Listening to Boston’s latest album
\nCorporate America<\/i> is like waking up on Christmas morning,
\nopening up a present, and finding a pair of socks.<\/p>\n
\nCorporate America<\/i> is only the fourth new Boston album since
\ntheir ground-breaking debut. That was way back in 1976, or as we
\nGeneration X-ers call it, ye olden days. Upon its release,
\nBoston<\/i> became the highest selling debut record ever, only to
\nbe dethroned years later by Whitney Houston.<\/p>\n
What made
\nBoston<\/i> special? Plenty. Tom Scholz locked himself in his
\nbasement, recording take after take, until the songs , in his mind,
\nwere flawless. Guitars, drums, bass, vocals, all re-recorded
\nendlessly. If there was an album that defines perfection,
\nBoston<\/i> was it. Yet despite the painstaking approach Scholz
\ntook to recording the album, at its heart it was still an
\nold-fashioned rock album. Unfortunately, at some point, Scholz lost
\nhis way.<\/p>\n
In theory, Boston fans have reason to rejoice!
\nCorporate America<\/i> has Brad Delp back in the fold, after his
\none-album absence, wailing in that castrato voice of his. Except
\nyou can’t understand Delp half the time, seeing as his voice is
\nburied deep in the mix. To makes matters worse, he only sings lead
\non three songs! Oh, what about the drums, you say? Ever played one
\nof those electronic keyboards from back in the ’80’s? Remember how
\nthere were little demos you could play along to? Yeah, the drums on<\/p>\n
CA<\/i> sound like that. Well, you ask in desperation, what about
\nthose crisp guitar solos? Sorry, it sounds as if Scholz decided to
\nrecord the album underwater. I’m sure it helped with the
\nacoustics.<\/p>\n
It is bitterly ironic that as time has progressed, Tom Scholz
\nhas managed to somehow make his albums sound worse. Ever since the
\ndebut, Scholz has been more and more preoccupied with the latest
\ntechnology. Given that, does someone want to explain to me how in
\nthe hell
\nCorporate America<\/i> ends up sounding as bad as it does? I’ve
\nalways been taught technology makes things better, allows for more
\ntweaking. Unfortunately for us Boston fans, I think the only way we
\nare going to hear a Boston album that sounds like their debut again
\nis if Tom Scholz meets up with Doc Brown, parks his ass in that
\nDelorean, and goes back to that magical time when he knew what he
\nwas doing.<\/p>\n
Scholz was never a great songwriter, but he had his moments.
\n“More Than A Feeling” proved that. So what does he do on Corporate
\nAmerica? Gets other musicians to make him look better by writing
\neven worse lyrics! Clich\u00e9d titles and lyrics abound
\nthroughout the album. “Cryin,” “Didn’t Mean To Fall In Love,” “You
\nGave Up On Love.” Personally, I was waiting for “I love to love
\nyour lovely lovin’.” But that’s not all. The title track takes the
\ncake. Everything the song rails against, globalization, business
\njets, sales pitches, Mr. Scholz has taken part in himself. This is
\nthe man who has spent more time in a courtroom suing Record label
\nand band members, than writing music! When
\nCorporate America<\/i> was released, it hit #42 on the charts,
\nthen sank like a stone. So instead of getting the picture that
\nmaybe, just maybe the album sucked, what does he do? He sues the
\nrecord company, claiming they didn’t promote it enough.
\nCorporate America<\/i> indeed.<\/p>\n
So what about everyone else on the album? There are two leftover
\nmembers from Walk On, the band’s fourth album. Those two would be
\nthe father-son duo of Fran and Anthony Cosmo. What do they bring to
\nthe table? The only decent song on the album. Think Boston + metal.
\n“Turn it Off” is the darkest song Boston has ever recorded, which
\nadds to the edge the track has. Lyrically, there’s nothing to get
\ntoo excited about, but just hearing Boston try something radically
\nnew is a breath of fresh air. “Turn it Off” has an organic feel,
\nwhich is something lacking in Boston’s three previous albums. For
\nme, there was no greater surprise on the album than hearing REAL
\ndrums. If Scholz wants to bring a new crowd, this is the road to go
\ndown for the next album, most likely to come out in 2027.<\/p>\n
Oh how could I forget, Kimberly Dahme? She is the first female
\nmember of Boston, and hopefully the last. The one song credited to
\nher on the album, “With You” is so incredibly out of place it could
\nmake a sad clown laugh. The Boston sound in no way includes country
\nnumbers. It doesn’t work. Oh yes, Scholz attempts to inject a bit
\nof Boston with an obligatory guitar solo, but it doesn’t work. Just
\nlike most of the album<\/p>\n
You know, if there was another band, this album wouldn’t be that
\nbad. I would predict great things for them in the future. But this
\nisn’t some unknown band, this is Boston, gods of arena rock, and
\nonce owners of the greatest-selling debut album of all time. Tom
\nScholz should have been able to do better. Oh yes, remember how
\nScholz sued over
\nCA<\/i>, claiming it was under-promoted? Well, apparently Scholz
\nhas gone back into the studio, and is in the process of re-mixing
\nCorporate America, supposedly due for release later this spring.
\nI’m sorry Tom, maybe people just don’t care anymore<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":26672,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5689],"rating":[11205],"class_list":["post-37926","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-boston","rating-rating-d-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37926","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\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37926\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37926"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37926"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}