You Want It, You Got It (1981) Review by Steven Stanley

The first Bryan Adams album with quality pretty much from start to finish. Bryan had time to write and record this album properly and it shows in spades. It's hard to believe it's the same artist when comparing it to the album he released only the year previously. It's such a vast improvement.

It kicks off with 'Lonely Nights'... an instant classic Adams rock track and it's easy to see why this got him his first big break on radio in the states. It still sounds amazing at his full band shows to this day.

Don't be fooled by the radio friendly songs and cutesy early 80's Adams image though. There are some timeless rock tracks on here. 'Fits Ya Good' is full of raw guitar and a great rockout at the end. You can just imagine Bryan and the band playing this in clubs back in the day just like this. A great track that showed the fans there was great potential in his rock pedigree, as did the title track 'You Want It You Got It'.

The best track on the album for me is 'Tonight'. It starts off with a quality bassline and Bryan just flows into the song... his vocals and strat seeming to merge together to give maybe the coolest vibe to any song he's done. His nonshalant style and 'to the point' lyrics making critics aware he actually maybe had something to say in some of his songs. 'One Good Reason' is also quite similar in style... another great song with some backing singers that actually work well throughout the song.

'No One Makes It Right' is another great shout. Vastly underated and certainly up there with the best ballads he's done. What makes it so great is it's simplicity. There's no where to hide, it's largely just Bryan and a piano and it works. The drums kick in after the first verse and chorus, but for me the first part of the song when it's stripped down is when it's at it's best... something that was proved at the York show in 2008. Myself and a girl called Mikala requested the song and he played it for the first time stripped down, it was beautiful.

As much as I LOVE these 6 tracks in particular on the album, I feel the other half of the songs aren't quite up to par in some way or another (even though I still listen to them on a regular basis!). 'Don't Look Now' is an ok song, but maybe it's just aged more than the others with the heavy use of the keyboards... it kind of feels like he didn't know where to take this song.

'Coming Home' falls short with the constant 80's background singers throughout the song which do nothing to keep my interest, although the verses are very well put together. 'Jealousy' is my least favourite on the album... it just feels really dated and it wouldn't look out of place on the first album to be honest. 'Last Chance' is ok I guess, but nothing to write home about.

A great improvement on the first album and it has some of my all time favourites on here, but nearly half the songs have really dated and stopped this album getting a much higher rating.

Key Tracks:
Lonely Nights
Tonight

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