Let's face it, we don't have decades left with this band so they need to focus on quality and not quanity. Hopefully the experience of touring together for a year and then heading into the studio will provide a more solid and stable foundation to produce an album from the ground up.
I think the cohesiveness lacking in SYW can absolutely be attributed to the fact that everyone in the band attempted to join forces after being on completely separate paths for what 4-5 years? Maybe a little less? SYW was the first time in a long time they were really coming from four absolutely different places (not to mention the first time without Christine.) Obviously, a break in this duration is not uncommon for this band, but prior to SYW, well maybe at least prior to the Dance, they sort of were all coasting along their separate lives, but sort of at a similar pace. But in 2001-2002, at 50 something, they are all at such different milestones - Stevie in unattached and focused on her solo career, Lindsey is newly married with a growing family, Mick has his new girls, and John is raising a teenager but would probably rather be sailing. You get where I'm going. They were all really doing such different things in their lives, which probably wasn't so true when creating studio albums before this, and if it was, probably wasn't as evident as it was when creating SYW. Really, other then being in a band with legendary history what was common amongst them at that point? All this, plus the experience of doing an album 25 years past their heyday must have contributed to the lack of synergy and resulted in what seemed to be a collaboration of two artist's solo albums.
But, maybe, just maybe, if they can take the momentum that they have had by working with each other over the past year and being intertwined with each other's lives, and truly believe that a studio album can be a positive experience, we can see something wonderful from them in the future.
