The legendarily picky guitarist Tom Scholz returned on Dec. 3, 2013, with that rarest of things: New music from Boston. Well, sort of.
Life Love and Hope actually featured some reworked songs from Boston’s most recent studio effort – one of which included late founding frontman Brad Delp. In fact, there were a total of four vocals from Delp and, following his untimely death in 2007, those remain the most intriguing elements of a decidedly spotty record.
Elsewhere, Life Love and Hope found current members Kimberley Dahme and Tommy DeCarlo sharing duties at the mic. Scholz even sang a few tunes himself. None held the same time-shifting emotional jolts as those fronted by Delp, who powered Boston’s career-shaping hits over the decade between 1976’s “More Than a Feeling” and “Foreplay/Long Time” through to 1986’s “Amanda.”
“Didn’t Mean to Fall in Love” arrived after the album-opening David Victor-sung “Heaven on Earth,” setting a ruminative mood with an unanswered ring tone – for a split second, Boston recalls the lonely opening of the Electric Light Orchestra’s “Telephone Line” – before the track accelerated into a surprisingly modern cadence. That provided this crunchy friction against Delp’s heartfelt approach to the lyric. What followed was a moment that was as expected as it was gratifying for anyone who favored air-guitar hero moves at the turn of the 1980s: Scholz rushes in for an ever-so-brief, but thrillingly uplifting aside, intertwining once more with Delp’s stratospheric wail.
Then, the intriguingly episodic song powered back down to an almost confidential whisper, with Tom Scholz turning to a plucky acoustic. In the end, “Didn’t Mean to Fall in Love” worked as a canny update of the familiar sound of Boston’s hit-making years, as Brad Delp and Scholz navigated with ease between the contemplative and these anthem-like vistas, but in a gleamingly contemporary context.
Dahme, a member of Boston since 2002, offered a turbulent counterweight for the opening of “Sail Away,” before Delp’s emotionally fragile entrance. They tangled and untangled throughout a song whose theme – dealing with the isolation of feelings that go unspoken – took on additional resonance, considering Brad Delp’s awful suicide. (His note reportedly read: “J’ai une ame solitaire,” or “I am a lonely soul.”) “Sail Away” was one of Dahme’s three vocal showcases on Life Love and Hope.
The project also included a reworked version of “Someone” and a bonus cut called “Te Quiero Mia,” both of which originally found a home in different forms on Boston’s 2002 release Corporate America. (That album marked both the debut of Dahme, and the last Boston effort before Delp’s passing.) “Te Quiero Mia,” was a largely forgettable rearrangement of the song “I Had a Good Time.” Of the Brad Delp tracks on Life Love and Hope, “Someone” – which boasts a smart lyrical twist on heartbreak – most closely mimicked Boston’s classic structure and sound.
Why Scholz chose to re-release it is, otherwise, something of a mystery: In the intervening years of tinkering, he appeared to have moved the rhythm track further up in the mix, and seemingly rerecorded the churning background guitars that have long been his signature. Everything else, however, was unrecognizably altered, though Scholz must have heard something he felt he could improve.
Whatever the reason, it provided one more chance – welcome indeed but apparently, alas, the last – to hear him work with Brad Delp again.
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Thank you for the article on Boston!
Always loved this band and us “old-timers” still have a craving for quality music…problem is we need to keep delving into the vault of classic artists
Well as an avid Boston fan I have been waiting and listening to these samples before I give my input. Unfortunately, I have only more bad news not only after ten years of waiting do we get 3 re-hashed songs that Tom considers to be better versions. . . I have news for you it’s actually 4 re-hashed. The bonus song Te quiero mia is actually I had a good time, also from corporate america! Can you believe that! What balls. Tom should just call it a Tom Scholz solo album, oh that’s right he can’t because there are 4 previously released Boston songs, re-mixed re-recorded, Drum machine touch ups on the record. Tom should be embarrassed to even release this!
How can he think that Boston fans will enjoy this! I can understand as an artist wanting to perfect a song that you were not quite happy with, but to re-release 4 songs that are from the same previous album. I think he needs a reality check! And to think it only took him 10 years! Sorry but this album will fail miserably, Boston has not been Boston since Third Stage.
I was 17 when the first album came out, and still have the vinyl. I must have burned through 6 cassettes in the trucks and cars.
Boston is a big part of the definition of a generation, and today we who were there can point to the first two albums and say, “that is how Rock and Roll sounds, that is the soundtrack of our youth”.
When “Don’t Look Back” finally arrived we all heaved a sigh of relief that the sophomore jinx wasn’t gonna happen with Boston…and it took us another 3 or 4 years into our lives.
Third Stage, while long, long overdue, was good, even great in a couple of instances…but things changed after that.
The new album has a couple of brief moments where the classic feeling of Boston returns, and more than a couple where the sound is there…I don’t understand why the vocals are so low in some tracks and overwhelming in others, the mix seems off. I agree with those who wonder what is going on with the Percussion. I’ll wait til I get the CD t see if the MP3 is messing with my ears before passing final judgement on that.
Hearing Brad again isn’t weird to me, it is a gift. Yes, the man is gone but hearing his voice still gives me goose bumps. No different than listening to Elvis, IMHO.
In short, I will add a couple of songs from this to my personal mix of “The Best of Boston”…but this just proves what I suspected. While Tom is an outstanding musician, producer, and audio technican, for Boston to make a new album would require Brad to be in the studio and on every track.
And that can’t happen.
Overall, I don’t think this will satisfy the die hards like me. But we will continue to play the music, listen with our hearts as well as our ears, and enjoy the magic that was Boston.