Lost/Forgotten Album #324

[Jon]

Not only is this the 53rd album in the series I thought up all by myself, it's also the last.

I know, I know. It's sad. But it has been running for a full year and enough is enough (which was the title of one of the albums in this series). It's time to move on to other things with (possibly) an added feature that is sure to annoy a person or two.

That's the future. Now we have the 1988 release from Rick Springfield, Rock Of Life. This was his lowest charting album since 1976's Wait For Night, which peaked at #159 on the US charts. ROL reached #55 on the US charts and was the first album since that 1976 album that did not receive a US certification.

The title track was released as a single and reached #22 on the US charts. This was his last album with RCA and his next album, Karma, came out in 1999.  

Personally, I like the title track for it doth rock. The rest of the album is pretty good as well.

Allmusic.com doesn't like it much, though. They give it two stars and don't even bother with a review.

Rock Of Life

1. Rock of Life
2. Honeymoon in Beirut
3. World Start Turning
4. One Reason (To Believe)
5. Soul to Soul
6. Tear It All Down
7. Woman
8. Dream In Colour
9. Hold On To Your Dream
10. (If You Think You're) Groovy

Availability: The remastered version with two bonus tracks runs around $13.

[Scott]

[Scott]

As a youth (or “yute” as Vinnies cousin would say) I was well aware of the reputation of Springfield as a Soap Opera actor and female favorite.  So, when he rolled through town in the early 80’s it was a no brainer to attend that concert.  Not because I was a fan, but because the female to male ratio at the concert was more than worth the price of admission.  Turns out the guy was pretty good, but not so good that he distracted us from our reason for attending.  Whether or not those plans worked out well for me is a different story, but another result of attending the concert was the purchase of “Working Class Dog” which is an album I liked at the time and it served more purposes with the local female contingent for the next short while.  But alas, it worked its way back in the collection and remains there to this day.  I also went after “Living In Oz” and that album is probably the one I like most.  I will also say that my favorite song of his is easily “Love Somebody” from that movie he did.  What a great song!  However, of my two vinyl purchases there has been no CD updates, no seeking remastered deluxe editions or anything else, why?  I don’t know….

This album reminds me a bit of Living In Oz and maybe that’s why I dropped off listening as well.  But I think you said it best, its all pretty good! And his “sound” still feel unique to him and that’s cool thing. But for me the two albums I have are still enough, though I may seek updated editions…

Wonderful series Jon, seriously enjoyed this and I can’t believe it’s a full year and a week!

[RJhog (Admin)]

I'm definitely a fan of Rick Springfied.  I think Living In Oz is a pure masterpiece and I also think Tao is a tremendous album.  In addition to those gems, his last four releases are very strong.  Yes, even his country flavored release from earlier this year.  Not only is he a terrific vocalist, he is an extremely underrated lyricist.  And he writes his music.  

All of that being said, I'm not a big fan of this album (or Karma for that matter).  It's not so much the songs or the songwriting, it's the vocals.  Yep, I said I'm a fan of his vocals, just not on this album.  He tries to sing to high.  It just does not sound good at all to me.  Even the good songs like the title track, Honeymoon In Beirut and Woman are dragged down by the high register vocals.  

So there you have it, one of my least favorite Rick Springfield albums, though it's nice to see him featured here.

Now, time to regress to last week's LFAOTW.

[RJhog (Admin)]

Forgot to say that tracks 8 and 9 sound like Genesis or Phil Collins solo...