Disco de Boston: “Corporate America”

Tom Scholz is a tremendous talent. He is a brilliant songwriter, guitarist, and engineer. No doubt the development of the Rockman shows he is a genius as well.

He is also the quintessential perfectionist. He may very well be the George Lucas of the music industry. The difference is while the world has been patient with Lucas's contant revisions and delays while he gets it "just right", they haven't been so forgiving of Tom.

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A short history:

1976 - The first album, Boston, is released

1978 - The second album, Don't Look Back, is pried from Scholz's fingers and released before he is ready.

1986 - After an eight year drought, Third Stage is released. Scholz was ready, perhaps the world was as well, as it did sell, though nowhere near the numbers of the first two albums.

1994 - Another eight years have passed and the fourth album "Walk On" is released. Response to the album is lukewarm.

1997 - Greatest Hits is released.

2002 - Corporate America, the fifth "originals" album is released on an independent label, no surprise considering Tom's disdain for the world of big business. Public response is cool.

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I have long made it a practice to take Boston's liner notes with a grain of salt. OK, so Tom is a vegetarian and actively supports animal rights. That's his perogitive. Now he has a song and album title that show the disdain he holds for the large corporations of the world... including no doubt the ones that gave him a job out of college and the ones that gave him the recording contracts that allowed him to get his music in front of us.

What's so sad to me is this time, Tom has done the album 100% his way... no corporate bigwigs pushing him to release, and no creative differences with other bandmates. I would think, considering the great talent that he is, that this should be his best work.

Sadly, it isn't. The album has its strong points. "I Had A Good Time" is a good reminder of the earlier songs that made Boston a household name. "You Gave Up on Love" is a good one too. I love the heavy bass at the beginning of "Corporate America," but that disappears after the first verse and the rest is a digital liner note of Tom's loathing of evil mega-companies.

I could have done without the Cosmo compositions... they weren't horrible, but they aren't what I bought the album for.

I was truly unprepared for Kimberley Dahme and "With You." I thought when the song began that something horrible had happened to my cd-changer and somehow a "Jewel" Cd had gotten into the mix. Then I thought perhaps a serious mistake had occurred and that we got a track from one of Artemis Records' struggling artists dropped into the middle of the CD. Then I referenced the CD case again and realized, "ohmygosh, they did this to us on purpose"! I must admit, I've never made it more than about 60 seconds into this track.

The entire album plays like a compilation album... gone is the constency of theme and concept, gone are the heavy rockers. What we are left with is little better than those various artists "made for charity" special editions one often finds on the counter at your local record shop.

I would rate this as the worst Scholz offering to date. And that's sad, because I love the first two albums, and I was happy to see Third Stage.

I think Tom needs the stress of corporation breathing down his back to produce a good album that the fans will once again appreciate.

Why is it that after almost thirty years of being a stubborn, non-inclusive musical dictator, whose uncompromising pursuit of unique harmony and melody resulted in two masterpieces, Scholtz has suddenly decided to be a team player? Moreover, a team player that has given up way too much creative control (or lost control). There is exactly ONE song on this CD that sounds like a natural, modern progression of the Boston sound: I Had a Good Time. The rest of the CD is someone else's music.

Underneath all of the miscellaneous goop on the CD is the real Tom Scholtz trying to be heard. Maybe he has been taken hostage? Or maybe he has been drugged and brain-washed? Or maybe......just maybe....he actually NEEDS THE REST OF THE ORIGINAL BAND !!!!

Now, don't get me wrong. I have a great deal of respect for Scholtz's past achievements. It is his original technical manipulation of sound and his musical formula that made most of us Boston fans for life. However, if Scholtz is going to totally ignore these two important and defining elements, then he has placed himself back into the ranks of the average and the un-noticeable. A conductor isn't worth much without his orchestra, and let's face it: Tom has driven off most of his orchestra over the years. Maybe he should have given the original members of Boston as much creative input as he has with his current group of employees.

I read a recent interview in which Scholtz stated that he really fought the instinct to create songs in the same way as he did in the past. BAD IDEA ! Tom, GO WITH YOUR INSTINCTS !

I'll bet if Barry Goudreau was involved today, many of us wouldn't be bad mouthing the last two Boston projects. In fact, people think Tom was the mastermind behind the first two albums. However, the Don't Look Back album contains more Goudreau influence than Scholtz. Scholtz himself gives credit to Barry for coming up with the intros and leads for Don't Look Back and Long Time (two of my favorite Boston songs).

Of course, Boston wouldn't even be an entity today if not for the continued presence of Brad Delp (no matter how subdued his role has become). I went to a Corporate America concert two years ago, and I can assure you it wasn't to hear Corporate America. I wanted to hear old Boston tunes played by Scholtz and sung by Delp.

