It's a masterpiece - need I say more?

Everybody's Crazy (1983.) Michael Bolton's second album.

These days, when the name Michael Bolton comes to mind, it is associated with an adult contemporary artist who only appeals to middle-aged housewives. Believe it or not, Bolton wasn't always this way. Back in the eighties, when Bolton was just starting his musical career, he was a hard rocker - and a pretty damn good one too. It's hard to believe, but it's true. In 1983, Bolton released his self-titled debut album, which was an excellent mix of arena and classic rock. And in 1985, he followed it up with his sophomore effort, Everybody's Crazy. Read on for my review of this album.

Bolton kicks off the album with a hard yet melodic rock stylings of Save Our Love. Much like Fools Game, the track that started his first album, this one grabs your attention and keeps it. The title track comes next. This one is straight-up hard rock at its very best. You may remember the track from the Rodney Dangerfield film Back To School. A keyboard-heavy power ballad called Can't Turn It Off comes next. This here is what power ballads are supposed to sound like. The mixture of keyboards and guitars makes this one of the finest songs of its genre. For Call My Name, Bolton slows things way down. The piano is the main instrument in this track. An awesome saxophone solo at the end makes this a damn fine ballad. Everytime serves up more of the "Journey meets Triumph" power rock that makes us love Bolton's music so much. Another excellent ballad is Desperate Heart. Like Can't Turn It Off, earlier on the album, it's a GREAT power ballad. One of the most interesting tracks on the album is the rocker You Don't Want Me Bad Enough, in which Bolton uses stylings very similar to those of Sammy Hagar-era Van Halen. Every track on this album is excellent, making this Michael Bolton's finest hour.

Overall, I would have to recommend this album to any fan of power rock from the eighties. It's a very good album, but sadly, the album is out of print and extremely hard to find in America (I had to order mine from Amazon.) It's such a shame Bolton has become a wimpy crooner in recent years, because his hard rock was so good. THIS is the Michael Bolton that should have become popular - not that damn modern one.

NOT YOUR MOTHER'S MICHAEL BOLTON........

After two solo albums for RCA and two albums with BLACKJACK for POLYDOR,Michael Boloton became Michael Bolton and released a self-titled debut for COLUMBIA records in 1983.As solid and as promising as that effort was, any and all momentum was lost with this long out-of-print follow-up released in 1985.The original cover photo (not shown here) has him decked out in David Coverdale's (or Bea Arthur's)Best, and it's all too obvious that the label wanted to market him in the Melodic-Metal scene that was about to break.This may have all worked out,had the material on the album been as consistant as it's predecessor.There are some great songs here,it's just that when taken as a whole, it doesn't add up to much. HOWEVER, that's not to say that you won't enjoy this disc in all of it's flawed glory,the title track alone is worth every penny.Loud,swaggering and anthemic,it's the greatest song that KISS never wrote So,order it now before it's out of print again,give it to mom and tell her it's his latest..just make sure that the de-fib is at arms length...c'mon,it'll be a hoot....

WoW a Michael Bolton album that's good! Bolton gone metal!

I never though I'd be writing a review saying that a Bolton album is good but I am. I was very suprised to find that Mr.Bolton actually did metal. This album starts off with Save our Love a pretty good song. Then Everybody's Crazy (The title Track)this song is a great sing a long arena rock anthem;the guitar sound is very good on this song.

Track 3 Can't Turn it Off is decent song as well(I espically love the guitar riff on this song).

The next 4 tracks on this cd aren't really that good,(You can tell Bolton wanted to move to a new musical level but it's not horrible like his other stuff he did in the 90's).

The last 2 tracks really rock (I can't believe I'm saying this but they do). I've taken a lot of flack for liking this album but it's a good cd. If you love 80's AOR/Melodic Metal than buy this cd. It's worth shelling out 11 dollars for it. His first self titled album isn't that bad either(If my friend saw this review i'd take even more flack), but what the heck the 80's where a great time when music sounded good not like today's trash. Long Live the 80's. I'd take a early 80's Michael Bolton album over today's Velvet Revolver(They really stunk despite Slash being in it) anyday.