Expectations are a major part of it. I had high hopes for the last two Nightwish albums given the heights Floor was capable of taking them to, so the end result was incredibly disappointing when it was as insipid as it was and she was underused. By contrast, I had low expectations for Anette's latest album, because even though I haven't heard it, word on the street is that her first one is pretty mediocre, and without Liimatainen writing I wasn't anticipating much. I was far more into Sonata Arctica than Primal Fear. So finding Strong to be quite good pretty much blew me away. I've only heard it a couple times, so I have no idea how it will age, but I've found most of the metal releases this year underwhelming, so it was rather refreshing. I also think some of the non-singles are better than the singles, and the second half of the album is stronger than the first half, which is unusual.