There's definitely talented producers or songwriters out there, but it's easy enough to suggest someone without knowing if they'd actually fit in with whatever act is suggested. I like a lot of Greg Kurstin's work, but I see similar complaints about him on, say, Foo Fighters or Liam Gallagher discussions as I do with Tedder and U2. Some say Kurstin is "too pop" or strays these acts away from whatever fill-in-the-blank sound they want, and so forth.
Truth be told, I never really had a huge problem with Tedder working with the band, as his manner of songwriting isn't that different from U2's. A lot of his M.O. is just writing decent melodies over I–V–vi–IV chord progressions within the pop-rock sounds. And U2's background was pretty much the same thing (see: Streets, WOWY, Mothers of the Disappeared, Ultra Violet, Miracle Drug, The Wanderer, In a Little While, etc.). So stuff like Every Breaking Wave, YTBTAM, and GOOYOW was pretty much par for the course in that respect anyway. And there's not too many people out there that think his changes on Every Breaking Wave made it that much worse for wear. For many out there - even the professional musicians like Brandon Flowers and such, it was the highlight of the album.
It's easy enough to say as a fan (and I do the same!) But after trying my own hand at (terrible) songwriting over the years, I have a lot more respect for the process of trying to find those diamonds in the rough, so to speak. Writing a song is easy enough, but getting one that sounds any good is incredibly hard to do. And you have to sort through dozens - hundreds? - of ideas just to find those that are worth releasing. Sometimes it's easier than others and sometimes it's not.
But the idea of whether an album is "strong" or not is going to depend on which fan you're asking anyway. Personally, I liked SOI quite a bit and those were two of the highlights for me. SOE was a little less so, but even then, I still find it a victory to find at least a few songs I'll listen to regularly from an artist I really like. It's tough for musicians to get to a point with most people anyway, so I'll take what I can get nowadays.
