11 - Bryan Adams > Reviews > Bryan Adams' Most Boring Album Yet

Author's product rating:   

Originality	Completely unoriginal
Lyrics	Dire
Quality and consistency of tracks	Consistently bad
How does it compare to the artist's other releases	Weak
Value for Money	Very Poor

Advantages:	None
Disadvantages:	Boring, Same Old Songs Rehashed, Embarrassing Lyrics

Recommend to potential buyers:

no

Full review

Bryan Adams is unfortunately clutching at straws with his eleventh album and its rather predictable title "eleven". In releasing another album featuring yet more of the same old songs, Adams' record company bosses seem to have had a bit of a panic. Being the eleventh album by Adams, and containing eleven tracks (purposely listing the technical twelfth track "Way of the World" as a "bonus"), Adams' will play it on his "eleven dates, eleven cities" tour this year. Perhaps if this album had any merits worth mentioning I could view this as a clever little marketing ploy; instead, I just have visions in my head of music executives sat round a table going "this sounds just like his last five albums, what are we supposed to do with it?"

The first three tracks are sweet, melodic laid-back little ditties far too similar to songs that most of us have heard before. They're all especially reminiscent of Bryan Adams' MTV unplugged album thanks to their lightweight musical compositions and acoustic guitar melodies. There's nothing wrong with any of these tracks; they're all perfectly pleasant to listen to. But I don't expect Bryan Adams, after thirty years in the music industry, to produce perfectly pleasant songs. I expected so much more.

The only song on the album to actually stand out has to be "Oxygen" though not in a good way I'm sad to say. The music starts out enjoyably enough with a slightly more upbeat tempo than the previous tracks accompanied by a slight variation in percussion throughout too. Where the song gets embarrassing is when we reach the chorus: "Oxygen, every moment, oxygen, every day, I can't live without it no, don't take it away. I need to breathe you in. Like oxygen." Enough said.

Unfortunately there is nothing else worth noting from this really quite appalling album. Clearly Adams was feeling a little bit bored and decided to rattle out any old album in the hope that it would be enough to get a tour out of. It really isn't though, even with the cute little marketing strategy promoting this album I doubt it will be remembered in the years to come. I've been a big fan of Bryan Adams for many years now and wish I'd never wasted my money on this boring piece of monotony. I'd rather I was able to just remember him as the awesome rocker who belted "Summer of '69" and "Only Thing That Looks Good on Me is You"; instead, I now find I can't shake the image in my head of a lazy, aging has-been rocker who rattled out an excuse of an album just so he could justify a new tour.

There really is nothing left to review here.

Track Listing:

1) Tonight We Have The Stars
2) I Thought I'd Seen Everything
3) I Ain't Losing The Fight
4) Oxygen
5) We Found What We Were Looking For
6) Broken Wings
7) Something To Believe In
8) Mysterious Ways
9) She's Got A Way
10) Flower Grown Wild
11) Walk On By
12) Way of the World (bonus track)

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