Great producers of the last 25 years

Bruce Fairbairn was also to blame for Get A Grip, Psycho Circus and Balance (my least favourite Van Hagar album), so although he had his moments, not everything he touched turned to gold.

My picks for the greatest producers are Bob Ezrin, Martin Birch and George Martin. They all have a signature sound that (unlike Phil Spector's) complements the material rather than dominating it.

W
 
I think the case with Bruce Fairbain then is the same as with Bob Rock where it isn't necessarily his fault, it was more a problem with conflicting directions that the band could go in because the music they were famous for was no longer popular. Everyone blames Bob Rock for Load and Reload but the bottom line is that Metallica themselevs have the final say on what they want the record to sound like, Bob Rock just has to get it for them. Same goes with Kiss and Psycho Circus, the problem is not the production, its shitty songwriting (very shitty!). And Aerosmith's Get A Grip was the band trying to sound current and not pulling it off, once again shitty songs, not so much shitty production.
 
I thought Pauls songs on PC were actually alright, especially Raise Your Glasses, Within and Into The Void are alright too :)
 
Paul's songs are always good. He barely writes a bad song :) The problem with Psycho Circus was that because it was the original lineup again you had songs by Paul, Gene, Ace and Peter. And Peter couldn't even write back then so what makes him think he can now? And Gene mainly writes filler (although Within is a good song). Ace's songs were always ok but not as good as Paul's.

Again, that's why non-makeup Kiss was best. All the songs were either Paul's or Gene's (with co-writers of course though) and most of them were Paul's.