@rs8mbor8: i'd be glad if the album delivered and thou shan't judge the book by it's cover but after crush, bounce and HAND i'd rather call my judgement "experienced" than "premature" :d

@ktf2211: ok, i put it the wrong way but nobody actually knows bj for their great covers, too

@bj100: your post shows me that we have very different perspectives. never in my life would i prefer HAND to any other bj record. i'd not even prefer it to roxette's have a nice day record which is one of the worst albums in my not so small cd collection. but different guys like different stuff.
my "this band's dead" comment was made on my oppinion that bj have majorly focused on one single concept to which i referred as "pseudo-existential crap". and as long as they want to spread their wings and fly in order to live their lifes everyday they'll tell everyone that they weren't born to follow. although they quickly left the unbeaten tracks after they appareantly (i'll never write this word correctly*g*) got bashed by LA Reid for trying something new (tlfr and lh). this directly leads us to Crush Vol IV aka The Circle

tata,
martin