Can't live forever, that's wishful thinkin'

Continuing my trip back in time through the album charts

21/07/96 : 18 til I Die - Bryan Adams

Bryan is easy to mock (and plenty do) but he's produced some very decent tunes over the years - his debut album came out in 1980, Reckless came out in 1984 and So Happy It Hurts, his 15th album came out earlier this year!  Whilst I recognise some of track titles from this album, I can't say I really remember them, so am intrigued to see what I think.

And well, it's fine for that sort of thing.  It's kinda part-poppy, part-rocky, part-ballady and part-bluesy - I can see that for some people that it's offensively part-everything, but for others it's not offensively fully-anything, so they love it.  I didn't mind it, but nothing particularly hit the spot - although I can appreciate that "Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman?" is well done.  However, "You're Still Beautiful To Me" is bizarrely Rod Stewart - he even effects the voice.  Why would anyone do that?  It's not one we've ever owned (Reckless being my only purchase of his) - 9/24.

We're at a new all-time low position in the chart - #13 (unlucky for some).  The album is on its sixth week of a 47 week run, with it having debuted at #1 - and bizarrely was about to spend five weeks in a row at either #12 or #13 in the charts, followed by two weeks at #14 and one week at #15.  The top five were (again) Alanis, Ocean Colour Scene, The Smurfs, Crowded House and Celine Dion - the first week of three in a row in exactly the same places.  The highest new entry was (obviously) Jeff Wayne's War Of The Worlds at #31 - only 18 years after it was first released.

Wikipedia has more text on the album than the content delivers - but most of that is because the title tracks are so long they take up a full line.  I was most amused to see that the technical assistant on the album was one "Ron Obvious", who I had to check out to see if that was his real name - and was very pleased to see he was born "Ron Obvious Vermeulen".  Back to musical matters, the album did well globally but only managed to reach the top spot over here (and it only got to #31 in the US) - it sold over 5 million worldwide though, so all was good for the lad.

"Customers also listened to" Richard Marx, Peter Cetera, Foreigner and Phil Collins - that's a helluva lotta bland there.  And I know lots of people consider Bryan to be in the same boat, but I personally think he has enough to generally elevate him slightly above such others - and when he hits the highs, he hits them good.  This album isn't quite there for me, but it's perfectly serviceable.  The only thing I'd say that, considering the album title, I struggle to imagine aged 18 has ever bought it.

14/07/96 - Just incredibly dull
28/07/96 - Not an album anyone needs in their life