Album Review: Rod Stewart - Foolish Behaviour (1980)

I was initially expecting this album to be bad - A half-baked contract filler replete with weak songwriting and dull melodies, another album from a 70's superstar that struggled seemingly desperately to keep with the sounds of the new era of the eighties.  And there are numerous examples of weak songwriting to be found here - "Passion", "Foolish Behaviour" and "So Soon We Change" feel like they were added to the album because they were the best of a bad lot, although to be fair, "Passion" sounded a bit promising, even perhaps, a tad Pink Floyd-like, and I can respect it for that.  The biggest surprise for me here was "Oh God, I Wish I Was Home Tonight", a notable improvement on the previous trio.  "She Won't Dance With Me" is quintessential Rod Stewart, and is my favorite here.  "Better Off Dead" and "Gi' Me Wings" are actually not bad, and "Somebody Special" is better than what my listening habits would tend to argue.  Some people might think this album is terrible, others may argue that it's somewhat of an acquired taste - I tend to think it's a bit of both.  Hell, even "Say it Ain't True" has begun to grow on me a little bit.  B

Album Review: Rod Stewart - Every Beat of My Heart (1986)

The eighties for the most part certainly weren't kind to Rod Stewart.  The phenomenon that was his career in the 1970s, as marked by hits such as "Maggie May", "You Wear It Well" and the like seemed to evaporate as he tried to reinvent himself for the new wave era, which met with limited success.  Yes, he was still pushing out hits, but nothing of course that was of the same quality of his seventies material.  Camouflage was an awful album in nearly every aspect, the only thing saving it were songs like "Some Guys Have All The Luck", which, despite being the biggest and best song on the album, was still rubbish, cheesy even, which took at best a deep-rooted nostalgia for the era that would make you bring out the album on the very rare occasion.  Foolish Behaviour wasn't much better, either.  I still play one track on the album, "She Won't Dance With Me", because to my surprise it was actually a good song.  I am, however, somewhat fond of Tonight I'm Yours.  But I'm surprised that the album that I'm currently reviewing, Every Beat of My Heart from 1986, is curiously better than what everybody else has been saying.  Of course, some of songs lean a bit too far toward the cheesy side, but still, they're much better than the disaster that was Camouflage.  Several songs on this album are good - "Another Heartache", "Ten Days of Rain", "Red Hot in Black", "Every Beat of My Heart" and "Love Touch" have been getting visited on more occasions than what I perhaps should be admitting to.  But I'm not trying to ply any trade based on my credibility as a music nut - yeah, I like it.  Who really cares.  Now, shut up!  B+

Album Review: Rod Stewart - Camouflage (1984)

Camouflage is a terrible album, the worst I've heard from Rod Stewart and probably one of the worst albums to come out of the 1980s.  There are only two decent songs on this album - "Some Guys Have All The Luck" and "Can We Still Be Friends."  And that's pushing the term "decent" quite a bit.  This certainly feels more like a contract-filler to me - there's just no soul, no motivation to it, nothing.  Dull as ditchwater and almost as entertaining as a group of puritan, conservative housewives discussing the joys of crochet, you'd only buy this if you're an obsessive-compulsive collector or if you think "Some Guys Have All The Luck" has some potential going for it, for which you'd probably be right.  Otherwise, wait until this goes cheap.  The C plus rating I'm giving it is for the aforementioned songs.  There's plenty of vastly superior Rod Stewart albums that you should be listening to, even from his somewhat maligned eighties period.  Hell, give me Every Beat of my Heart any day, and apparently that's rubbish.  Compared to this, however, I'd beg to differ.  C+

Album Review: Rod Stewart - Vagabond Heart (1991)

Rod's done it again!  Yet another great record from Rod the Mod, full of hits, and then some.  Released at a time when many artists of his generation would've have begun to falter, this album is more than just a comeback album, it is one of the best comeback albums out there.  Well, at least that's what I think anyway.  And as soon as I finished the album, I instantly declared to myself that this album was one of the best I've heard from that particular year, alongside Metallica by Metallica and Nevermind by Nirvana.  You'll recognize the brilliant "Rhythm of my Heart", "Broken Arrow", "It Takes Two", "The Motown Song", and "Have I Told You Lately", but my first love here is "Go Out Dancing" - it feels as if I've been looking for that melody for years - and my second is "Rebel Heart", which in itself is a good solid hard rock number, which some of you will know, is right up my alley.  "When a Man's in Love" is also worth a spin now and then too.  Yep, this album is one of the best 90s albums out there, no matter what others might tell you.  People will hark back to the Every Picture Tells a Story and Never a Dull Moment era and tell you that was when he was at his peak, and they may be right.  But you certainly shouldn't discount his later works, as I found out with Tonight I'm Yours, and of course, this album.  Here's my advice - go out and get it!  A

Album Review: Rod Stewart - Tonight I'm Yours (1981)

Tonight I'm Yours, Rod Stewart's album from 1981 flies in the face of everything I've expected from Rod Stewart.  Most songs of his that I know of (I'm no expert on his music, but  I know enough to say that he makes great music) tend to be of a slower, more mellow tempo (with the exception of "Young Turks", which comes from this particular album), and despite my preference for a fast song, I'm highly amicable toward all of them.  This album changes all of that (not my amiability, of course!), introducing a number of fast-paced tracks, three of which are "just the bee's knees", including the better known "Young Turks", which I rank as one of Rod's best.  "Tonight, I'm Yours" is a fantastic little number, and "Tora, Tora, Tora" is just as quick too.  All three of those songs together form a quintessential trinity that make for priority listening if you are looking for choice cuts to listen to first before actually delving into the rest of the album.  And of course, not every song is a musical speedball.  Some are actually cover versions - "How Long" by Paul Carrack and "Just Like a Woman" by Bob Dylan for example.  To sum it up briefly, the album sounds motivated, and of course, good.  Check it out some time.  B+