Bottom line, repair some broken bridges, Tom, and make a REAL MODERN VERSION OF A BOSTON CD. For examples of how to do this, listen to Barry Goudreau / Brad Delp albums from the past : RTZ, Orion The Hunter, Barry Goudreau's solo album.

Please, Tom, STOP THE MADNESS !! We are all getting too old to wait for the real deal. Poor sales are a result of a disappointed fan base consisting of older / wiser adults, not bad marketing.

P.S. GIVE BARRY GOUDREAU A CALL OR DROP HIM AN E-MAIL AT WWW.BARRYGOUDREAU.COM

P.P.S Stop trying to phase out Brad. He's all that remains between you and obscurity.

If you are a follower Boston's career, the ups, the downs, the lawsuits and the ever-revolving door of musicians that have been in the band, Tom Scholz is a perfectionist when it comes to his albums. Boston goes by the break-neck speed of one CD, album, tape, 8-track, reel to reel, and Braille "studio release" every 8 years since 1978's "Don't Look Back". Now after seemingly endless hiatus, we enter the new millennium for Boston's 5th studio release, Corporate America.

Now I'm not saying it's the worst CD of 2002, but I will say that after eight years, and getting Brad Delp back, they could have done so much better. It's almost heartbreaking to hear some of the tracks on this album and the direction of Tom's songwriting abilities.

Now I must say that not all of the tracks on the album are bad. The album starts off with the killer "I Had A Good Time". If this is released to rock radio, it will take no prisoners! It's classic Boston all the way and it is the song that Boston fans have been waiting since 1986 to hear. It could have easily been on their 3rd Stage album. It has the bombastic Tom Scholz guitar, Brad Delp's trademark voice, a great chorus and it's an all around great rock tune. The best part of the song though happens just as it's fading out, a sultry female voice pipes up and says "Wanna do it again?" and the guitar kicks in for the "outro" solo. I was so pumped to hear the rest of the CD after this song I must say, but then about halfway through it I just wished it would end!

Track three, "Corporate America", which shows off Tom Scholz's political and environmental side. Although Tom violates his "no machines" guidelines, it has a good groove to it and has the trademark Boston sound a kin to 1994's Walk On album. It is the closest Boston has ever come to a dance song, which does begin to grow on you after a while.

"You Gave Up On Love" starts out very similar to "The Launch-My Desination" and then goes into a very nice acoustic guitar and flute mix. Tom Scholz then throws in an interesting twist, it has Fran Cosmo AND Brad Delp trading off the first lines of the song. The chorus is what makes this song one of the best on the CD. It harks back to "Can'tcha Say" which kicks the song into overdrive with no looking back. I wish there were more tunes like this one on the album. What also really works in the chorus and in this song is the inclusion of female vocalist and Bassist Kim Dahme. Her voice works on this track, and her performance reminds me of Ronnie Spector's vocals on Eddie Money's "Take Me Home Tonight". This would have been a great way to end the CD off.

"Didn't Mean To Fall In Love" has the Delp-Cosmo duo teaming up on lead vocals again, and it has some cool "floating" Spanish guitar in places and the chorus will have you humming along in no time. "Someone" is another one that sounds like it could have belonged on Walk On. It starts with the really cool Hammond Organ intro, the big guitar to follow and then it gets into the trademark "guitar vamping", and the beautiful voice of Brad Delp flows through it like a hot knife through butter. The chorus unfortunately isn't quite up to par. It's fairly weak, and even though Brad tries, he can't save it completely. It is still better than the majority tracks on the CD.

On the above songs, Boston stuck with their traditional sound and it works very well. Most Boston fans will love these five songs. I am not so sure they will like the remaining five songs: "Stare Out Your Window" and "Cryin" are more like Oasis, Goo Goo Dolls and Coldplay than Boston. After hearing these songs I was ready to hit that "next" button in disgust. The same can be said for "Turn It Off", which I feel is Tom Scholz trying to cash into the whole teenage angst angle, by letting Anthony Cosmo, (Fran's Son, who is Boston's newest guitarists) pen thee aforementioned songs. It's very dark and heavy and it will be one of those tunes Boston will play live and it will kill the crowd. It's the "want another beer?" song because I can just see the crowd heading to the bathroom or beer line during it.

The biggest departure to the Boston sound is by far is the acoustically driven "With You", sung by the bass player, Kim Dahme. It is more Indigo Girls, Jewel and Sheryl Crow then anything else. If it was not for the two brief Tom Scholz guitar solos, you would never be able to tell that it was a Boston song. Now it is not a bad song, but it just does not belong on a Boston CD. Maybe a Shania Twain, or Faith Hill CD, but not a Boston CD.

Finally, to end the CD, it's the "Live"(and I say that very suspiciously) version of "Livin For You". It just doesn't sound like a live recording. It sounds like it was recorded in the studio and the crowd was mixed in. It is another track I pass by.

