I always will maintain that ANY band/artist that can stay within the framework of what fans love most about them and continue to write fresh new material--in that vein,will always continue to endear themselves to their core fanbase and in some cases,help their popularity to grow even more. jamison has done that in spades with the newbie and most fans LOVED Crossroads Moment as well. It's when bands start getting too adventurous for their own good that they can fall away from favor with the majority of their fanbase. It's been proven time and again. It's such a fine line between this and writing too similar to the older material and sounding 'stale'. There are those that will lap up just about ANYthing a band/artist releases (true fanboy status,I suppose,whether it's good or terrible). Jimi's later stuff has been pretty quality (tho I don't have the last 2-3 projects yet). I'd say the newbie sounds his best of the past 3 tho. I may get it sometime soon--perhaps after the CHristmas bills finally get paid off (march? April? yikes..). Bootom line--if you dug him in SUrvivor,seems no reason not to like NTL T