Room Service (2004) Review by Karl Watson

When I first listened to Room Service, I remember thinking “That’s a good song, that’s a good song,” and so on. But once I reached the end I thought, “Oh…is that it!?”. Where was the rock ‘n’ roll? Where are the guitar riffs and solos? You may think I’m biased being a guitarist myself, but you can’t deny that the guitar has always played a major part in BA’s songs. Otherwise what the hell has he got Keith Scott for!?

On the Room Service tour I spoke with many fans who discussed how disappointed they were with this album. I want to go over some of the main points here.

My first problem with it is the production. Now I know it’s not going to sound as good as an album recorded in the studio, but I’ve read articles where BA talks about how he used to spend hours figuring out a good sound for the guitars before they recorded them. If you listen to tracks like “Open Road”, it sounds like they’ve just plugged in a Fender and said “that’ll do”. When the first chorus of “East Side Story” kicks in you are hit by a wall of sound. The guitars sound excellent here, it’s just a shame this isn’t kept up throughout the album.

The production on “Flying” makes it sound like a Westlife song. If they had just let Keith do a solo in the middle of this song, it may have sounded a lot better and a lot more like a rock ballad, rather than chart pop. The other problem I have with this song is the chorus. The line “We’re such a long way up from the ground” lets the chorus down because it just sounds so lazy. There is potential in this song for it to be a great ballad, but the end result is one of the worst songs ever to be featured on a Bryan Adams album.

Going back to the guitar riffs; throughout his career almost every great BA song features one, and there are hardly any on this album. There certainly aren’t any memorable ones. It’s as if you can tell he wrote the songs just strumming on his acoustic in the hotel room. With this major feature of his songs missing, it gives off the impression of a lack of effort.

“Why Do You Have To Be So Hard To Love” is a beautiful song. Except for the fact the music is virtually identical to “When You Love Someone” and “Where Angels Fear To Tread”. Also, after hearing the performance of this song at Abbey Road before the album version – where is the quality guitar solo from BA? Why isn’t it on the album version? What you’re left with is two verses, two choruses – right, that’ll do. This just illustrates how the album lacks any edge.

With On A Day Like Today, all the songs on that album work really well together. On Room Service, they don’t do each other any favours. “Not Romeo, Not Juliet” and “Nowhere Fast” on their own sound fine, but on this album sound, frankly, rather dull. On the other hand, “East Side Story”, “She’s A Little Good For Me” and “Right Back Where We Started From” are decent rock songs that could have really come to life if they were played live. I know I liked “Room Service” and “I Was Only Dreamin’” a whole lot more after I heard them live.

I nearly gave this album 3 stars because there are some decent tracks on here, but the overall feeling of a lack of effort and the general bland mediocrity of many of the songs means I can't give it anything higher than 2 stars.

Key Tracks:
Room Service
I Was Only Dreamin'

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