Um, as I said, the effect you people are hearing is not a change in STP's style, it's a chang in the state of rock these days.

You guys are only listening to the songs they play on the radio or what the media chooses to let you hear. Then you start thinking "oh boy, they sold out/went soft/lost their edge" etc.

I just said that No. 4, which contains "Sour Girl" also has some of their hardest stuff yet. On their 3rd album, Tiny Music..., they hit their softest point yet, and he wasn't even off the heroin then!

Go listen to (or download) the song "Coma" which is from their latest album, and tell me they've gone soft. Hells no!

*edit* and in concert, they're playing about 4-5 songs from each album, except for Tiny Music... from which they play about 2.