Reckless (1984) Review by Steven Stanley

Love Bryan Adams or hate him, no one can deny this is an album of the highest order. It's the album all other albums get compared to, the album that shot BA into worldwide superstardom, the album everybody hopes will be emulated somehow and the album that in many ways defined a decade for a generation.

Every track on 'Reckless' is absolute quality, it's a perfect record. I cannot even begin to pay it enough compliments, if I could give it 6 stars... I would!

From the moment 'One Night Love Affair' hits you head on, you know you're in for a special ride... it's the classic Adams tune opening the album like it did on 'You Want It' and 'Cuts', but honed to perfection. This is vintage Adams/Vallance and by god do I love it. The same can be said of 'Summer Of '69', it's rock at it's absolute BEST. Little more can be said about that song... we all know the score with that one. His best song ever? Generally speaking, yeah probably.

'Run To You' of course is right up there too, it was a staple MTV record and has a great riff... to this day you can still blast it out of your car without it sounding dated. A lot of that is because the guitars do the talking on this record, no over the top 80's keys and it has plenty of balls.

Speaking of balls - 'Kids Wanna Rock'. Holy. shit. If Bryan can rock as good as this why didn't he do it more often? Not complaining though, high octane rock at it's very best. The album has one ballad, 'Heaven' and it's not exactly a poor one. Every album needs a duet, how about one with TINA TURNER? 'It's Only Love' - I'm struggling to think of a better duet from anybody than this.

Truth is, all 10 tracks could and should have stormed the charts. They were all single material which just goes to show the quality of the album. In true 'Reckless' style it ends with possibly the hardest rocker BA has ever done... 'Ain't Gonna Cry' is an almost borderline punk-rock affair that ends with the most mindblowing finale to an album I've ever heard. Period.

I'm not going to go over the minor details of songs on this album - we all know the score with it. There's nothing much more one can say about an album as close to utter perfection as this one. So finally, as I wrap this up, many people have tried to say many different things about 'Reckless'. It's not an album that can be put into words. The music explains far more why this album was so huge, and continues to gain new interest from fans even to this day. It was the album of the 80's for many people, and as new younger fans discovered Bryan in the 90's and 2000's it became their album too, transcending generations and standing the true test of time. 'Reckless' isn't just an album... for many people, myself included, it became part of life.

Key Tracks:
Summer Of '69
Kids Wanna Rock

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