Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Marx, Richard
Label: Frontiers Records
Release: 2012
Running time: 52:09 (CD1.)
Rating: 4.2/5
Richard Marx is the guy who, over the last twenty-five years, which have flown by in the blink of an eye, kept shaking the peaks of the world’s music charts with his mega hit singles. This hugely talented American AOR pop/rock singer-songwriter earned his status as one of the most recognizable and respected names in the music industry fair and square.
Since »Inside My Head« isn’t your typical standalone studio album, but a collection of the best moments from Richard Marx’s last three studio albums, plus four new tracks, with freshly re-recorded hits added on top (see the second CD), it’s worth approaching this review factually. Marx never lacked a knack for arranging and composing, or sonic polish. It was way back in 1987 when Marx rose like a phoenix and debuted on the scene with the hit single Don’t Mean Nothing, and the debut »Richard Marx«, released that same year, sold a whopping 3 million copies. The very next album, »Repeat Offeneder« from 1989, more than doubled the debut’s sales. And Marx pulled off another incredible feat on top of that. Between 1987 and 1990, as the first male solo artist on this planet and in this solar galaxy, he managed to land all seven of his consecutive hit singles in the top five of Billboard’s best-selling singles chart. If anyone still remembers, three of them, Hold On to the Nights, Satisfied and Right Here Waiting (probably still Marx’s best-known worldwide evergreen today), hit number one on that very same chart. To this day, nobody has topped Marx’s feat.
Besides numerous awards for his work and 30 million copies of his albums sold to date, Richard Marx has always stayed true to his »adult contemporary« AOR pop rock sound. Even after he started working as a producer with some of the best-known names in music, such as: *NSYNC, Barbra Streisand, Josh Groban, Vince Gill, 98°, Luther Vandross, Kenny Rogers, Sarah Brightman, Lara Fabian, Sister Hazel, The Tubes and SHeDAISY. More recently in his career, Richard Marx has co-written and produced studio releases for: Daughtry, Leann Rimes, Katherine Jenkins, Travis Tritt, Emerson Drive, Natalie Cole, Keith Urban, Paulina Rubio, Kenny Loggins, Chris Botti, Michael Bolton, a solo release by film actor Hugh Jackman, and also the famous »Beatle« Ringo Starr for his current studio album. In 2006, Richard Marx was picked by Ringo Starr to join Ringo’s backing band, Ringo Starr’s All-Star Band, for the American leg of the tour, on which he played 22 shows with Ringo in total.
“Inside My Head”, which doesn’t hide an abundance of ballads in its track selection (Marx was always at his most expressive in those), is, as already mentioned, a compilation double CD, whose main purpose, from the label Frontiers Records, is to revive interest in the name Richard Marx on the European market. Europe has always shown less ecstasy over the output of this otherwise commercially hugely successful artist than the rest of the world. The first CD brings together the brightest moments of three Richard Marx studio albums that so far have come out only for the American market. Hence the realization that Richard Marx is a very cautious rascal when it comes to investing. These are “Emotional Remains”, “Duo” and “Stories to Tell”. The last three, then, which Marx judged, even before their official release, wouldn’t catch on in Europe. To these tracks Richard Marx added four brand-new songs. Interestingly, on the new songs of the »Inside My Head« album the man decided to update his sound. So he invited a few names from the music world to help him pull off an overhaul of his classic sound production and, to put it plainly, »modernize« it. No wonder, then, that Nickelback’s Chad Kroeger and Chris Daughtry collaborated on the track »On The Inside«; Daughtry, together with Jason Wade of Lifehouse, also contributed arrangement and sound ideas to the excellent mid-tempo opener Had Enough. Given the combination of arrangement, innate sense of melodic compactness and subcutaneous seductiveness, moments of »Inside My Head« can be compared to the latest studio release of Australian pop rock icon Rick Springfield, titled »Venus In Overdrive« (2009). So Richard Marx’s mission was a complete success, and the material retains all its credibility in justifying the high standards we demand from a standard-issue release under the »Richard Marx« brand.
To make the release catch on even better, there’s a second album of freshly re-recorded biggest hits from Marx’s solo career. That’s twelve eternally hot evergreens, including Right Here Waiting, Angelia, Don’t Mean Nothing, Hazard, Keep Coming Back,…
The combination of both CDs won’t let you catch your breath, you true lovers of AOR inflammability and radio-friendly sounds. Fans of Richard Marx’s work will be absolutely thrilled, as »Inside My Head« is an extremely bold combination of the brightest moments of this artist’s last three studio albums, with four brand-new songs thrown in that tie in phenomenally with the rest of the material. This proves that Marx hasn’t lost his creative dynamite yet, which also suggests that the new studio album, which let’s hope we won’t have to wait too long for, will be another highly successful chapter in Marx’s rich discography.
I deeply recommend this release to lovers of sweetly dreamy AOR pop. It has the real touch of Marx’s unyielding studio and arranging perfection, which keeps his name, even today, among the most talented singer-songwriters in the music industry, the kind who have always flooded, flood and will keep flooding the radio waves.
Lineup
Richard Marx – vocals, many instruments
Various guests
Production
Richard Marx
Track list
CD1.:
1. Had Enough
2. Wouldn’t Let Me Love You
3. Like Heaven
4. On The Inside
5. Through My Veins
6. Always On Your Mind
7. Loved
8. Come Running
9. All Over Me
10. Scars
11. Done To Me
12. Over My Head
13. Part of Me
CD 2.:
1. Don’t Mean Nothing
2. Should’ve Known Better
3. Endless Summer Nights
4. Keep Coming Back
5. Take This Heart
6. Hold On To The Nights
7. Angelia
8. Hazard
9. Too Late To Say Goodbye
10. Satisfied
11. Right Here Waiting
12. When You Loved Me
