| CUSTOMER REVIEWS: | 4/5 - 18 'til he dies alright!
Bryan Adams has always been one of the most interesting solo rockers. The first record I remember purchasing myself at the age of 7 was Bryan Adams' 1984 album Reckless. With that in mind, I feel no shame in saying that I am a fan of Bryan's music.
<br />
<br />His career might have recieved a renewed boost in the early 90's with the classic Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves ballad Everything I Do (I Do It For You), but the lyrics and music on 18 Til I Die still sounds as raw and electrifying as it did in the early to mid 80's. The title track says it all with lines like "someday I'll be 18 going on 55..." True to the lyric, Bryan doesn't seem to be growing any older as far as the record is concerned. He sings about things that only adolescents would dare sing about, take (I Wanna Be) Your Underwear for instance. However, Bryan delivers such charming rockers as The Only Thing That Looks Good On Me Is You which ranks up there with Summer Of 69 and Cuts Like A Knife as one of his best rock songs, the groovy hit single Let's Make A Night To Remember, the uplifting Star, and the ballads You're Still Beautiful To Me, I'll Always Be Right There, and I Think About You.
<br />
<br />18 Til I Die signifies Bryan Adams' most commercially successful work over the past decade. It also symbolizes that there's no growing up completely for Bryan Adams, at least not for now, but why should he grow up?
<br />
<br />He'll be 18 til he dies alright!
<br />
<br />Recommended
<br />
<br />B+
3/5 - Adams Explores New Avenues, but doesn't score as well...
18 Til I Die is not the best Bryan Adams album. However its not the worst one either. In the 80s and 90s Bryan set the bar pretty high especially on his last 3 efforts "Reckless", "Into the Fire", and "Waking Up the Neighbours". Let's look at the positives and the negatives:
The positives:
1) Bryan explored a different avenue for his music this time - this album shows an incorporation for some Blues. I always give an artist credit for trying new avenues. In general, commercial radio tends to ignore an artist who does this and this is the case with this album. The first two songs "The Only Thing That Looks Good On Me Is You" and "Do To You"
2) The Band. Bryan has had one of the most solid set of studio musicians that have worked with him throughout the years. They continue their tireless efforts on this album.
The negative: Really it sums up to a simple fact that the songs are just not that great. There are some good ones, but there are several occasions when the song had potential, but really missed a chord or lyric that could have made it better. "(I Wanna Be) Your Underwear" and "We're Gonna Win" are prime examples of this. In fact, on Bryan Adams' Unplugged album, there are several songs on this album that sound better in the unplugged format - namely "18 Tie I Die" and "I Think About You"
When the songs aren't as good, and the bar is set high - the new direction or studio musicians can only go so far to help and that is really where things come into play with this album. In the 80s, Bryan had a lot of success teaming with Jim Vallance - together they did much of the classic material found on "Reckless" and "Into the Fire". Bryan's songwriting partner became Robert "Mutt" Lange (better known as Mr Shania Twain) on the "Waking Up The Neighbours" album. While "Neighbours" wasn't quite up there with "Reckless' and "Into The Fire", it did show that the Adams/Lange combination had a lot of potential. Based on that, there is no reason why Lange should take the blame that this album isn't up to standards. Mutt Lange will also play guitars and bass on several tracks.
There aren't any deep lyrics on this album. In one way, you can look at the songwriting as a regression from the work in the past. But I think this is what Bryan Adams and Mutt Lange had in mind. It is almost like this is Bryan's "mid-life crisis" album. The title of the album really reflects the whole body of work "18 Tie I Die". Many of the songs have this youthful, carefree, and reckless feel to it. The album has a mix of the hard rock Bryan Adams and contains a healthy dose of the Bryan Adams ballads. I'm not a big fan of Bryan's ballads, but these aren't half bad. The best song on the album is probably "You're Still Beautiful to Me" (a ballad), "We're Gonna Win", and "18 Til I Die".
Right before this album was released, Bryan Adams participated in a trio with Rod Stewart and Sting called "All For Love". The interesting thing is the Rod Stewart influence must have rubbed off on Bryan from some of the Blues songs. If you listen to "You're Still Beautiful to Me", you could easily mistake it for a Rod Stewart song. (In fact, Rod Stewart immediately came to mind the first time I heard it and my wife thought it was a Rod Stewart song). As for the song "We're Gonna Win", I'm shocked this wasn't marketed by sports teams, networks, or leagues. It is a great "Sports-like" song and it is a shame it got airplay in the Sports area. Finally, "18 Til I Die" is a song that doesn't sound so great at first, but it will grow on you - kind of like the rest of the album. Yes there is good stuff, but unfortunately its weak tracks like "The Only Thing That Looks Good On Me is You", "(I Wanna Be) Your Underwear", and "It Aint A Party...." that hurt the collection. They aren't bad songs, but just not up there on where the "bar" has been set.
If you are a Bryan Adams fan, you probably will want to get this collection just because you will want to hear the direction Bryan has gone in. If you are new to Bryan Adams, I wouldn't recommend starting here.
4/5 - A Little Rusty but Worth The Money
When this album was released, it had been nearly five years since he released Waking Up The Neighbours, a groundbreaking album.
Since the release of that album, Adams had put out two big singles in "Please Forgive Me," and "All For Love," a trio with Sting and Rod Stewart. The magic Bryan achieved in his early days seemed to be coming back...
Almost.
As the case with all albums by all artists, the song has it's bad moments, good moments, and the occasional outstanding moment.
The bad of course include "We're Gonna Win," and "Do To You."
The good include, "Let's Make A Night To Remember," and "18 Til I Die."
The outstanding includes, "Star," from the Robin Williams movie JACK, "Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman?" from Don Juan De Marco and the wonderful, "I'll Always Be Right There."
The rest falls mostly between Good and outstanding, with the occasional falling after poor.
Over all...a good album, but I believe we could have gotten better. |
|
Monday, November 16, 2009
Last visit: 15/11/2009
