Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I just picked up the new Boston album, Life Love & Hope, online. Don't waste a penny on this. Want to hear more? Read on... The hardest part of this is that I was a HUGE fan of the first album, and to a lesser extent, Don't Look Back. What I mainly hear on this release is a half-hearted rehash of ideas and sounds Tom Scholz has been recycling since Third Stage, which for me was barely tolerable, and certainly the beginning of the end. Drums: The worst drum machine sounds I have ever heard. And that's saying a lot. The programming is ridiculous, these are drum patterns no real drummer would ever come up with, way too busy and completely without feel. On top of that, the drums are mixed at about half of the volume they should be for a 'rock' album. Guitars: Yes, Tom, you invented the Rockman sound. Now quit it already. The first two albums rocked because you tracked through amplifiers. This sound is way over processed and has no balls whatsoever. The parts are all meandering and without focus, and there's too many of them on every song. Vocals: Yes I hear Brad Delp in there in places. I also hear lead vocals by a thin voiced female singer that sound totally out of place. What I don't hear are vocal melodies like those that made the first two albums memorable. Songs: I don't hear any of these at all. There is also a glaring lack of 'hooks' like those that made Boston a household name. No amount of studio production, or decades between albums, will make up for a lack of actual music. The third song, an instrumental, would fit nicely on a Mannheim Steamroller Xmas album. Long story short, with just the talent within my circle of musician friends, we could write an album of songs that sound a lot more like Boston, that actually rock, and that someone might actually want to hear. Please do not frustrate yourself by buying or listening to this terribly failed attempt at rekindling the Boston fire.