The reasons for Live's album disparity? Options

[AgentK7]

Instead of providing opinions for why Live's last couple of albums haven't met with the best success, I'm going to give you a breakdown of the album credits (verbatim from the cd booklet when practical):

Mental Jewelry (1991)

• Produced by Jerry Harrison for Construct Music, Inc.
• All Songs written by Edward Kowalczyk, Chad Taylor, Patrick Dahlheimer and Chad Gracey

Throwing Copper (1994)

• Produced by Jerry Harrison
• Lyrics: Kowalczyk Music: Live

Secret Samadhi (1997)

• Produced by Jay Healy and Live
• Written and Performed by Live (Lyrics by Ed Kowalczyk)

The Distance To Here (1999)

• Produced by Jerry Harrison and Live
• Lyrics by Ed Kowalczyk. Music by Ed Kowalczyk (except "Run To The Water" Kowalczyk, Dahlheimer "Voodoo Lady" Kowalczyk, Taylor "Where Fishes Go" Kowalczyk, Taylor and "They Stood Up For Love" Kowalczyk, Taylor,Dahlheimer)

V (2001)

• Produced by Live, Railo and Alain Johannes*
• Lyrics and Music by Ed Kowalczyk*
• *Forever May Not be long enough has writing and production credits to Ed Kowalczyk AND Glen Ballard

Birds Of Pray (2003)

• Produced by Jim Wirt
• Lyrics by Ed Kowalczyk. Music by Ed Kowalczyk (except "Like I Do" Ed Kowalczyk, Patrick Dahlheimer, Chad Taylor and "Lighthouse" Ed Kowalczyk, Chad Taylor)

Songs From Black Mountain (2006)

• Produced by Jim Wirt
• Songs by Ed Kowalczyk

I know my interpretation of this information, I'm curious what others think....

This post has been edited by AgentK7: Sep 13 2007, 3:48 pm

[dinkibass]

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?