>Don't care too much for "Loose Nut" though even if it's not
>bad. "My War" is probably the best of the latter albums.

I like "My War" but it comes off as a transition album. Like they're searching for a new style, sorta got it ("My War" is probably one of my top 5 fav BF songs) but it's not fully there ("Scream" comes off as a more forced and theatrical version of "Damaged I").

>Of course, the "Live in 1984" record has most of the songs
>from both "My War" and "Slip it in" in better versions so the
>two albums are a bit redundant to me. Additionally, there is
>the 82 demos bootlegs which also sound better than the albums
>IMO...

I'm all about "Who's Got The 10 1/2?", that's probably one of my favorite live albums of all-time. They make every song as intense as possible, especially the stuff off of "Loose Nut".

>The problem with later Black Flag albums has less to do with
>the music and more to do with the sound/production; it's
>sterile and tame *and* lo-fi at the same time; not a good
>combo... "Damaged" and the earlier stuff sounds so raw and
>crushing by comparison...

The production is a bit weird since it's low-budget "polished" lol. So it can sound nice and clean but recorded in a tin can. But I'd say that while some get ruined or brought down by this a lot of them are neutral ("Drinking & Driving") or over come it ("My Ghetto").