I'm glad Justin started up this new thread on BTM, it's fun to look at with retrospect. Especially, when it comes to drilling down to Christine and Stevie's best moments. Overall, an opportunity lost to really shine, without flaw, for the both of them and while both had good moments they failed to really rise to the occasion. While it's easy to blame the bland production, the real problem lies with the mediocre songwriting. Burnett and Vito also could not fill the gap. That said, I agree that 1/2 the album is great and the other half is forgettable. Ms Nicks best moment, while she turned in a great vocal on the song of this thread, to me was the last 60 seconds of Freedom, she turned it up a notch and ditched the nasal singing that ruined the song, "all the looks that you used on me don't work now that you've fallen...Freedom, come with me". The beautiful slide guitar matched this fade out to give her her best moment on the album. Christine on the other hand did it with entire songs- the title track, while a little tinny sounding was a great track performed with conviction and feeling. Save Me continued her string of great pop songs if a little bland, was good for 1990. The guys just were not A game enough to bring BTM to greatness, besides their great playing, their songwriting is second tier. The tour on the other hand, was where this line up shone and could hold an audience for the 2 hours they played. Stevie sounded great, especially towards the end of the tour, and Christine, knowing it was her last, put on some great performances and she was in the finest live voice of her career at that point. The guys were great live and played well of the classic rhythm section. Another album or two may have corrected some of the missteps of BTM and who knows where they could have gone. Sadly, we'll never know the answer to that question.
__________________
|