Bryan Adams- 'Roll with the punches"

The hair might turn grey, the beer belly starts to smile at the mirror but you still like to listen to something more rockier than the MOR/80s nostalgia songs of your local radio station.BA has the answer to your problems. Another album that is more rocking than his previous works, with a couple of catchy, mellow but addictive ballads and Adams has the winning combination. It might not be as rebellious or edgy as he used to be ,but he knows how to pen a good tune . 

 

So as rock fans get older and musicians too, Adams adapts and creates rockin tunes for the elderly and far more reaching than bands with half his age. Enjoy a proper album from a great songwriter and question yourself how many times in the recent years you have listened to songs like 'Roll with the punches" The album has everything in your face rockers "Roll with the punches' and "be the reason", or more melodic ones like "Make up your mind" ,mid tempo/countrified rockers like the catchy "How's That Workin' for Ya", enjoyable mellow mid tempo, uplifting songs like "Life Is Beautiful" with pop aesthetics. 

 

He knows to be sentimental and surprises us in the Dylanesque "Love is stronger than hate" with the harmonica at the opening bars giving the tone, an old school ballad about war, loss and camaraderie. You have the expectable ballad in "Two Arms to Hold You", corny as it can be and that's what we like in Adams; he always delivers what we love him for. You have to admire his ability to pen catch pop rock tunes like "A little more understanding", or the uptempo/uplifting "Never let you go" harder than most of the so called rock artists of the Spotify generation without speeding up a notch, or use distortion, cause in his core he is an adult rocker, he is Canadian after all.

 

So all you middle age rockers (myself included)who are tired of the young brats who can't use a riff to put out a decent FM rock tune, Bryan is back,so let's celebrate life of Brian/Brayn, the Canadian prophet has raised the bar high for the rest of his contemporaries.It might not be the summer of 69, but it is still a pretty good summer for another successful MOR rock release

7,5