If you haven’t heard More Than A Feeling at some point in your life, you’re either very young, or have never listened to the radio, ever. It’s a good exemplar of the Boston sound – over-tracked electric and acoustic guitars, Brad Delp’s classic rock vocals, catchy hooks.
Delp is one of the co-writers, but the bulk was written by Tom Scholz who not only plays guitars, he also provides keyboards, percussion, and produced much of the album. In that, he’s a little like Todd Rundgren, and the music is a little bit like Rundgren’s less fanciful compositions. Scholz honed the tracks to the perfect pop-rock songs, and it shows.
Some tracks are a bit more blues-rock, and there’s some great Hammond organ soloing going on, sounding like a smoother and more radio-friendly Deep Purple. And that’s the expression I kept coming back to with Boston – radio friendly.
For my tastes they’re just a little bit too safe, a little bit too deliberately moulded for maximum airplay. Which is a brilliant move from Scholz; they’ve not been off the radio for fifty years so as long as he got a good royalties deal, this rewarded the hard work that he put in. Compare and contrast with the chaotic and drug-fuelled rock of previous albums, the songs trade professionalism for heart, polish for organic mess. Somewhere in the middle you’ve got a band like Kiss or Alice Cooper that recognise the need for a marketable image, but aren’t so concerned with mainstream radio airplay (actually deliberately aiming to shock instead).
Boston sort of reminded me of the difference between British and USA TV shows – British shows have short runs, usually 6-8 episodes for a series, and are usually the brainchild of a single creator; thus they are often a bit more eccentric and creative compared to US shows that run for 20+ episodes per season, and have a writing team. They become a bit more generic because of it. UK shows also tend to have limited runs – Ricky Gervais for The Office took the advice of John Cleese on Fawlty Towers and decided that 2, maybe 3, seasons are enough and after that you’re just milking the gag. US shows keep going as long as the executives can get money from it.
That’s what Boston feels like to me, a very Corporate American take on rock music. Not to take away from Scholz’s songwriting, because he’s practically inventing the idea (or, maybe rediscovering it from the Fifties), but it will lead to some pale imitations.
Comments
Post a Comment