That's what I was going to say. The general consensus is that some songs are not well "blended" in the vocal department and a non expert blames whoever put the song together. Well and Jon of course, who has the final say.

I was thinking it could be because they did several sessions over a period of more than a year and supposedly re-recorded some songs, went back and added, stopped working for a while and started again with a different frame of mind... I guess it's possible that they didn't bother to find a more consistent *feeling* specially while they were labeless. If this is what happened, wouldn't it make sense to re-arrange the older songs, remix them or whatever to have more consistency with the newest? I mean if they are already working on some songs, would it really make a difference to hire the studio/personnel for a couple more hours for extra work on those songs?

Although, if Devil's is from the first batch according to Jon, maybe the earlier songs were perfect and it's a good idea they didn't tinker too much with them, BUT, in theory the songs on ASCAP where registered pre-breakup with the label and Devil's is not there, so who knows? They may have written those songs and recorded them later (FYI the songs on ASCAP are Labor, Born Again, Knockout and Come On Up to Our House if I'm not mistaken)

Except for THINFS and Knockout, whatever effects they are using are subtle enough and the vocals are good on almost every song, they just went overboard on the singles and then butchered innecessarily parts of songs that probably were fine before. I don't think God Bless This Mess would sound like it does (i.e. more "natural") if it ended up being a single like Jon said. Funnily, I do think THINFS needs the extra punch for a first single considering is not working so well live, but the rest only need more backing vocals on the weak parts.

What do you think? Why so many unnecessary effects when it's clear that the live version is far better and more importantly, Jon can sing them convincingly? I guess they *embellished* the singles/potential singles for the radio, to sound more aggressive, rockier, more modern, but this time the "sound like HAND" magic button didn't work smoothly and almost ruins songs that are good and have decent vocals to begin with.