Canadian rock legend Bryan Adams claimed recently that this new album of his was so classic in style that he could play the entire album in concert and his fans would think he was actually playing tracks from one of his earlier masterpieces.
I counter that ridiculous claim by suggesting his fans (that’s me included), would instead be struggling to stay awake, wondering who this hillbilly Jeff Lynne wannabe is and wishing he’d hurry up and get off so the real Bryan Adams could take the stage.
The gap between Adams the rockstar, the working class hero, the monster live performer and the man who wrote some of the best anthems in rock history and the guy who releases records under the Bryan Adams name these days is more pronounced than ever.
His latest album Get Up is produced by ELO and Travelling Wilburys’ Jeff Lynne. The result is not a classic BA album as promised, but rather a hybrid of Adams’ recent era forgettable solo material and Lynne’s own laid back acoustic driven Midwestern rockabilly.
Yet again, we’re fooled into thinking Adams might return to his roots that delivered such classic albums as You Want It You Got It, Cuts Like A Knife, Reckless and the underrated perfection of Into The Fire.
No such luck. Instead the snoozefest of Room Service, 11 and last year’s horrible covers album continues.
If I wanted to listen to the Travelling Wilburys, I’d play that. If I wanted Lynne’s Armchair Theater, I have the recent re-issue to get out.
I don’t need Bryan Adams channeling that sound with so little of his own personality shining through.
What’s worse is that the album was almost entirely co-written by the great Jim Vallance.
I can’t understand what went wrong.
Thankfully the new tracks number just 9 and the album lasts all of 25 minutes. That’s just a little longer than one new Iron Maiden tune!
The opening track You Belong To Me may be impossibly catchy, but when its used to kick off an album, you know rocking isn’t a priority here.
Go Down Rocking and That’s Rock N Roll have traces of Adams of old, but the clichés sadly distract as does the hokey production style.
We Did It and Don’t Even Try are jangly, boring ballads that go nowhere.
Do What You Gotta Do is one of the few decent tracks with a wonderful chorus, but so removed from Adams’ sound, I kept waiting for Roy Orbison and Tom Petty to have their turn on vocals.
The attempted rocker Thunderbolt is just atrocious. How can an album of only 9 tracks have room for such a lemon as this?
That’s followed by another forgettable slow ballad and the best track of the album, the current single Brand New Day, which even then sounds like a B-Side at best from the glory days.
Adams then attempts to pad out the album with 4 shitty solo acoustic versions of songs already featured. Pointless and boring as bat shit.
Adams has willfully allowed Jeff Lynne’s production and writing style to infiltrate his thinking, the production style and the whole energy of this record.
How can the minds that crafted songs like Native Son, Into The Fire and one of the greatest melodic rock songs of all time - One Night Love Affair – all be a part of this mess?
Please explain Mr. Adams, Mr. Vallance and Mr. Scott!
I hate what Adams has become. He is suffering old man syndrome and along with John Mellencamp, Bob Seger and Tom Cochrane, has forgotten what to do in the studio to capture the energy of their live shows.
