Badams Music Limited
Release Date: February 3rd / December 8th / December 8th 2023
Reviewed by: Joshua Andre
Bryan Adams– Cuts Like A Knife – 40th Anniversary, Live From The Royal Albert Hall / Waking Up The Neighbours (Live At The Royal Albert Hall) / Into The Fire (Live At The Royal Albert Hall) (Amazon mp3/iTunes) (Amazon mp3/iTunes) (Amazon mp3/iTunes)
Track Listing (Cuts Like A Knife – 40th Anniversary, Live From The Royal Albert Hall):
- The Only One
- Take Me Back
- This Time
- I’m Ready
- What’s It Gonna Be
- Don’t Leave Me Lonely
- Let Him Know
- The Best Was Yet To Come
- Cuts Like A Knife
- Straight From The Heart
Track Listing (Waking Up The Neighbours – Live At The Royal Albert Hall):
- Is Your Mama Gonna Miss Ya?
- Hey Honey – I’m Packin’ You In!
- Can’t Stop This Thing We Started
- Thought I’d Died And Gone To Heaven
- Not Guilty
- Vanishing
- House Arrest
- Do I Have To Say The Words?
- There Will Never Be Another Tonight
- All I Want Is You
- Depend On Me
- Touch The Hand
- If You Wanna Leave Me (Can I Come Too?)
- Don’t Drop That Bomb On Me
- (Everything I Do) I Do It For You
Track Listing (Into The Fire – Live At The Royal Albert Hall):
- Into the Fire
- Heat Of The Night
- Victim Of Love
- Another Day
- Native Son
- Only The Strong Survive
- Rebel
- Remembrance Day
- Heart’s On Fire
- Home Again
It’s 2024, and I guess we’re still recovering from the wild events of 2023. The Voice was resoundingly blocked by Australia in October 2023. Afghanistan stunned England at the Cricket World Cup 2023 in their latest group match, and Mitchell Starc is the most expensive player in the history of IPL cricket. The Israel-Palestine war is still going without any end in sight, new AI meta bots have been circulating online recently as well, and Lil Nas X entered his ‘Christian era’. Oppenheimer swept this year’s Oscars; and although I wrote a similar introduction post a couple of years ago, the fact still remains. Depending on your views, the world is in a good place, or it isn’t. You can be in one of two ideological and political camps; and sometimes you may lose friendships or familial relationships because of differing views. And thus, it is now in these turbulent times, where we need music more than ever. Music, or I guess in essence God through any type of music He chooses, can lift the spirits, can calm our soul and can sooth and ease our pain and suffering. Music can make us think about our life and can make us ponder the deep questions; while music can also provide us a means to escape.
CCM, worship, pop, rock, country, and every other genre in between can all, at one point or another, strive to accomplish these tasks of making each of our days all the brighter. We’ve reviewed plenty of uplifting albums throughout this year, last year, and in all other years previous… but one such artist that I’ve stumbled across lately that has warmed my soul, is Bryan Adams and his music, especially his most recent full length rock album So Happy It Hurts, and his new re-recorded albums Classic and Classic II. I’m not that well-versed in anything from Bryan Adams all that much. Jon blogged about Bryan way back in 2019. And so, if you want to read about Bryan and his music, and his biggest hits like “Summer of 69”, “Everything I Do (I Do It For You)”, “Please Forgive Me”, “Heaven”, “Here I Am” and “All For One” to name a few; you can read that blog at your own pace. I subsequently rated Bryan’s album extremely high in 2022. But now that Bryan has unveiled a new project (actually three new projects!); the question remains as to whether these unique and inspiring melodies reach the gigantic and stratospheric heights of Bryan’s previous body of work, and how the releases rate in general, especially in 2024 where the world is semi-divided politically.
And the answer is…this. That Cuts Like A Knife – 40th Anniversary, Live From The Royal Albert Hall, Waking Up The Neighbours – Live At The Royal Albert Hall, and Into The Fire – Live At The Royal Albert Hall (live albums of Cuts Like A Knife, Waking Up the Neighbours and Into The Fire respectively) all rock! Sure, these 3 albums probably all didn’t even need to be re-recorded in a live setting anyway- the originals all stand the test of time even right now. But with these projects being probably more love-letters to the fans more than anything else, this endeavour is something that Bryan holds near and dear to his heart, and vocally and musically, he hasn’t sounded any better. The lyrical and subject matter across all three iconic albums (of longing and wanting love and human connection, and trying to make it through life the best way we know how!), is universal, relevant and applicable now more than ever; and Bryan’s passion and enthusiasm is undoubtedly present in this live setting.
Recording live albums are tricky- you’d want the band or artists in question to be authentic and include raw audio of a special, unique and magical night (or nights), yet you don’t want the recording to sound too bootlegish. So some post-production is needed. But you also don’t want the recordings to sound too similar to the studio versions, otherwise why record a live album? Thankfully, Bryan exquisitely invites us into three projects of near-flawless performance, as we hear the same passion, honesty and emotion previously bared in the studio versions- but also the live atmosphere and the emotions of the crowd as well. The result is song after song that I want to listen to again and again. Bryan’s passionate and resonating three live projects from 2023 remind us of this fact that some songs are just timeless, and especially in a U.S. election year, we should remember that Jesus, with our friends and family around us, is all we could ever need.
When I listened to So Happy It Hurts, I concluded that though there were a number of the romantic songs on this album quite possibly being able to be interpreted as worship songs to Jesus- even if that wasn’t Bryan’s intention; Bryan Adams’ latest all new studio album is a reinvigorating breath of fresh air. An album full of positive and happy moments and a collection of songs that are musically and lyrically extremely cohesive; So Happy It Hurts is an album that demands to be listened to; no matter if you love rock music or not. This album is a must for fans of artists like Sting, Bon Jovi, Rod Stewart, and Bruce Springsteen. Similarly, with these three rerecorded albums of Cuts Like A Knife, Waking Up the Neighbours and Into The Fire, is a joy to immerse myself into. It’s a welcome walk down memory lane, and it’s full of nostalgia and sentimentality as we are reintroduced to the rock icon that is Bryan Adams. I don’t know what is next for Bryan. But I personally reckon the future is bright, and his next studio album is sure to be iconic and legendary, to say the least!
8 songs to listen to: Take Me Back, Cuts Like A Knife, Straight From The Heart, Can’t Stop This Thing We Started, There Will Never Be Another Tonight, (Everything I Do) I Do It For You, Into the Fire, Remembrance Day
Score: 4.5/5
RIYL: Sting, Bon Jovi, Rod Stewart, Bruce Springsteen, Richard Marx, Ronan Keating, U2, Queen