Review | Bryan Adams delivers more saccharine ballads and radio-friendly rockers
Adams’ 13th album is business as usual from the Canadian singer-songwriter
Get Up
Polydor
It’s been 25 years since craggy crooner Bryan Adams was crowned “the most hated man in pop”. It wasn’t an official title, of course, simply the general consensus at my local drinking establishment, but after 16 continuous and monotonous weeks at No 1 with (Everything I Do) I Do It For You, most of the pub and, let’s be honest,the world wanted to kill Adams. Thirteen years later, James Blunt arrived on the scene, with You’re Beautiful, and our vitriol locked onto a new target. The multi-platinum-selling Canadian was forgiven, or at least forgotten. Returning to these shores for the first time since his gig in 1993, the 57-year-old singer-songwriter will appear at AsiaWorld-Expo on January 14 in support of his 13th album. This may be his first collection of original songs since 2008’s Eleven, but Get Up is pretty much business as usual, Adams’ retro-tinged pop taking its cues from the 1950s and 60s, with Beatles-influenced melodies, tepid saccharine ballads and radio-friendly rockers. Go Down Rockin’, in particular, steals its swagger from The Stones.