Artist: Adams, Bryan
Label: Polydor Records
Release: 2004
Canadian veteran Bryan Adams has just put out his fourteenth album, Room Service, recorded on his latest tour, which also took him to Ljubljana, so it’s no surprise that a few guitars and backing vocals were laid down at Hala Tivoli and Hotel Lev in Ljubljana.
Bryan Adams started his career in the second half of the seventies, playing in his native Canada with bands like Shock and Sweeney Todd (who even put out a record), then worked with local musicians and in 1980 released his debut, Bryan Adams.
The first hits came in 1982 with Cuts like a knife, followed a year later by Heaven, and all along he played tirelessly, bringing his songs to audiences live all over the world. He played Live Aid in 1985 and delivered a hit or two with every record.
But the whole world really found out about him in 1991, when the blockbuster Robin Hood – Prince of Thieves hit the big screen, and the film’s main theme, (Everything I do) I do it for you, blasted out of the speakers. From there on, it’s all well-known history.
In the past few years Bryan Adams has been making somewhat more pop-leaning music, wooing mostly the gentler sex with ballads and writing plenty of film music, but he’s always been convincing live. Before listening to Room Service I was very skeptical, because I was afraid of yet another record of heart-(and ear-)piercing, syrupy ballads.
But the whole record has just two ballads, and even that’s a stretch – Flying is acoustic, enriched with harmonica and a somewhat slower tempo, and Nowhere fast is acoustic too. With all the electric guitars and great transitions, you could more accurately call these two tracks instrumentally ballads or, to be honest, just slower songs.
Not Romeo not Juliet is an interesting one, in which he takes a somewhat humorous jab at the lyrics of Bon Jovi, and instrumentally the song is very close to their stuff from the first half of the nineties. Also worth mentioning is the last track on the record – Why do you have to be so hard to love, which has an interesting bluesy charge I’m not used to from Adams, let alone expected.
Personally, the tracks that won me over most were Open road, which has lots of interesting guitar transitions and a harmonica that gives the song a Neil Young stamp, and maybe the best of all is the title track Room Service, which kicks off with a boogie bit, is full of guitars, and has an interesting lyric and a great chorus.
Bryan Adams has made a record we didn’t expect from him, but one we can be really glad about, because he’s proven he can still write interesting songs, both lyrics and music. Maybe it helped that everything was written on tour and he didn’t have enough time to “ruin” the songs in the studio, because it all sounds much more raw, gritty, in short – rock.
The record hides quite a few potential hits and everyone will probably find something to their taste on it, but the ones who’ll be most disappointed are surely those expecting a fresh bouquet of ballads for evening and late-night seductions. Bryan Adams decided to be different, maybe a bit more his own man, but in any case very easy for many to get into and interesting to listen to.
Lineup
Bryan Adams – guitar, dobro, harmonica, piano, bass guitar and vocals
Mickey Curry – drums
Keith Scott – guitars
Production
Bryan Adams
Track List
1.East Side Story
2.This Side Of Paradise
3.Not Romeo Not Juliet
4.Flying *
5.She’s A Little Too Good For Me
6.Open Road
7.Room Service
8.I Was Only Dreamin’
9.Right Back Where I Started From
10.Nowhere Fast
11.Why Do You Have To Be So Hard To Love
12.Blessing In Disguise
*Produced by B.A. & Robert John “Mutt” Lange
