yea, I agree with that. Give Me Back My Man is definately in my top 10 B songs, yet in concert it felt lifeless. I noticed the same with Roam, Kate and Cindy seemed like they were "well, we have to do this since it was one of our biggest hits" with it and it just dragged. The new stuff is great live, and I actually wanted to hear more Funplex songs than we got, I would love to hear "Deviant Ingredient" and "Eyes Wide Open" live

I really do hope the next album will come out at a faster pace because Funplex shows they still have great music left in them.

How I'd rank the albums

1. Wild Planet
2. The B-52's
3. Whammy
4. Mesopotamia
5. Cosmic Thing
6. Funplex
7. Bouncing Off The Satellites
8. Good Stuff

"Eyes Wide Open" is such a great GREAT song! Not sure how it would sound live. It's definitely not a "rock" song. So I think the stage drums and guitars would change it's dynamics. If that makes sense. It's a studio marvel for sure. Also, "Give Me Back My Man" was once a fantastic live performance. Especially during the "Cosmic Thing" tour. Cindy doing to the pony on stage in between singing. Sublime! Not to mention earlier performances:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=xGdkDuL_fgU

Also, we're in agreement with "Wild Planet". It's absolutely a masterpiece IMO. But I'm surprised you rated "Funplex" so low. I'd put it at #3 on your list. Followed by "Whammy", "Cosmic Thing", "Satellites", "Meso" then "Good Stuff" (bleh). Sorry, but no Cindy equals no sale here. Back to "Funplex". I absolutely love songs 1-7 and then song 11. Songs 8-10 are completely forgettable and not album worthy to me. Maybe as a B-side. "Pump" is the rowdiest and catchiest song they've done in maybe 20 years. And I dare anyone to sit still during it.

great performance, Ricky doesn't at all look like he's near death there

Have they ever performed anything off Bouncing Off The Satellites in concert? I know that album brings back really bad memories for them since Ricky's death happened during production, but I do consider "Summer Of Love" to be one of their classics. I do think the album is very underrated in their catalog (IMO pretty much every album except Good Stuff is excellent)

Funplex at #6 is more a sign of how great the rest of the catalog is than a comment on it being weak. I think it's a fantastic effort, but so are the five albums I ranked higher (even though I admit I haven't listened to Cosmic Thing in a long time because the songs were so played out)

I think they should've waited for Cindy to come back for Good Stuff. I think they were able to withstand losing Ricky since Keith pretty much took his place, but Cindy was irreplacable IMO. Good Stuff damn near killed them IMO (tho I did think the title track was one of the catchiest songs on the radio that summer, and do consider Is That You Mo-Dean and Revolution Earth minor classics), notice the 16 year hiatus as a result of that album's damage.