For me there is no connection between the name Fleetwood Mac and being a fan. I like a certain sound and a certain music and that is very much connected to what LB is doing with the band. So I don't care for the two albums after Lindseys departure.
I saw the TITN tour featuring R.Vito and B.Burnette. They did a good job there and are good musicians also but I had rather seen Lindsey live and it was lacking a certain spirit imo. And regarding the songwriting on BTM- I thought that their songs were uninteresting. (although this one was a little bit better than Time)
I became a fan back in 87 when I saw the freshly released video to Big love- liked the song initially and remember thinking "these people are looking old but that`s a great song- who are they?"
(What will 18 year olds from today think seeing a band of mid50s people releasing an album called Say you will?
Then I discovered by chance that Rumours was from the same band- a friend had bought it and we listened to it and were pretty enthusiastic about it and about that this band had also currently done TITN. Within a few weeks I got all the Rumours lineup albums and found them all great. Soon tusk was my favourite- immediately I was thrilled by the weird LB tracks. I also liked Stevie as a great counterpart to LB's songs. I think I like her voice more than her songwriting but she also provided really great ideas. Christines music is to me the the most contradictionary. She made fantastic pop songs like Hold me, Little lies and others. And then also provides the stuff that I dislike the most like Only over you for example. I never got into any of her songs on Tusk except of Think about me. Her songs do imo not fit into the concept of this album whereas Stevies songs are perfectly fitting there. But then again she made a big part on the two follow up albums. What was great- there were 3 totally different songwriters and voices sharing space on an album. Nearly any other band has one singer and mostly one songwriter. But the FM approach was somehow unique and Lindsey managed to get these different styles together in a certain typical sound.
I also checked out the preRumours thing. I think that the blues incarnation FM built a very good band with great musicians also. It`s just that Blues is not my kind of music so I`m not a fan of the Peter Green era. But it's different to the BTM and Time albums which imo are not good.
What I really liked was the Bob Welsh era especially on "Mystery to me" He provides a mystic and relaxed sound which is great. Unfortunately his 2 solo albums I bought were completely lacking that quality and spirit. They are totally different.
So my ranking would be
Lindsey solo and FM
Fleetwood Mac Rumours lineup and now
Stevie
Christine
Bob Welsh