Echoing the sentiment on Q2Krap...
That was supposed to be the return to form album. Biggest disappointment (in relation to expectations) in their entire catalog. It’s amazing that they managed to write one of their most amazing songs (Right Side) among a sea of overwhelming MEH.
I think Right Side is vastly OVERRATED. It's good, but I don't think its nearly as good as the praise it gets. Q2k is summed up for me by Kelly Gray himself in an interview he gave me at S2k1 in June 2001:
Q2k has a healing element on it. Being a little looser on the song writing helped the guys bridge the gap and move forward. It’s not the greatest record, but it’s a good, solid record. It gave the band some confidence that we were able to do it, as I am sure there is a bit of security lost in the ordeal of losing Chris. It was a good kick in the pants. When I signed on, I was full of energy and ready to go. Having me in the band, there was immediate gratification because we were able to record and produce it with no waiting. On Q2k, a lot of those tracks are directly from that spontaneous writing element. They were written and recorded at the same time. “Breakdown” was actually a one-take from a rehearsal. The main portion of it is live.
Looking back now over almost 20 years, I think HITNF is the superior record. The best songs on HITNF are better (for me) than the best songs on Q2k. But there's certainly more filler on HITNF than there is on Q2k. As Kelly said, Q2k is a good record, but not the greatest thing. I've always said that a second record with Kelly likely would have gotten much tighter and better. But who knows.
But HITNF has a complexity (as I mentioned above regarding the guitars) to the songs that Q2k does not have at all. It is an understated complexity, but it is there, and distinctly Queensryche. Whereas Q2k literally puts Kelly Gray in the exact same role Chris had with the band, and if you know Kelly's writing, he's not a technical guitarist who is concerned with nuance. His big thing is chords and groove.
Anyway, the HITNF sessions produced 15 songs (including Chasing Blue Sky). Of those 15, I personally very much like 9 of them. The Q2k sessions produced 13 songs (including Til There Was You, and Howl). Of those 13, I really like 8 of them. Percentage-wise, that would put Q2k ahead of HITNF for me. But I simply like those nine songs on HITNF BETTER than the songs on Q2k.
Both records, IMO, are not nearly as bad as people make them out to be. But both were very different directions for the band. I think the HITNF direction would have ultimately been much more successful had EMI not folded, and the band been given an opportunity to tour Europe and really continue the promotion of the record like EMI had started to (SotT and You did very well at radio). HITNF had that "musical evolution" thread with the QR nuances in it, whereas Q2k sounded like a different band to a degree (the drums had the right sound, but Gray's guitar was dominant and very different than Chris) with Geoff . And Atlantic promoted the hell out of it, and it went nowhere.
Interesting few years in the band's history for sure. Produced some really great songs, and some bad ones, but ultimately, I think HITNF was the better album.