I picked out Born Again Tomorrow and All Hail the King first time I heard them, Knockout and Our House I'll concede but the guitar's not the main player in them, my initial reading was I could only hear Phil in BAT and AHTK. The BAT solo is VERY Phil. And I think it does make a difference - listen to the rest of the solo's on that album - even THINFS is very constructed. I do like Shanks as a composer in some ways but his execution lacks a bit of... finesse.

As for Shanks replacing Phil - if that happens that's the end of the band as a touring force. While Shanks has no stage presence, casuals can't tell the difference between Phil and Richie and my previous point - he's a solid guitar player but not an exciting one. But anyway I don't see it, I'm not even convinced to leave my initial reading that this is all a time thing and Phil is lead guitar - it won't mean every track but certainly most if we ever get a new record but it's well established that Richie didn't play on every track so... can't whine about that really.