By the way, for the record, I actually rank the post-BB albums pretty well in the catalog.
BB
Fortress
TLH
ODR
ABIII
So it's not that I think the post-BB albums are bad, they aren't. They are fantastic. I'm just not sure they'll ever top it if their focus is constantly shifting.
Fair assessment. For me, I probably go:
Blackbird
Fortress
AB III
TLH
ODR
>>>>And its not that I find TLH or ODR to be bad at all. Far from it. Its just hard to top the consistency of Blackbird. It's funny about AB III. Outside of the Blackbird album, it has, generally speaking, the largest amount of songs among my top AB songs (Words Darker, Show Me a Sign, Slip to the Void, Isolation, Coeur d'Alene), but because the rest fall off in quality so sharply, the album dips down on the list.
Its weird, because I think other than the title track, AB has written much better songs than the songs on BB since its release, but they've never been as consistent (I think we're both on the same page there), and its really a shame that they can't seem to write their most consistent masterpiece for whatever reason. Its like every record has a good chunk that is jaw-droppingly awesome, then a couple good songs, and then some formulaic album filler. And I guess thats what most record are, but I think AB is capable of much, much more.
I had high hopes for TLH to do that, particularly since it followed a theme. But it never really got there, at least not for me. It was more consistent, but not consistent in terms of "wow, this is amazing." More like, "this is good all the way through, but some of it bleeds together." I really had to work at it for a bit to appreciate it more. And even today, it is easy for me to pick out the top tracks of mine from that record - Cradle to the Grave, Show Me a Leader, My Champion. Then there are a few I like, but not as much. The rest....all sort of bleed together.
And if thats just the way it is going to be, that's fine, I mean AB is my favorite band these days (with Fates Warning running a close second), so it obviously doesn't bother me much and I am nitpicking. But I'd really like them to change up the way they write together and just invest that time to let things sit for a bit. But they don't really give it that time. They carve out a time, and then do it within that time. Business is business, and time is money, and I GET it. I just think throwing a curveball to the process is necessary once in awhile to make sure things don't get too repetitive.
Stads -- you'll dig AB live in a GA setting.