Is that a bad thing?

I'm curious because my point was precisely that it is a good thing.

Lyrics that are too universal (and thus too safe) or too specific rarely make great songs. I mean Undivided is pretty specific for the right reasons but it's a one-off.

Jon can write great lyrics inspired by something very specific in a way that they can apply to anything more universal rather than the opposite, which is what I was complaining about and that's what makes a good number of his recent "serious" efforts such poor songs.

I used BITW as the perfect example to what I was trying to say, not because I think it's a bad song (quite the opposite!): unless you've been living under a rock, you will catch all the references to Trump and his administration but even if you did live under a rock for the past 4 years, the lyrics can apply to several related themes that circle back to politics, media and the manipulation of society to become so polarized in recent times, and the message works wonderfully for both instances. That's what I call a great lyric effort. But then Jon also wants to write about immigrant struggle (per his words in an old interview) and wants to hammer his point about the song being about Trump and that's where the song loses its great potential. I can get past the heavy handed themes of the second part of the first verse but the bridge is overkill and unnecessarily too "real" if you want.

At the end of the day, it doesn't matter if Jon says that KTF was inspired by racial unrest, DC by the oil crisis, if HAND was a FU to Bush Jr., if Happy Now is about Obama, if All Hail the King is about the Soul Kitchen, all these songs can be interpreted in many ways, even DC with its direct references that can be interpreted as a metaphor or an artistic license that works in the context of the song. That's not the case with BITW and it's a real shame.

And it happens over and over again in this record, in the end Unbroken sounds more sincere even knowing that maybe it's only translating a script into a song. I'm not against Jon writing that type of songs at all, but he's proven that he doesn't know a middle ground, he's either tactfully vague but knows how to deliver a powerful metaphor or he just goes for the kill and writes, well, most of his recent "serious" songs. The title of the thread was obviously tongue-in-cheek but it's not far off the mark and my frustration comes from a place of really liking Jon as a songwriter, and maybe expecting too much of this record. And also having this feeling that Jon does not trust his audience enough to understand subtlety and needs to go for such heavy handed lyrics when he thinks it matters that his message is understood.