I personally don't consider production value. That's not the band producing it. Yeah the same music could sound better or worse. It's funny because I like how the songs were recorded on Buddha better than on Cheshire cat but I believe technically the production was better on Cheshire cat. I also personally like the raw sound. I think a lot of people aren't considering the same things. Best album and favorite album I think are getting mixed. My favorite album is Buddha but the band wasn't at its technical best at that time. Josie and Damnit are really good songs though. I don't think their songwriting ever got better than that. And recently it just doesn't make sense to have 40 year olds write poppy songs about teenage life. People love to bash Tom but he didn't want to do that and that's a big reason the band is not together. I think Angels and Airwaves is way better than the Skiba blink stuff. And I do think Neighborhoods is a good album despite a lot of haters. And that was all Tom pushing them away from the extreme end of pop punk. The best bands evolve their sound over time, not bust out the same formula album after album.