ALBUM REVIEWS
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ALBUM REVIEWS |
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Bryan Adams
11 POLYDOR 17.03.08 @www.vanguard-online.co.uk Bryan Adams has been ploughing his gravel voiced rock furrow for what seems like forever now; and the ‘concept’ of this album is thus: It’s Bry’s eleventh studio album, it’s got eleven tracks, and he’s doing a tour calling at eleven different European countries, to play eleven concerts in eleven days. Cosmic, eh? Presumably he’s hoping more than eleven people will buy the album. I must admit that as an adolescent I did own a couple of Bry’s early albums on LP vinyl record (kids – ask your mum and dad) but I like to claim that was just a side-step of the teenage rock/metal phase. Those albums were long since despatched to the local charity shop; as I developed more sophisticated musical tastes. To be honest, based on what I know about Bry I could have probably cobbled together a review of this album without even listening to it. But I thought I better had; just in case he’d done a chameleonic style change drawing in influences from the current musical zeitgeist a la Bowie. I would have looked a bit of an arse had he produced a drum ‘n’ bass album and I hadn’t mentioned it. Needless to say that wasn’t the case – it’s a straight ahead pop-rock album. Full of emotive balladeering about how much his ‘baby’ means to him; and about how lurve is such a complicated and mysterious thing. If you’re looking for songs which say something new or enlightening about the human condition or offer some socio-political comment then your search has going spectacularly awry. You could listen to this album; but in the same way that you would politely listen to the music that your in-laws put on when you go round for a family dinner – so that’s the mother-in-law’s birthday present sorted out then. www.bryanadams.com |