Badams Music Ltd
Release Date: July 29th 2022
Reviewed by: Jonathan Andre
Bryan Adams – Classic, Pt. II (Amazon mp3/iTunes)
Track Listing:
- Can’t Stop This Thing We Started (Classic Version)
- Cuts Like A Knife (Classic Version)
- Back to You (Classic Version)
- When You Love Someone (Classic Version)
- Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman (Classic Version)
- When You’re Gone (feat. Melanie C.) (Classic Version)
- Here I Am (Classic Version)
Bryan Adams is a living legend. There’s no doubt about that. Just check out my blog about Bryan that I wrote around a few years ago, and then check out the site’s review of Bryan’s latest studio album, So Happy It Hurts here. And so…now that we are all caught up with all things Bryan, let’s just say that his ‘new’ album Classic, Vol. II picks up from where Classic left off- re-recording classic songs from Bryan’s own discography, because of his inability to own any of his previous masters from long ago. And while Classic, Vol. II (and Classic as well) on the surface feels like a redundant move by Bryan, when we look back at someone like Taylor Swift, who’s been re-recording albums as well (Fearless: Taylor’s Version as well as RED: Taylor’s Version), we now appreciate Bryan undertaking the exact same thing. Bryan is iconic as it is, and while he’s still relatively popular even now, his height of popularity was more in the 1980s and 1990s, with songs like ‘Summer of 69’, ‘Heaven’, ‘Run to You’, ‘Everything I Do (I Do It For You)’, ‘Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman’, ’18 Till I Die’, ‘Please Forgive Me’, and ‘Cloud No. 9’, to name a few, that arose during the 80s and 90s decades. So…in light of that popularity, does it really seem that ‘left-field’ if, after the release of So Happy It Hurts, there is the release of Classic and Classic, Vol. II (comprising of 8 songs and 7 songs respectively), songs from the 1980s and 1990s, redone and re-recorded by Bryan to ‘modernise’ the songs for the generation of today? It seems unfortunate that these days, artists are re-recording their music, on the basis that they don’t officially own their masters, after all this time. But alas…here we are- Bryan undertaking something that was undertaken already by Taylor (Fearless (Taylor’s Version) and RED (Taylor’s Version) are just the beginning)…maybe we’ll get Reckless (Bryan’s Version) in the near future? Though Classic, Vol. II is only 7 songs, when viewed together with Bryan’s previous album Classic (8 songs), we see 15 songs redone with the same enthusiasm, power and passion that was present when these songs were first recorded. While there is no word of a Classic, Vol. III, one can only hope, and till such a time when (or if) it happens, let us enjoy songs of yesteryear re-done- we’ll love this nostalgic and timeless album if we’ve been a fan of Bryan’s older material, a fan of the 1980s music period, or both.
This ‘album’ if you will, doesn’t need that much ‘analysis’, if at all. These 7 songs stand on their own, period- especially the songs ‘Here I Am’, ‘Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman’, ‘When You’re Gone’ and ‘Can’t Stop This Thing We Started’. At 7 tracks, Bryan’s been able to recreate fan favourites, with little to no deviation from the original recordings. It’s the precision of these recordings, years later, that makes me continue to admire Bryan’s craft- in fact, hearing these re-recorded songs played over and over in some cases, I’ve at times forgotten that these tracks were in fact re-recordings- that’s how similarly uncanny these re-recordings are, compared to the originals. Bryan’s songs are indeed timeless- ‘Here I Am’ from the 2002 movie Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron is one of the standout songs of Bryan from the 2000s, while ‘When You’re Gone’ manages to fuse together contemporary pop (Bryan Adams) with girl-group power anthems (Melanie C.) quite nicely. ‘Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman?’, a song recorded by Bryan for the 1995 movie Don Juan DeMarco, has remained a standout for Bryan throughout the decade of the 1990s, even to this day, while ‘Can’t Stop This Thing We Started’, a standout on Bryan’s 1991 album Waking Up the Neighbours, is a song that could and would’ve become big…if it wasn’t for the star power and standout nature of ‘Everything I Do’. While there is no word on Classic, Vol. III (I don’t even know if there is one); we’ll nevertheless settle for listening to these songs from these two classic albums; and be reminded of just how much we really enjoy a song like ‘Here I Am’, or how much of a guilty pleasure ‘Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman’ really is for us. Well done Bryan for these 7 songs re-done. Maybe another Classic collection of re-done songs in the near future? Only time will tell.
3 songs to listen to: Here I Am, Can’t Stop This Thing We Started, Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman
Score: 4.5/5
RIYL: Sting, Bon Jovi, Rod Stewart, Bruce Springsteen, Richard Marx, Ronan Keating, U2, Queen