Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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28 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An enduring classic for all time, May 12, 2005
Classic 70's albums bring into mind Fleetwood Mac's Rumours, Led Zeppelin's fourth album, and Blondie's Parallel Lines, to name a few. Add to that Boston's debut album, which sold 16 million copies in the US and was in the album charts for two years. Much of the success was due to the intelligent songwriting of Tom Scholz and rock vocals of Brad Delp, who by the time of their third album Third Stage, were the only two from the original lineup left.
The remembrances of summers past and a girl named Marianne is embodied in their first single "More Than A Feeling," one of the best known rock singles of the 70's. Reaching #5 in 1976, it featured all the components that made Boston a force to be reckoned with. Delp's soaring vocals, accompaniment from other members, and Tom Scholz's distinctive squealing and revved guitars, particularly during the chorus.
"Peace Of Mind," the third single, which barely showed its face in the Top 40 (#38), is more a rocker throughout. It's a song showing the wisdom of not getting caught up with the fierce competition in the music world: /Can'tcha you see there'll come a day when it won't matter/Come a day when you'll be gone/ I sometimes find myself liking this song more than "More Than A Feeling." Why didn't this get into the Top 5 as well?
The second single, "Long Time," has as an accompanying prelude "Foreplay," with its rambling organ solo and snarling guitars. After 2 mins 23 seconds, "Long Time" begins with a squealing guitar and Brad singing. This #22 song has the long-term dream or vision, much like "Peace of Mind" and the need to move on from one place to another to find it. The "got to move on" dynamic is also explored in "Hitch A Ride," only on a more cosmic level, where hitching a ride to the other side and leaving for the last time is the final departure.
"Rock N Roll Band" is an autobiographic song of how the band made it from local gigs till their discovery. Just as engaging if not more than "Peace of Mind." There are some nods to old-fashion R&R in the verses of the jamming "Smokin'." Jamming, or should I say smoking?
All the songs are singleworthy, due to a consistent strong guitar, heavy bass, drums, in other words, the forerunner of what would later be termed arena rock. Corporate rock is another term that comes to mind, although later, Boston's most recent album would be named Corporate America in denunciation of the type of music his band had been a part of.
Not many artists have a best-selling pop debut album like Boston, although two that come to mind are Whitney Houston and Hootie & The Blowfish. An enduring classic that still hasn't lost its touch all these years.
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Hard rock, December 10, 2003
In the 1970's, their where many hard rock/heavy metal albums that defined the genre during that decade. This was one of the best. This album's quality is the only real reason Boston is remembered so well today, as they have had a spotty career.The band put together clean, fresh melodies and created some of the best sounding hard rock in history. Most bands had one or two hits per album, and then a few album track gems. Boston's entire debut was exciting and fresh. It was the best hard rock album of 1976, and there was some stiff competition. Aeromsmith released "Rocks" that year, often seen as their best album. Kiss put out "Destroyer", which has also been hailed as their greatest piece of work. Boston however, beat them all out this year. Every song on this record was a radio hit, and is still on classic rock radio today. If you love hard rock and heavy metal from the 1970's, you will worship this album. It is not overrated in the least. This is a fine album, and Boston, while they would have a decent following album, would never reach this status again.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
hitch a ride, November 13, 2003
It's fitting that this album was on the epic label! It truly is epic in every sense of the word. To me the magic is in the contrasts: clean, pure vocals and massively overdriven guitars. Soaring, almost violin-like lead lines and power cords. Beautiful melodies with polished, evocative lyrics--lyrics that don't call too much attention to themselves, but allow the voice to act as basically an additional guitar! An "angry" distortion sound, but tamed: the rockman sounds like a wall of marshalls pumped through a transistor radio. Harmonically rich, like blue steel with little sparkles breaking on the surface. And Brad Delp's voice! The man can sing. Nobody wails like that anymore. It feels like he wraps the lyrics in layers of silk. There is a certain "fabric" to his vocals--that's the only way I can describe it. He seems like a working man who happens to open his mouth, and out comes an angel's voice. I played "Long Time" for a dear friend from Africa once, just to see what he thought about American music. A very sensitive, poetic soul in his own right. He heard Brad Delp's "Ahhhhhhhhhh-aiiii!" in the break, shook his head, and knowingly said, "The cry of freedom." That's what it is. It's so American. Anyone in the world would recognize it. It's like Whitman's barbaric yawp! It says, "Listen to us! We're alive and we f'in' rock!" One of your reviewers says that Boston reminds him of the bicentennial year, and makes him feel patriotic. How fitting that it came out when it did - 1976. How fitting that the revolution began in Boston; the music neatly summarizes and caps a revolution, in a sense. It is a product of the times, times that probably can't be recaptured. The music reminds of a happier, carefree era, when American music was still the envy of the world. The album for me has two bookends. The first is the opening riff of More Than A Feeling. It repeatedly rises and tumbles back down, finally resolving itself as Brad Delp's voice soars up and takes flight as a singing guitar. "I turned on my music to start my day/and lost myself in a familiar song/I closed my eyes and I slippped away." And "So many people have come and gone/Their faces fade as the years go by." The other "bookend" for me is in the staggering solo in "Hitch a Ride." Right after "Carry me away for the last time." Words fail me in describing it. And just at its highpoint, its fever pitch and frenzy, listen real close, and you will hear a scream. The magnetic guitar pickup actually caught someone screaming "yeah!" in a kind of ectasy. It's there--listen real close. A happy mistake, but telling. Carry me away for the last time.
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