It's been seven years since Bryan Adams gave us a studio album, and to some, even longer since he produced a listenable album. What Bran Adams brings us in Room Service is a soul-searching, spectrum bouncing album that moves from losing love to falling in love, and then back again. Adams penned Service while backstage and on the tour bus of his latest European tour, and it really helps bring out the raggedness of his emotions and helps him to bare his soul. Touring year round can be a lonely place and Bryan Adams after all is human.
His humanity and "every man lyrics" can be seen in tracks like "East Side Story's" (1) "I wanna give her my number - I wanna tell her my name wanna climb on board that cross-town bus…" Bryan Adams lamenting the difficulty in approaching a woman? Sounds like something almost any man can identify with.
In a continuation of his wandering across the plains of love, Adams laments on "Why Do You Have to Be So Hard To Love" (11) "Is there some heartache that you can't out run that makes you so afraid to get close to anyone…" This isn't the same breezy Bryan Adams we've heard in the past. This is a more mature Adams, a darker Bryan Adams.
Room Service isn't all frills. Bryan Adams explores some darker emotions with lyrics like "I'm ridin' in the back seat - black limousine/ Starin' out the window at a funeral scene…I just want something to believe in/ Ah - it's a lonely, lonely road we're on/ This side of paradise" on "This Side of Paradise" (2)
"Not Romeo Not Juliet" (3) explores the trials and tribulations of love in a relationship with lyrics like, "Misery loves company/ She just waves her hand and says whatever/ Well this ain't love this ain't love this ain't love at all…" He tries to swing it back around to the positive side with this line, "We're nothin' unless we try - oh no…"
Long time Bryan Adams fans might be getting worried about now. "He hasn't mentioned anything about any ballads at all." Well fear not, this album is not without a Bryan Adams ballad. "I Was Only Dreaming" (8) and "Flying" (4) fill the position and do it with ease.
Bryan Adams is back, and it's about damn time. He stays true for old fans but also has shown that's he has moved on and progressed over his twenty-five year career. Not as solid as his best work, but it's certainly better than some of his previous work.
