Benedictine Anthony Ruff's PrayTell blog is just the best source for exploring the new liturgical texts, so I'm just going to direct everyone there. He's a bit more even about the texts (maybe a bit coy?), coming at them more as a Latinist and musician, which makes him a good resource. (From me you will get little positive about this effort, which I think is misguided and more political than liturgical.)
Anyway, Ruff has provided (free of charge) his initial review of the changes from the text the bishops approved and sent to Rome and the text that just came back, modified in some instances from what the bishops approved in an odd distortion of canon law. That should not be surprising, since the U.S. bishops have fallen over themselves to surrender all their authority to Rome and the Vox Clara commision that Pope John Paul II created, contrary to the explicit instruction of Vatican II's Sacrosanctum Concilium, which left the competency to approve liturgical translations to the national conferences of bishops.
Ruff and many commenters on his blog seem concerned about the chant-ability of the new texts. While I agree that many texts are better sung, I still think folks are living in a fantasy world about the ability (and willingness) of parochial clergy to sing at all, must less chant. The assemblies they lead are even less prepared to do either.
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Read "Getting to know the new Mass" parts 1, 3, and 4.
