Running on fumes now?
Artiste: Boston
Nationality: American
Album: Corporate America
Year: 2002
Label: Artemis
Genre: Rock
Tracks
I had a good time
Stare out your window
Corporate America
With you
Someone
Turn it off
Cryin'
Didn't mean to fall in love
You gave up on love
Livin' for you (live)
Chronological position: Fifth album
Familiarity: “Boston”, “Don't look back”, “Third stage”, “Walk on”
Interesting Factoid: The last album Bradley Delp recorded with Boston before his untimely suicide.
Impression: Solid, but the Suits won't be overly worried.
Best track(s): Stare out your window, Someone, Turn it off
Worst track(s): Corporate America
Intention: Wonder if Boston will ever rise to the heights of the debut again, but doubt it.
Comments:Starts off well, powerfully and with a lot more AOR to be fair than straight ahead rock, but that oh-so-missed distinctive voice is great to hear, as Brad Delp puts in a great performance, his last with Boston before tragically taking his own life five years later. I'm a little offput by the electronic/dance nature of the title track, even if Tom Scholz's instantly recognisable guitar riffs do add a bit of needed punch, but the basic tune is more like something you'd hear on a dancefloor really, and despite a pretty fine solo from Tom it's hard not to scratch your head at the composition of this song.
There's a nice change of pace then for a beautifully gentle little acoustic number, that comes on all
Starman as it begins, and is very interestingly sung by country songstress Kimberley Dahme, who joined Boston that year. I believe this is the first time a Boston song has had female lead vocals, and it's certainly unexpected, to me at least. There's another unexpected twist in
Turn it off, when Boston go all grunge rock, and a lovely little piece of Spanish guitar in
I didn't mean to fall in love, though the rest of the song sounds like Toto, and is somewhat drowned in keyboards. Beautiful closer in an apparently live version of
Livin' for you, off previous album “Walk on”, though to be honest the only clue it's live is at the end with some basic cheers, but it's a great song anyway.
Boston will never equal or exceed their amazing debut from 1976, especially now that the “voice” of that band has passed on, but they came close with “Third stage”. This I do not place in that sort of category. It's a decent album, but in a few places quite weak and really lacking the energy and enthusiasm I'd expect not only of Boston, but of an album that bears such a title. Corporate rock? Maybe not, but as Steve Hogarth once wrote,
”The fire in your belly/ That gave you the songs/ Is suddenly gone.”