Or maybe it's actually us who expect some things we are really really fond of. If we like blue and someone suddenly decides to paint our walls pink or yellow, we get into defensive mode, clinging to the previous colour for dear life.

Kudos to BJ who were not afraid to switch genres and try out different thing but the truth is: some attempts were better and some were worse. You can't win all the time anyway ;)

I agree with the above...

If we are talking specifically about THINFS, I think Jon and John did an amazing job balancing out what they have left or just lost in general...

They managed to put out an album that works well with Jon's current vocal state both studio and live... It's written well and obviously the loss of Richie plays into certain voids as well...

I think I personally like it so much because I expected much worse... There really isn't a skippable track and although I favor some songs over others, I think it's a solid album...

If you have just a few ingredients left, you make the most of it. THINFS is a glorious example of such an attempt ;)

IMO, the last really creative thing that Jon and Richie did together (love it or hate it) was Lost Highway. After that, it seems they didn't have MUCH--I didn't say nothing--of anything to say together given the output of The Circle and What About Now. So while I think the WAY Richie left was a complete douchebag move, the fact that he left was actually a good thing. THINFS is the best album lyrically, musically, and creatively in ages. Jon has way more to say without Richie than he's had to say with him in a very long time.

I wonder why so hard on Richie? If you claim RS has nothing to do with the creative influx or very little at least, then whether he left or not shouldn't have impacted the band so much PLUS they had Phil X with the right experience to fit Richie's abandoned place spot on.

They're both happy. They both were given new lease of life. They're still very much into music. Most fans have accepted it and 'missing' old times doesn't interfere with their enjoying new music.

Hell, they've moved on but they haven't ruled out collaboration in the future! Look at GnR. 20 years gone and now they set the world on fire!

To be fair she's not saying Richie had nothing to do with the influx in the grand scheme of things, it's the last few albums. Richie had everything to do with The Circle and much less to do with What About Now.

All we can is state the facts (as you can guess whose solo was here and there) but no one really knows the truth behind it (e.g reasons for being way in the back). If we did, it could change the perspective totally.

I'm not being particularly hard on Richie. I'm saying the creative juices seem (to me) to have died to a great extent after Lost Highway. It's no secret at all that I find little to like in The Circle or WAN. The Circle is the album Richie is, on paper, most involved in, but it seems Jon and Richie had little of substance to say together. I mean when they have to write about politics and newspaper stories and generic topics that mean nothing.... they're not really saying anything of substance that binds them as soul mates. They are just painting by numbers. They're not feeling it and neither were we for the most part.

Do you get what I'm saying? I'd rather have THINFS with personal lyrics that speak to me than another bland, meaningless album that I won't touch after a month.

Fair enough, it's all subjective and rumours and hearsay how much Richie was involved but at the end of the day you can hear less of his guitar playing and co-wrote less of the songs than previously. He said there was a point he was working on Aftermath...at the same time so whether the schedules changed or he chose one over the other or Jon wasn't happy with his input whose to really say. What actually happened would change whom I gave more sympathy for but the final product is the final product.

Well, it's kinda funny that RS has little to say on BJ album but so much to share on his solo album! It's not that his NOT capable of delivering great stuff to the audience, it's rather lack of connection with Jon. Why was it so we don't know and I wonder if we ever do.