Badams Music Limited
Release Date: December 1st 2023
Reviewed by: Joshua Andre
Bryan Adams– Somebody (Classic Version) (Single) (Amazon mp3/iTunes)
Track Listing:
- Somebody (Classic Version)
It’s 2024, and I guess we’re still recovering from the wild events of 2023. The Voice was resoundingly blocked by Australia not too long ago. 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’. And though 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 new 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’ song in “Somebody (Classic Version)” (a lead single in Classic III?); the question remains as to whether this melody reqaches the gigantic and stratospheric heights of the original, and how it rates as a melody in general, especially in 2024 where the world is semi-divided politically.
And the answer is… “Somebody (Classic Version)” rocks! Sure, it probably didn’t even need to be re-recorded anyway. But this is something that Bryan holds near and dear to his heart, and vocally and musically, he hasn’t sounded any better. Lyric-wise, the notion that we all need one person, either platonic or romantic, to help us get us through this life, to help us feel sane, loved, accepted, wanted, is comforting. We don’t need a slew of facebook or Instagram friends that will hop along to the next best thing a few moments down the track. We need a friend to help us move house (a friend in need is a friend indeed!), and we also need a friend to visit us in hospital. Bryan’s passionate and resonating new-but-old melody reminds us of this, 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 “Somebody (Classic Version), this walk down memory lane is 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 with this ‘new’ song, the future is bright, and his next studio album is sure to be iconic and legendary, to say the least!
Score: 4.5/5
RIYL: Sting, Bon Jovi, Rod Stewart, Bruce Springsteen, Richard Marx, Ronan Keating, U2, Queen