BOSTON: WALK ON (1994)
1) I Need Your Love; 2)
Surrender To Me; 3) Livin' For You; 4) Walkin' At Night; 5) Walk On; 6) Get
Organ-ized; 7) Walk On (Some More); 8) What's Your Name; 9) Magdalene; 10) We
Can Make It.
The temporary replacement of Brad Delp with
Fran Cosmo (who, ironically enough, started out as a vocalist on Barry
Goudreau's debut solo album in 1980) should not be much of a worry. Brad Delp
is a deep-lung screamer, Fran Cosmo is a deep-lung screamer, the two are pretty
much interchangeable, and Boston have never been much about vocals anyway —
powerful, but personality-deprived arena-rock singers have never been a rarity
ever since arena-rock came into existence, no matter where and when you locate
this moment in time.
What is
worrying is the lack of good songs. As usual, Walk On is a collection of brawny arena-rockers and equally brawny
power ballads; not as usual, I believe
that this time around, not a single song has managed to stick in my mind, a
fairly amazing feat for a record that's been eight years in the making. I mean,
it's as if the fine art of songwriting never existed in the first place. Look
at the title track — it is just a common, generic piece of ʽLa Grangeʼ-ian fast
boogie. If ZZ Top played this, though, at least they'd do it with humor and
snappiness: Scholz, however, with his «bigger than everybody else» attitude,
just drowns it in his Gargantuan ambitions.
For the single, they chose a song with a truly
brilliant title — ʽI Need Your Loveʼ — and an operatic riff that sounds
surprisingly muddy when it cuts through your speakers around 0:38, certainly a
far cry from the immediately captivating riffage of ʽMore Than A Feelingʼ and very surprising in light of Scholz's
usual perfectionism. The song in general is just a very basic power ballad, not
as «intimate» as ʽAmandaʼ but even less memorable, apart from the rather
annoyingly dumb chorus ("I NEED YOUR LOVE! I WANT YOU EVERY WAY!" — I
don't even want to know what that
last exhortation is supposed to mean). Most importantly, it was simply not the kind of sound to make any
headlines in 1994, so the single stuck at No. 51, and for once, I guess, the
public was right: 51 is a good number in this context.
Not that there is anything on the album that
could have made a better choice. The riff of ʽSurrender To Meʼ sounds like
mediocre Judas Priest with Scholz production. ʽLivin' For Youʼ is a sentimental
ballad that is actually driven by electronic
keyboards — so much for the old resistance against synthesizers — and
sounds like any other generic adult contemporary ballad ever written. The
lengthy ʽWalk Onʼ suite has a few moments, such as Scholz's «guitar Godzilla»
experiment on ʽWalkin' At Nightʼ and bits of Emerson-ian organ hooliganry on
ʽGet Organ-izedʼ, but overall, it is just too lumbering and ponderous for its
own good. And there is nothing I could say about the last three songs that I
have not already said about the first four.
The only thing to admire about Walk On is Scholz's stubborn decision
to follow his own personal muse, completely oblivious to everything that goes
on around, which is why this «1990s» album sounds not at all different from the
band's «1980s» album, despite a completely changed musical atmosphere. And I am
saying this without a hint of irony — ignoring trends and fads is always a
noble quality; however, it works so much better when you actually have
something interesting to say in your fossilized style — and I am quite surprised
to see this man completely concentrating on the style and forgetting that, if
you're dabbling in hard rock and all, you're kinda supposed to bring along at
least a handful of good riffs. Thumbs down.
I kind of like the Walk On suite. But I liked Foreplay as well. See, what Boston made a little more than just your average arena rock is the willingness to incorporate some artsy elements. Of course that was strongest on the debut album, which is one reason it's the best of the bunch.
ReplyDeleteFor quite a time I didn't even realize Brad Delp was replaced by Fran Cosmo - so interchangable are they.
Generic, almost computer-generated AOR schmalz and boogie rock, and in the middle - surprise! - generic, almost computer-generated John Lord / Keith Emerson hammond pounding.
ReplyDeleteThat's all there is to this album.
BTW, newsflash after all these years! How comes it hadn't occurred to me before: Scholz = Schmalz
Here's the oddest bit of all: In a recent interview, when asked who his earliest influences were, Scholz named...are you sitting down? BLUE CHEER and IRON BUTTERFLY! My jaw nearly dropped to the ground.
DeleteFast forward with three years and it gets worse with the two first songs of Greatest Hits (Tell Me and Higher Power). Much worse.
DeleteFast forward today, and listen to the "Life, Love and Rope" abomination.
DeleteThey should have died tragically after the first album.
ReplyDeleteWrong! "Don't Look Back" is their finest album and even the follow-up is decent.
DeleteThey should have never recorded anything in the first place.
Delete