This CD had so much potential, and well, I'm sorry to say they've dropped the ball. Fans of Boston want the bombastic guitars, amazing vocals, real drums, catchy melodies and choruses. They don't want to hear alternative angst, Jewel or Oasis flavored songs.

The only saving grace on "Corporate America" are two things: The songs "I Had A Good Time" and "You Gave Up", and hearing Brad Delp singing for Boston again! Again, it could have been so much more. But hey, just think the next release will be in 2010!

THis is the worst album of Boston. Tom Sholtz in typical egotistic fails to perform. His drum proggramming is horrific. The sounds he uses for the drums are just a joke.This guy thinks that with his cheap home recording - will trick us to buy his goods.But this album doesn't even match the quality of 21st century. The old singer can not even be heard because of bad bad producing.I miss Brad's singing so much.

Tom, stop acting like you know it all, just play the guitar and invite the old members to contribute like the old tumes.

I am so disspointed at this solo Shultz album that I do not even listen to the old ones anymore. DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY HERE FOLKS.

My first impression of this album is that they have sold out and tried to be pop. I was halfway though the 4th track when I realized that I was listening to a country track sung by a women. That's how much I had lost interest in it.

So now I've listened to it a few times over to try to get an objective point of view and here it is....

I can understand a group's evolution in changing direction because "that is the music we made back then and this is the music we like to do now". Genesis went through it, lost a lot of fans and gained others. Still I think you have to be somewhat true to your style and this album takes off on like a 90 degree tangent. At times, the music and singing sound very much like the pop group "Oasis". The group is still pushing vegetarianism and still proclaiming silly things like "that siren sound WASN'T a synthesizer, it was a modified Hammond B3" and at that I'm still wondering what their point is because synths seem to be used fairly heavy on this album. I could really care less if that rocket ship sound was a Marshall amp with a bad transistor or those "violins" were FX guitars. At the end of the day, you are still SYNTHESIZING a sound, so why not use a keyboard instead of busting your brand new Marshall amp you got for Christmas! Anyway....

The good news, Brad Delp is back for some vocals. The bad news is there are no tracks to let his voice shine. His voice still seems to be there as it comes out momentarily in a few key moments, but those are sadly few and far between.

The trademark Boston guitar sound is still there, but instead of in the forefront, they now seem to be overshadowed with popish tunes and lyrics. Unfortunately, the band doesn't have much to say anymore. Everything they want to say is on the album jacket: "conserve fuel, avoid waste, learn about vegetarian living, avoid animal products, shoot with cameras, not guns; vote for environmental candidates, report child abuse and animal abuse, don't buy fur!" I don't think they left anything out. Oh wait...where are those rocking Boston tunes???

1. "I had a good time" - A nice pop tune. Brad Delp sang on this one. I really had to check and see if I bought the right CD.

2. "Stare out Your Window" - Another semi-pop tune and pointless kiddy lyrics

3. "Corporate America" - Really the only rocking tune on the CD. It only has fire because it coincides with the aforementioned album jacket statements. The synths are all here and the Scholz man himself is playing them, so why all the...oh never mind.

4. "With You" - Written and sung by new edition Kimberley Dahme. Not a bad tune at all, but not a Boston tune. If Scholz left out his brief, heavy-handed guitar solo then it wouldn't have surprised me if this would have made the country charts.

5. "Someone" - Another pop tune with Brad Delp on vocals.

6. "Turn it off" - A rocking tune, but not in the Boston style

7. "Cryin'" - I guess it wasn't too memorable

8. "Didn't Mean to Fall in Love" - Semi-popish tune almost Boston like. Brad Delp on vocals

9. "You gave up on love" - Not a bad tune and one of the pleasant surprises is Tom Scholz on vocals and doesn't do a bad job. In fact, maybe Tom Scholz's vocal presence on some of the tracks are the reasons for their "popish" sound...if they had to be sung in his range...well, maybe, but that doesn't explain some of the writing.

10. "Livin' for You" - Hey, wait a minute, wasn't this on the LAST album? Yes, it was. Ok, it is a live version. Yes, it was a killer tune and nice to have a live version, but c'mon guys. This time NINE years between CD's and you're going to put a live cover on the 10th track??? I'm not sure that it's really corporate America that is screwing us.

And that is that... I hate to be so down on this album, but I am because they call it "Boston". If they called it "Tom Scholz and his egg-sucking dog" I would be cool with it. As it is I can listen to it and pretend it is some other group. The tracks are fine, but Boston it is not. I won't be buying another one if they decide to make one in another 10 years...and you guys know how loyal I am to a few select bands. I understand things change, but you can only jump so far ahead into a movie without seeing the scenes in between before you have completely lost me.

-- D.V. Nobles (long time Boston fan)