"My favorite band is back!"

I always find it interesting when ardent fans of a band or musician, when pleased with a new record, will say, "He/She/They're back!" This is typically in response to the band's new sound showing traces of their old sound. I find this perplexing, as while it's common for listeners to want musicians to continually evolve, they also commonly want them to stay the same. Yes, regardless of how brilliant the musician, this can prove to be next to impossible.

I understand this mindset to a certain extent. There's typically that one song or one album which first drew our attention to a band, prompted us to fall in love with them musically, and as the saying goes, the rest is history. Due to that, regardless of the number of directions in which the band has traveled since that point, I can understand feeling the urge to again hear that sound which grabbed one's attention in the first place. However, the band never left. If every group rehashed the same material in each album, we'd be left with one genre - Nickelback. While we may not like a favorite band's experimentation in an album, we should try to appreciate their artistry, be grateful they at least attempted to provide us with new sounds, and realize the band never left us; we may have simply left the band. People change, musicians and listeners alike. Instead of complaining about the present due to it not replicating the past, we should appreciate the past, be open to the present, and hold no expectation for the future.