Customer Reviews

Other Roads

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

"Other Roads" shows Boz Scaggs' amazing versatility as an artist. He pours his soul -- not to mention his one-of-a-kind vocals -- into rock, blues, pop and jazz, to make a music that is uniquely his. Like ballads? "Heart of Mine" is a classic. If you're more into fusion, the tight, funky guitar and keyboard instrumentals in "Mental Shakedown" and "Crimes of Passion" will definitely get your attention. Each track on this album explores melody, lyrics and arrangement for a very satisfying listen. Boz freely ventures down 'other roads,' and lucky us ... we get to go along and see the musical stuff he's made of.

If you are truly a fan of Boz Scaggs, you'll like this cd. I purchased it solely for "Heart of Mine," a song that I have loved since it first came out in the 80's, after seeing Boz's video for this hit. I admit I did not recognize the other song titles when I purchased the cd; however, I decided to take a chance on this one considering how much I like Boz's "Hits!" I was not disappointed in "Other Roads." It's kind of jazzy and is one of those cd's you can have on in the background while you're entertaining, cleaning the house, or just relaxing!

In 1976, "Silk Degrees" ruled the airwaves with good reason: Tight arrangements, smooth melodies, and one of the best jazz vocalists ever to grace the bay area! Flash to 1988, and this attempted "Comeback" album. The wondrous voice remains intact, the rest is missing in action.

While several outstanding musical talents perform yeoman duties here - with Marcus Miller and Bobby Caldwell topping the list - most of the songs are forgettable, and the arangements often ovewhelm Boz's vocals. Two songs here save this from being a 1-star release: "Heart Of Mine" and "Cool Running."

"Heart Of Mine" is the perfect accompanient for anyone walking along the waterfront while doing a post-mortem on a recently failed relationship. The melody is simple and wistful, the arrangement subdued. "Cool Running" is the polar opposite: an exhilirating blast of total attitude married to a note-perfect Marcus Miller bass line and arangement. I often wonder what a whole album of music this great would sound like, and if it could surpass "Silk Degres." Worth buying, but not NEARLY what this man is capable of!

This is a very solid album (CD, sorry, showing my age).

"Heart Of Mine" is perhaps my favorite song of the 80s, and that's saying something. "Right Out Of My Head" is provocative, and all the song are evocative.

Trouble is, they tend -- notice, *tend* -- to become 80s-ish and no more. Many of the cuts on this CD could have fit nicely under the closing credits to B-flicks (and did, for all I know).

Not to say these are not excellent tunes, well-produced and sung by one of the finest singer-songwriters of the latter 20th century. Just don't expect more than extreme competence.

It's great listening, but it's not Silk Degrees.

I listened to this Cd & my 2 favorite songs from this Cd are Heart of Mine & Claudia. My other 2 Favorite album's are Down To Then Left. & Silk Degree's. I just started listening to his music 2year's ago. My boyfriend has been listening to his music since 1976 & has seen him in concert at Blossom Music Center in June 1978.

"Other Roads" has that great 80's fill to it. I love the hit single,"Heart of Mine."Its my favorite cut from the CD. Boz has a voice thats so cool and different .There's alot of other great tunes on the Album,"Whats number one?Claudia," and the most experimental,"Funny." If you always enjoyed Boz Scaggs music,you will love "Other Roads."

I own Silk Degrees and Middle Man, both are original release LP's (yes I am old enough to have purchased LP's). I am so fond of "Heart of Mine" on Other Roads, I thought I'd give the CD a test run. I am not at all disappointed. Boz Scaggs has a voice and style like no one else and this CD has music that showcases his talent at least equal to the two classic LP's I own. Heartily recommend a "buy" if you're a Boz fan.

For a number of different reasons there was a near decade amount of space between this and Boz's previous album Middle Man. It would'nt take much to figure out that in the years since that album music had changed significantly. In 1980 there was already a huge degree of slickness that was part of pop/R&B and rock but all the same that and much about the music was largely just leftover elements from what had been happening in the 1970's and of course on both fronts Boz was a huge part of that transition into the slicker blue eyed soul sound of the decade. By the late 80's the decade did have some distinctive elements of it's own musically-notably the presense of more textured and melodic synthesizers and a harder hitting drum sound. No matter what style of music you made these were things to consider.Luckily Boz seemed to take an approach that was once suggested by Miles Davis;that using technology in music isn't a bad thing if you have great musicians onboard to begin with. That's why you'll find him surrounding himself on this album with the likes of master pop studio musicians such as Marcus Miller,Jeff Porcaro,John Robinson,Steve Lukather,Lenny Castro,Paulinho Da Costa and Bobby Caldwell. These people were playing on so many commercialy and creatively successful records in so many different styles that by this albums 1988 release they knew their stuff almost backwards and forwards. For the most part this album is defined by being one of the more R&B oriented releases of his career but,due to Boz's noted commitment to freshness was of a very contemporary sort. That means that songs like "What's Number one?","Claudia","Right Out Of My Head" and in particular the harder hitting "Mental Shakedown" and "Crimes Of Passion" all have a strong 80's contemporary funk/jazz flavor to them and rather than fly over them with his soaring croon Boz relaxes into the mix and becomes more of a vocal participant as opposed to the full center of attention. "Heart Of Mine" was the big comeback hit on this album,a completely late 80's urban contemporary update of Boz's 70's ballad sound that worked just as well as some of the albums wonderfully arty jazzy-pop pieces such as "Funny",the soulful,hazy midtempo "Cool Running","The Night Of Van Gogh" and the B-side "Soul To Soul". It's been awhile since I flipped over the family 45RPM single of "Heart Of Mine" to listen to one of my favorite tunes associated with this album "You'll Never Know",a great shuffle retro Chicago/Motown styled R&B number with a modern twist and is one of those B-sides that was bound to be on a reissue of this set sooner or later. Because of the type of album this is it might not get as many props as it deserves but it seems the years have treated this well and that might be a good reason why this was part of the recent Boz Scaggs CD reissues.

I bought this CD back in '96 and still listen to it quite often. It has some fantastic tunes - in fact, every track is great but the one song that particularly warrants mention is "Heart of Mine". What a beautiful ballad. If you are a romantic, like me, you will certainly appreciate it.

*WARNING* *WARNING* This is not really a Boz Scaggs album! I am convinced that sometime during the mid to late 70's Boz was abducted by an alien entity who assumed his identidy. This alien entity obviously had a strong desire to become an American top-40/disco/balladeer/pop star. Gone were the rock/blues influences that defined his career, replaced by dreck that actually included synthesizers, violins, and disco beats! As we all know, this story has a happy ending, evidenced by the 1997 release of "Come On Home". Now that's the real Boz.