I'd say V promotes "mind expansion" if you have a small mind to begin with. I don't recall seeing it in an interview, but I have it on pretty good authority that the new music is a collective effort musically.

Everything is debatable here anyway.

everything is up for debate. i don't think any of us truly know how they put their music together no matter what the credits say. but who knows? I just don't think the rest of the band would agree to record music with ed if they didn't believe in it. do you? do you think the rest of the band would let crappy music come out? even if sfbm performed below selling matters, it beats any american idol record or any record produced for 'musicians' who just play what people tell them to play. i believe in live and they music they create. they create music when they want to and to the standards they want to create, not us. that is what makes them LIVE. I wouldn't want them asking us what we wanted. That would be like asking Simon Cowell what he wants to hear, and f-simon cowell.

I must say that over the years, I've grown to really like The Ride, Flow, Simple Creed, and a lot of songs from that album.

Yes, everything is certainly debatable. My "that's debatable" comment was a knee-jerk reaction to the "BOP was half great" comment - and come to think of it, I can name several that I like - so perhaps I need to rescind my comment. BOP's rigid structure just turned me off. I bought it up in Burlington VT, and had a one hour drive home. By the middle of the CD, I was calling every song as it happened, "now the verse", "now the chorus", etc.

I get excited when rumors swirl about the band writing the next album entirely together - but I got excited for V, BOP, and SFBM, and I did find them mostly like candy (which was a great comparison) - fun to eat but no substance.

Well I can do that, for every Live song. For ANY song that I know. I don't think that means anything to be honest.

I liked how sellingthedrama put it better then my own analogy, "fun to eat but no substance".

I just don't think that album holds up like their others. I really believe that if they had a firm producer in place and the band had more collectively worked on the music, it may have turned out very different.

Sadly, it's funny that you mention American Idol, that's the last place Live really had real national exposure

Obviously, the band is behind what Ed does, no one's disputing that. I just pointed out that when you look at the song credits, typically the albums/songs are stronger when there is more collaboration.

One thing I didn't point out was that Ed probably does all the lyrics/music now because the band is scattered all over. The first three albums they were all basically living in Pennsylvania still. That started changing and therefore since Ed already wrote all the lyrics he started writing pretty much all the music as well.

I think Chad's best guitar work is in V. I would love to here more solos from him.

no one should really pay a lot of attention to what the band are promising, i recall interviews with ed comparing black mountain to throwing copper............
it is all about choices of singles, since tdth singles choices were off.
V was admirable as it strayed away from the usual live sound, however it iscolated the old school casual listeners. example is my brother who hasnt bought an album since V. this is why the crowd pop at shows are only from tc ss and tdth. possible singles choices could have been people like you, ok, and deep enough
birds of prey has a had a lasting effect of puttin the band in the 'adult contemporary' genre a lot of the songs on there were heavy pop rock ( which is not a completely good thing) but from listening to the singles run away, sweet release and heaven you wouldnt know that. heaven wasnt a bad choice. but some kind of energy would have been qwuite welcomed as a single. maybe like i do or sancitiy of dreams
black mountain is so very complaicent. it is just too soft, the lyrical content is too pretty and lite. i am completely flabergasted as to how get ready was not a single, it is the only song that has a brooding feel. the only soft song on that album ( besides maybe the river) that has a tear to the eye quality. i suppose the singles selected werent terrible choice. there werent that many alternatives but get ready would have been great as a third single or maybe instead of the river. i saw it used in a promo for tennis and it worked so well. i really couldve seen that becoming a song that owuld enter mainstream conscious.
i am not getting too excited about the next album, i like all of their albums to some level but the exciting part about new albums is knowing that the band will tour soon. the recording has been too clean for BOP and SFBM so i can support the producer argument too. everything sounds too polished and lacks any originality in production. hopefully the boys will go toa cheaper studio or something.
any news on when they will begin recording or release the new album?