To qoute myself: "I would say that the biggest challenge for the band is to undo all of the damage to the band's reputation and popularity that Scott caused the last few years. They will need to deal with a low attendence and lack of interest for some time solely because of Scott."
How does that explain AOA or Talk Show? A pattern is emerging that the other 3 members are not popular without Scott. This wouldn't be a problem if sales and popularity isn't important to them, but judging by the lack of a follow-up to Talk Show and AOA's debut albums, it seems to be.
The fact is that they are not popular even with Scott these days. I'm sure, they need and want to be succesful. It's not a sin. I can't see how this contradicts any of my statements.
It all goes back to the release of Self Titled though, because STP had ALOT of momentum prior.
Self Titled was arguably the most anticipated rock album of the last 5-8 years when it was announced STP would be making a comeback album. It needed to have been produced by O'Brien or a proven producer, not the DeLeo's. If S/T had the production of prior efforts then we very likely wouldn't even be having this conversation right now. The DeLeo's production was amateur at best, they should have listened to Atlantics requests in this particular situation. They also fucked up by releasing 1/4 of the album on Amazon before it was released and most people became disappointed/ and started losing interest before the album even dropped.
I take issue with the "amateur" production idea. Talk Show, Stone Temple Pilots, truANT, and High Rise all sound alright sonically. I graciously admit that there is a common thread of a sound through all of those, whereas Brendan O'Brien's really good at each album sounding different, no matter who he is producing. But a LOT Of producer's albums have a "sound" to them.
The production is good. The mastering? Well, pretty much all albums of the last 10 or so years have been mastered terribly, except for Chinese Democracy and a few others.
However, where self-producing is a problem is in
songwriting. Producers want to pull the best group of songs out of you that they can--especially Brendan, who is notoriously big on making sure the songs are there. Not having someone there squeezing the best songs they can is where the real problem lies.
High Rise suffers similarly. As I have said, Brendan would not have let them release an EP. Just like the new Pearl Jam, he would have had them wait til they could get together again. Pearl Jam did 6 or 7 songs for Lightning Bolt, then a year and a half later finished the album. He would have recognized the lack of a true single and had them get back together, take more time to write, and put out a full album in a year or two.