I keep connecting Tom Scholz with Howard Hughes--technological geniuses who took the world by storm through shrewd innovation and development. But eventually, the same obsessiveness which fueled their amazing success ironically led them down the path of extreme isolation and eventually madness.

Obviously, Scholz is not quite at that level yet, but the fact that he seems compulsively suspicious and paranoid about the outside world infecting him (e.g., refusing to listen to any other music influences whatsoever and suing anyone who crosses him) has narrowed his musical scope to a ridiculous parody of his earlier masterpieces.

I mean, can anyone in his right mind think Casio chicklet-key drumming effects sound good?! Or artificially-processed hand-claps? Or buried vocals? Or passionless, robotic guitar? Tom Scholz literally has lost his ability to realistically assess his own work.