And that's part of the problem, they aren't able to produce genuine mainstream music (not that they should be trying to) but are desperately trying and failing. "Because We Can" is a blatant attempt to appeal to a younger, wider audience, but comes off but nothing as a cringe-worthy, crappy, pop song from a band who don't belong in that genre of music in the modern day.

Spoiler alert. Not sure if what I'm posting is revealing of much, but whatevs.

I guess I'm in the super minority here, but I like most of what I heard (except Amen, The Fighter, and Army of One, but those were all duds to me before this).

I'm With You sounds just fine, I think. The only autotune I notice is in the verses, but it's bearable.
Pictures of You sounds cool.
Water sounds just as good as the live versions.
What's Left of Me sounds just as good as the live versions, too, if not better.
Thick as Thieves is kinda boring.
Beautiful World sounds interesting, I'm eager to hear the full version.
Room at the End of the World sounds very mystic.
These Two Hands has silly lyrics.
Into the Echo sounds nice, too (though the echo on the word "echo" is kinda cheesy and cliche).

I think I'm gonna like this record quite a bit more than The Circle.

Autotune? For me, it's just a normal studio version. Including, noticed that they are playing live in the same tone of the studio version (what is very rare).

I liked it..Strange, but for me, some songs have a Crush vibe.
Pictures Of You sounds promising.

But..."With These Two Hands" is a shameless plagiarism from "Viva La Vida" from Coldplay.

Agree with almost everything here. Although I wish Pictures of You wasn't "painting pictures of you" (sort of cringe-worthy).

I realize Army of One is maybe the most polarizing of the new songs. I thought it was decent at first, and liking it more and more. The studio cut clinched it.

Well now I'm honestly torn on this. On one hand I do like most of what I've heard, catchy simple layered melodies. But on the other hand, I don't think they have ever made such a calculated move as with this record. It's pretty clear the direction they wanted to take with a couple of the tracks sounding like The Killers and 'Room...' stealing the melody straight from MB20. Plus there's the main rythm part in 'These Two Hands' lifted straight and shamelessly from Coldplay. And I say "They" very carefully, because while, I've been one of the few defending Jon through the years around here, I really doubt had he released a solo record, that it would have sounded any different. The stuff from the fighter and Army of one sounds like "Hey Richie's in this record look! He's harmonizing!".

As I said, I like most of what I've heard so far, but something about it just doesn't quite "Click" for me. Or maybe I'm just tired and over thinking it....

I think it's the best of the new songs. Others have cited it as the worst BJ song ever. So yeah, pretty polarizing :D

Sorry guys, I'm just cleaning up all of the vomit all over the floor.

There are 90sec preview for every song on itunes now. will anybody put it on you tube, please :cool:

We know, we've been talking about it. I've uploaded a .zip with all the previews and every separate preview in a soundcloud-like website, check out here!

The verses of Beautiful World are musically identical to Matchbox Twenty's "How Far We've Come". Like lawsuit similar.