Author: Jernej Vene
Artist: Springfield, Rick
Label: Frontiers Records
Release: 2016
Runtime: 45:30
Rating: 3.5/5
Australian singer-songwriter Rick Springfield took quite a while to break through. If he were starting out today, in the age of instant recognition, his face alone would make him famous overnight. But he’s a dedicated creator for whom music matters most. Over his career he’s mostly steered through the choppy waters of showbiz, scoring his biggest successes in the first half of the eighties, yet he’s still keeping up an admirable musical path. The title Rocket Science does mean something, just not what Springfield is trying to say with it. He ties the phrase to the idea that making good pop rock isn’t rocket science, and that it’s mainly about positive fun. His biggest successes came in the eighties of the last century, when a heap of hits had him ruling the top of the charts. Among them were Celebrate Youth, Human Touch, Love Somebody, State Of The Heart, the Grammy-winning Jessie’s Girl and others. Springfield knows how to write a pleasant melody and dress it up with interesting lyrics. He’s often polished the final shape of a musical idea with help from collaborators, and on Rocket Science the structure of the songs is totally predictable, but he always manages to slip in a little hook that keeps the listener interested. It could be a melody, an unusual chord that breaks up the predictable musical journey, maybe a line or the choice of instrument. Rick Springfield is an artist from head to toe. Besides his acting and music careers, he’s also the author of a few books, including the acclaimed autobiography Late, Late at Night…: A Memoir, published in 2010. We also saw him in Sound City, the film about the famous recording studio in California’s San Fernando Valley, where Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters sang his praises, and the two are making new music together.
Rick Springfield has wandered off into country sounds this time, which might surprise longtime fans, but the music is perfectly decent on most tracks. Unlike the two darker albums from a decade ago, this one is surprisingly sunny and bright. For a rocker his age that’s pretty bold, but Springfield doesn’t let it bother him. Helping out on the record were members of his live crew, some friends from Nashville, and bassist Matt Bisonette and guitarist Tim Pierce, who’d already lent a hand on some of his earlier albums. Rick Springfield wrote a lot of the music on tour, since he still plays around a hundred shows every year, often sharing the bill on the same night with his contemporaries like Loverboy and The Romantics. On Rocket Science, Springfield tackles a range of themes. The rocker Light This Party Up went unused after the work on the film Ricki & The Flash, where he acted alongside Meryl Streep. He wrote Down with Jaye Marcus of the country group Rascal Flatts, and it’s about the sanctity of a loving relationship, in That One he sings about a broken heart, and love comes up in Let Me In too. We Connect is the positive one, in which he says we humans need to come together as a society instead of each living for ourselves, or things will get really tough for us.
Rick Springfield is a perfectionist and is never satisfied. He reckons his passion and energy come from exactly that. Rocket Science is a bold record, and the songs are short, which gives them an extra dose of freshness. Thanks to the country touches it sounds fresh and modern. Not a entirely typical record, it still shows Springfield’s wry take on the world and a sliver of hope for everyone who isn’t finding their way too well through the maze of life.
Lineup
Rick Springfield – vocals, guitar
Tim Pierce – guitar
George Bernhardt – guitar
George Nastos – guitar
George Doering – mandolin, acoustic guitar
Matt Bissonette – bass, backing vocals
Jim Cox – keyboards
Jorge Palacios – drums, percussion
Brandon Mgee – backing vocals
Chariya Bissonette – backing vocals
Josh Bissonnette – backing vocals
Robbie Wyckoff – backing vocals
Windy Wagner – backing vocals
Production
Rick Springfield
Track list
1. Light This Party Up (2:24)
2. Down (3:10)
3. That One (3:26)
4. The Best Damn Thing (4:23)
5. Miss Mayhem (3:20)
6. Pay It Forward (3:46)
7. Found (2:49)
8. Crowded Solitude (3:31)
9. Let Me In (4:03)
10. All Hands On Deck (3:57)
11. We Connect (3:39)
12. (I Wish I Had A) Concrete Heart (3:03)
13. Earth To Angel (4:05)
