Sorry, but no "exoneration" will be forthcoming. When there is a dog, or a mildly inspired effort, it will be identified as such. There will be plenty of that.
Fair warning, though - if I like something, I will say that too.
As far as "trivial", there are items in his earlier work that are also trivial, imo, items where he's playing his own licks because nothing else seems to have come to mind.
But then as now, they're only records.