My impressions after first listens:
GH: Liked it very much and fell in love gradually.
STP: Love at first listen.
TRD: Apart from Why Aye Man and Hill Farmer's Blues a huge disappointment.
SL: Liked and enjoyed it very much but never really loved it.
KTGC: I tried really really hard to like it but never came close.
GL: Same as GH.
Privateering: Likely to replace STP as my favourite.
Golden Heart was a funny story for me. By 1996 I'd given up on hearing any new music from DS or MK. That album came out with no fanfare or promotion at all here in the US, and MK's presence on the internet was in its infancy and I hadn't the foggiest idea he had a new album out until I stumbled across it in a record store maybe 3 months after it was released. I picked it up and thought, "Whoa, what's this?" I bought it, not knowing if it was a soundtrack or a proper album or anything about it, went home and put it on and listened to it all the way through, loved every minute of it. Not knowing anything about it ahead of time was really great, just like the old days, except I hadn't even hear a single on the radio or anything.
STP on the other hand I had the whole album from Napster before it came out, and loved it just as much as GH. Still far and away my favorite MK solo albums.
TRD: I was also very disappointed in this.
SL: I loved it on first listen and listened to it a lot for a while, but it didn't age as well as GH and STP.
KTGC: Worst album Mark has ever done, IMO.
GL: Meh.
Looking forward to Privateering. Mark's strongest albums seem to have been the ones where he took the most time to record, and recorded the most songs to choose from for the album, so it should at least be an improvement over the last two.
