Whatever I Want

I get to do a post on WHATEVER I WANT today, so I'll put up a review I just did at my other blog TIRADES. For more reviews you can go there. Enjoy (or maybe not).

CORPORATE AMERICA by BOSTON

Released: November 5. 2002
Genre: Rock
Length: 47:28
Label: Artemis
Producer: Tom Scholz, Gary Pihl, Fran Cosmo, Anthony Cosmo
Tracklist:
   1. I Had a Good Time
   2. Stare Out Your Window
   3. Corporate America
   4. With You
   5. Someone
   6. Turn it Off
   7. Cryin'
   8. Didn't Mean to Fall in Love
   9. You Gave Up on Love
   10. Livin' For You (live)
   11. Crystal Love (European Bonus Track)

   Corporate America Boston's first record since 1994's Walk On. Most people haven't heard any of the songs on the record except maybe "I Had a Good Time," which was put on the Greatest Hits compilation in 2006, but other than that the record will be completely unfamiliar to the casual listener. Hardcore Boston fans who bought this record when it came out almost universally hate it, and they have some good reasons, although their outright hatred is a little unfounded. Fran Cosmo continues to provide some lead vocals for the record, but this time he's joined by original vocalist Brad Delp and a new vocalist, Kimberly Dahme, who I'll discuss in a minute. Tom Scholz has also taken a bit of a backseat for this one, letting Fran and Anthony Cosmo do a lot of the songwriting.
   "I Had a Good Time" is on Greatest Hits for a reason. The song is classic Boston, with Schoz's driving guitars and Delp's vocals creating a catchy, satisfied attitude. Delp's vocals are still good, but there's something...missing from them. He doesn't really test his higher range, instead choosing to play it safe throughout the song. The next track was written by Anthony Cosmo, and it's driven almost entirely by an acoustic guitar, something typical Boston fans aren't used to at all. It's a decent song, with a chorus delivered by Fran Cosmo that's pretty easy to sing along to.
   I find the title track to be slightly ironic, as Boston was created by a corporate record company and didn't even have a full band until their first album was put out. The track sounds very similar to "Higher Power," which was recorded for Greatest Hits. The lyrics are like a ramped-up version of "Peace of Mind," harshly criticizing the American Capitalist system. The song itself is catchy enough, but the lyrics were a little too 'save the trees' for me. The fourth track, "With You," is where Kimberly Dahme comes in. She wrote and performed vocals on the song, which is probably why the song sounds so out of place. Dahme plays an acoustic for this song, and after a few seconds her country/pop oriented vocals kick in. I already dislike country, and to hear it on a Boston album was a little too much.
   "Someone" starts with a killer organ/synth solo that screams 'classic Boston.' It helps that Scholz wrote the song and Delp sings lead vocals again, with some backing vocals from Fran Cosmo, making it the best song on the album since track 1. "Turn it Off" starts with an acoustic/flute solo that caught me off guard, but then the guitar riff kicks in with Fran Cosmo's dark vocals. While it falls just short of Boston's standards, it's the best written by Anthony Cosmo. "Cryin'" was an average song, but Tom Scholz takes charge of the writing again for the rest of the record starting with track 8, "Didn't Mean to Fall in Love." This next track begins with the sound of a phone dialing and an organ solo from Tom Scholz, with some background vocals from Brad Delp. The chorus has got a really catchy organ solo that sounds vaguely similar to the earlier track "Someone." While I didn't like it as much as "Someone" or "I Had a Good Time," it was still one of the stronger tracks on the record. The last studio track on the album has a good beginning that gives way to an acoustic and a flute. Dahme gives the backing vocals some really good flavor, and the chorus is pretty catchy. The live version of "Livin' for You" is pretty good, with Delp singing lead vocals, but I don't see the point of including it on Corporate America. "Crystal Love" is a bonus track on the European version, but it's just a six minute long guitar instrumental. It's a good instrumental, but it's an instrumental.
Good:
Scholz really did put a few great tracks on here. Delp's vocals are still fantastic for his age, and I've always liked Fran Cosmo's voice too. "I Had a Good Time" "Someone" "Didn't Mean to Fall in Love" and "You Gave Up on Love" are all classic Boston. Scholz is just as skilled in his songwriting as he was for the other three Boston albums.
Bad:
At least half the tracks weren't written by Tom Scholz. Out of the four tracks that weren't written by him, only one of them is even ok. The other ones are very weak tracks, especially "With You," which was a country song on a Boston record. Only half the songs on the album are really worth listening to, and that's a problem because this record doesn't have a downloadable version on iTunes OR Amazon, so you have to buy the whole darn cd to own any of it, and on Amazon the compact disc ranges from between 30-60$. No one bought the cd really, and Artemis is a European record company, so it's hard to get a hold of. However, if you want to listen to Corporate America on the internet, I'd stick with tracks 1, 5, 6, 8, 9, and MAYBE 2 and 3.
Rating:
2 stars. Tom Scholz should have known better than to let Kimberly Dahme sing ANY lead vocals or do any songwriting. Considering his ultra-perfectionist attitude, I thought he would have taken more care with a Boston record and written more of the material himself.

My Favorites:
Someone
I Had a Good Time
Didn't Mean to Fall in Love
You Gave Up on Love

What You'll Probably Like Best:
I Had a Good Time
You Gave Up on Love
Someone