Adams Explores New Avenues, but doesn't score as well...

18 Til I Die is not the best Bryan Adams album. However its not the worst one either. In the 80s and 90s Bryan set the bar pretty high especially on his last 3 efforts "Reckless", "Into the Fire", and "Waking Up the Neighbours". Let's look at the positives and the negatives:

The positives:
1) Bryan explored a different avenue for his music this time - this album shows an incorporation for some Blues. I always give an artist credit for trying new avenues. In general, commercial radio tends to ignore an artist who does this and this is the case with this album. The first two songs "The Only Thing That Looks Good On Me Is You" and "Do To You"

2) The Band. Bryan has had one of the most solid set of studio musicians that have worked with him throughout the years. They continue their tireless efforts on this album.

The negative: Really it sums up to a simple fact that the songs are just not that great. There are some good ones, but there are several occasions when the song had potential, but really missed a chord or lyric that could have made it better. "(I Wanna Be) Your Underwear" and "We're Gonna Win" are prime examples of this. In fact, on Bryan Adams' Unplugged album, there are several songs on this album that sound better in the unplugged format - namely "18 Tie I Die" and "I Think About You"

When the songs aren't as good, and the bar is set high - the new direction or studio musicians can only go so far to help and that is really where things come into play with this album. In the 80s, Bryan had a lot of success teaming with Jim Vallance - together they did much of the classic material found on "Reckless" and "Into the Fire". Bryan's songwriting partner became Robert "Mutt" Lange (better known as Mr Shania Twain) on the "Waking Up The Neighbours" album. While "Neighbours" wasn't quite up there with "Reckless' and "Into The Fire", it did show that the Adams/Lange combination had a lot of potential. Based on that, there is no reason why Lange should take the blame that this album isn't up to standards. Mutt Lange will also play guitars and bass on several tracks.

There aren't any deep lyrics on this album. In one way, you can look at the songwriting as a regression from the work in the past. But I think this is what Bryan Adams and Mutt Lange had in mind. It is almost like this is Bryan's "mid-life crisis" album. The title of the album really reflects the whole body of work "18 Tie I Die". Many of the songs have this youthful, carefree, and reckless feel to it. The album has a mix of the hard rock Bryan Adams and contains a healthy dose of the Bryan Adams ballads. I'm not a big fan of Bryan's ballads, but these aren't half bad. The best song on the album is probably "You're Still Beautiful to Me" (a ballad), "We're Gonna Win", and "18 Til I Die".

Right before this album was released, Bryan Adams participated in a trio with Rod Stewart and Sting called "All For Love". The interesting thing is the Rod Stewart influence must have rubbed off on Bryan from some of the Blues songs. If you listen to "You're Still Beautiful to Me", you could easily mistake it for a Rod Stewart song. (In fact, Rod Stewart immediately came to mind the first time I heard it and my wife thought it was a Rod Stewart song). As for the song "We're Gonna Win", I'm shocked this wasn't marketed by sports teams, networks, or leagues. It is a great "Sports-like" song and it is a shame it got airplay in the Sports area. Finally, "18 Til I Die" is a song that doesn't sound so great at first, but it will grow on you - kind of like the rest of the album. Yes there is good stuff, but unfortunately its weak tracks like "The Only Thing That Looks Good On Me is You", "(I Wanna Be) Your Underwear", and "It Aint A Party...." that hurt the collection. They aren't bad songs, but just not up there on where the "bar" has been set.

If you are a Bryan Adams fan, you probably will want to get this collection just because you will want to hear the direction Bryan has gone in. If you are new to Bryan Adams, I wouldn't recommend starting here.

Great

Maybe people don't like the "new" Bryan Adams, but the music is so strong on this album. The songs rocks, like no other of his records.

Just play it loud!

You Can't Stay 18 Forever

Bryan Adams was a huge pop star back in the late '80s and early '90s, but this is the album that ultimately derailed his career. Released in 1996, the album marked the birth of the newer, "cooler" Bryan Adams: the one with slicked back hair. The image overhaul unfortunately overshadowed the album, which had its fair share of hits. "Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman" was the big hit here, and deservedly so. However, the album has just as many misses as hits: "We're Gonna Win" is Adams' sad attempt to create something of a stadium staple. Also, song titles like "The Only Thing That Looks Good On Me Is You" and "(I Wanna Be) Your Underwear" are just creepy from a guy who once told us that everything he did, he did it for us. And that's the main problem with this album: Adams was the "nice guy" of rock and roll for too long. His new image and slickly produced album just don't quite work. Buy his "Best of Me" collection, or "Have You Ever..." as a single, and leave it at that.