Funnily enough, I can't watch a live performance and I'm thoroughly done with the band in that respect, but I'm moderately optimistic towards new songs and I'm perfectly happy with getting new albums.

It probably has to do with the fact that none of my top 10 songs post TD were written by Jon & Richie only. In fact there's very little contribution by Richie to my favorite songs from the last 20 years. Most of my favorites are JBJ songs. I still believe in him as a songwriter, I can't say he hasn't missed the mark most of the time, but when he delivers, oh but he DOES delivery.

I'm not overly worried about the social/political overtones of the new album. And that's coming from someone who listened to WAN once and throw it away and who dislikes 85% of TC. But I still don't think the problem is the subject matter but not giving a ****ing damn about crafting a good song. Jon can write, I have an unshakable faith in his abilities (with or without collaborators, I'm not picky), but he's also a wanker who caters to the lowest common denominator and half assess most of the songs. We either have lazy attempts to sound as if they have something to say (Live before you die, WAN, Reunion, Walls) or my absolute pet peeve when it comes to the band, the patronizing ones (Welcome to Whenever you are, Born To Follow, Work for the Working Man) and many many many mediocre songs in-between. They haven't lost the touch, they just don't care because it's easy money (and why should they, honestly, Jon delivers the bare minimum and most of the audience goes nuts) and I've always believed that Jon just doesn't want to scratch the surface and show the ugliness, to open up too much. It's easier to sell a vaguely inspirational story when the lyrics are lazy, interchangeable and non-offensive. I don't even think Jon realizes how truly stupid it sounds/looks when he tries to pass off as socially conscious songs like LWTG or All Hail The King. Jon also seems to have the need to try to hammer it down when he used to have a knack for storytelling of any kind, including the subtle type.

And no, he didn't lost it after TD. Real Love is what you get when you work on a sketch of a song (Blind Love) and scratch the surface, get rid of the easy short cuts and craft a story instead of ticking off the words and sentiments that will turn into headlines when promoting an album And there are many similar examples over the years. And then there are the hidden treasures that Jon clearly wants to share but doesn't want to shine the spotlight on. And I'm here for those.

I also see lots of people going on and on about the guitars, how they are going to be either the best thing since sliced bread because Phil played a solo or something, or the worst ever because no Richie. I don't care about the "quality" of the playing of whoever did the guitar parts in BB and THINFS, some songs gave me the feels and I'm also here for this.

I realized after THINFS that guitars stopped mattering a long time ago, which I knew but I guess I didn't want to really believe. Like with songwriting, Richie *almost* hasn't contributed to anything I've loved in the past 20 years. I'm not speaking about technique but how I feel about the guitar playing in a song, what it evokes, which used to be 50% of what I loved about BJ songs. That simply disappeared over the years and it didn't quite register because the guitars where there, but now looking back they were either loud and impersonal (Bounce), abysmal (HAND), phoned-in (Everything Richie did with the band post LH) or not enough (LH which frustrates me to no end because I know there's an effort there and I can almost feel it, but it ends if falling short and I wish it wasn't like this because some of these songs are phenomenal). I will never dispute that Richie made songs come alive when he could play them outside the constricts of the album. If I did a list of my favorite songs performed live VS album versions Richie's playing would be a great factor to love songs that don't do a lot for me (The Distance or AOD come to mind), but the fact remains that the songs got more dull over the years both songwriting and guitar-wise so I don't see why people panick now as if they expect a huge change in any direction.


All in all, I appreciate the fact that they (Jon) tried with THINFS and I know the next album could be another miss if the newer songs are anything to go by, but I still haven't found a BJ album where I didn't like a single song and the last 2 albums have some of my favorite songs post TD *shruggy emoji*

I don't even care about dodgy vocals anymore. Crush was shocking enough. I've has enough time to accept this and move on *double shruggy emoji*

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