Christine's evolution

[bwboy]

I mentioned this in a thread on the post-Rumours board, but I think it fits here just as well, especially with the rerelease of Mirage. Does anyone else notice a difference between Christine's FM material from the white album through Mirage, and Tango and Behind the Mask? Her earlier work seemed more like cream, rather than coffee. She had a lot of variations on love songs, like Spare Me a Little, Over My Head, Say You Love Me, Love in Store, etc. Brown Eyes was one of the few exceptions. But with Tango, Christine seemed to have more confidence, I think. Little Lies, Isn't It Midnight, Everywhere, As Long As You Follow, Save Me, and Behind the Mask all run the gamut, from pop perfection to sublime. Instead of singing about how much fun it is to be in love, she's singing about the darker side of love, too. Again, there's a kind of confidence in her later songs that seemed missing in her earlier material.

I was thinking it could be related to the fact that maybe she did have more confidence, because in between Mirage and Tango she released her solo album. While it wasn't a smash hit, it did pretty well and she got a top 10 hit single, and all without FM. The other thing was that she started co-writing songs with her then husband Eddie Quintela.

Listening to Mirage, there seems to be such growth in her songs when you compare Love in Store or Only Over You to Save Me or Little Lies. Not saying the Mirage songs are bad, but they seem... simpler, I don't know.

Just wondering if people notice a difference and maybe what that difference was.