Note: this release was originally purchased as a cassette tape, later replaced by a CD.
I'm not a Bryan Adams fan, but I had this tape back in high school, so it brings back memories of those times. 1983 being MTV's heyday, I bought this cassette solely on the strength of the video for the song Cuts Like A Knife. Rolling Stone magazine gave it a 2 star review (below), which is fairly accurate as there's only 4 or 5 good tracks out of the 10 here. Still, the album was a commercial success and sold over 2 million copies worldwide, so I'm sure Adams could care less what a blogger has to say about it, particularly 30+ years after the fact.
Press of the time:
- Rolling Stone (★★): "there's simply nothing happening underneath the good looks and the smooth moves"
- Billboard: "hook-laden romantic rock"
- CashBox: "compact, hook-laden pop/rockers"
- Stereo Review: "routine, lifeless boilerplate"
Album chart peaks:
- US Billboard 200: #8
- Billboard Rock: #3
- CashBox: #12
- Rolling Stone: #19
Tracks: For me, the highlight of the album is This Time (#24 pop, #21 rock), closely followed by the title cut (#15 pop, #6 rock). In fact, I think the title track should have been the first track. I'm not a big power ballad guy, but the album's biggest hit, Straight From The Heart (#10 pop, #32 rock, #29 AC) isn't as bad as most other power ballads. Still, I think the better attempt at a ballad is the simple, final track, The Best Was Yet To Come. As for the other 6 tracks, they're shamelessly derivative. I always thought Take Me Back (#21 rock) was a failed attempt at sounding like the Rolling Stones, but I do like the Foreigner knock-off, I'm Ready (#26 rock) - maybe it's the background vocals from Lou Gramm. Let Him Know lifts directly from the Ronettes. Most of the other tracks sound like Mellencamp (or Cougar as he was known back then).
Personal Memory Associated with this CD: My cassette copy mostly got played in the Markmobile as I drove to and from a minimum wage job at Burger King. I mainly stuck with side one (tracks 1-5), but side two got played every now and then.
As a Canadian, (and a Kingstonian) (Bryan Adam's birth city) I think it's an unwritten rule that I'm supposed to be a Bryan Adams fan. Sadly, I'm not. I mean, he seems like a nice, upstanding guy n'all, but I've always found B.A. to be mediocre mom-rock. I own one album: Waking Up the Neighbours, which I purchased for the song "Thought I'd Died and Gone to Heaven" - not "Everything I Do". And one single: the largely-panned "Cloud #9" which I bought for the Chicane remix that was a clear-departure from anything I'd ever heard remotely resembling Bryan Adams style.
ReplyDeleteMy memories of "Cuts Like a Knife" are closely tied to occassions I would feel compelled to turn off the radio just to get away from his phlegm-gravel-sandpaper voice. I've since grown-out of that disdain but find him uninspiring and uninspired.