Anyone who is an afficionado of classic rock will know Paul
\nRodgers’s voice almost instantly. Whether it was his work with
\nFree, his powerful lead presence in the first incarnation of Bad
\nCompany, or his short stint as lead throat with The Firm, Rodgers
\nhas built up quite a musical resum\u00e9 for himself.<\/p>\n
Yet since the breakup of The Firm, Rodgers has not been able to
\ncarve out a successful solo career for himself, to the point where
\nhe’d probably have difficulty getting arrested in the States. It’s
\nnot that his solo efforts have been bad – rather, they’ve just been
\nbland.<\/p>\n
His latest disc,
\nElectric<\/i>, is no exception to this pattern. Is it a bad disc?
\nAbsolutely not. But it takes the safe road, displaying 10 songs
\nwhich could have easily been leftovers from Rodgers’s Bad Company
\ndays, only without the guitar work of Mick Ralphs to seal the
\ndeal.<\/p>\n
In a sense, this could be seen as Rodgers putting himself
\nthrough the typical singer’s workout. On one side, he’s blazing
\nthrough the power rockers like “Deep Blue” and “Love Rains,”
\nsounding close to the young singer he once was. On the other side,
\nRodgers handles the ballads like “Over You,” “Conquistadora” and
\n“Jasmine Flower”. There is plenty of middle ground on
\nElectric<\/i>, as songs like “Walking Tall” and “Freedom”
\ndemonstrate.<\/p>\n
Rodgers hits his peak on the hauntingly beautiful “Jasmine
\nFlower,” a song a father sings to his daughter, though I am having
\ntrouble deciphering whether this is being sung to a child or to the
\nyoung woman she has become. Whichever the case, it’s a powerful
\nsong that I can easily see becoming an adult-contemporary
\nfavorite.<\/p>\n
Yet there are signs of the songwriting excess that has plagued
\nRodgers throughout his career. Case in point: “Conquistadora,”
\nwhich gets a little too bogged down in a story line to be
\neffective. Musically, it’s okay, but it loses any momentum it had
\nquickly.<\/p>\n
Yet
\nElectric<\/i> doesn’t seem like it’s an album made to win over
\nnew fans. If anything, this feels like it’s supposed to be a
\nreminder for those who used to listen to Rodgers in other groups
\nthat he’s still out there, and he still has the pipes that can
\ncarry the tunes. In a sense, that’s a relief to hear – but it’s
\nstill somewhat unsatisfying that he doesn’t try to break any new
\nground here.<\/p>\n
\nElectric<\/i> is the kind of album that longtime Bad Company fans
\nwill adore, since it often sounds like it was cut directly from
\nthat mold. It’s proof that Rodgers can still hold his own in this
\nfield, but it’s not going to be the key to opening the door to solo
\nsuccess for Rodgers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25541,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6406],"rating":[5614],"class_list":["post-36747","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-paul-rodgers","rating-rating-c-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36747"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36747\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36747"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36747"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}