindsey's career and talent.
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