US band BOSTON are among the classic of the classic rock bands still active today. A band arguably best known for the hit song More Than A Feeling from many years ago, and with a reputation , at least from the days of yore, for being a band that spends way too much time in the studio to hone mix and production to perfection. “Life, Love & Hope” is their sixth studio album to date, and was released through Italian label Frontiers Records towards the end of 2013.
Boston is one of those bands that I have on my list of artists I need to explore in depth at some point. It’s just too bad that the first album I got to have a closer look at is this one, as this is a production that is severely lacking on a few but important aspects. It’s not a total disaster by all means, these guys know how to write compelling, melodic rock tunes and that is easy to tell also this time around. What is lacking on this occasion is the execution and polish. This is one of those cases where I wonder if the band sent the wrong masters to the CD duplication factory, to put it that way, and the end result is so much less than it could have been.
The greater majority of the songs, as mentioned, are of decent to good quality. Compelling verse parts, powerful chorus sections with strong sing-along qualities, and at least a couple of songs that in other circumstances would have had a fairly strong likelihood of becoming radio favorites and perhaps even hit songs. Presumably radio airplay is still guaranteed for this band of course, but if the strong qualities of these songs can transform any of these songs in their current guise to become hit material and evergreens…I’m not so sure about that.
Still, the songs are generally decent. A couple of them – Didn’t Mean To Fall In Love and Someone – have a curious over-loud organ motif dropped into the song that sounds invading and out of context to my ears however. That these motifs have a certain likeness to Boston’s mega hit More Than A Feeling in mood and melody perhaps the reason for that curious and, to my ears at least, detrimental structural choice. The way I listen to music this is a negative feature on both occasions though, and a bit more in the former than the latter at that.
There are more serious issues at hand however. One of the two major detrimental aspects to this album are the drums. If a drummer have been at hand here there are drum machines that could do a better job. If drum machines have been employed they could have and should have been programmed better. That the drums have been produced to convey a cold, closed in and emotionless sound further detracts the end result for that particular detail of this production, and for me this has a generally detrimental effect on the album as a whole.
The second issue are balancing issues. Lead vocals that drown when instruments are added as the songs unfold, backing vocals that are mixed way louder than the lead vocals, drowning out lead vocals and instruments both, at times I imagined I heard interference noise in some of those cases. Some of the instrument arrangements suffer from similar issues, and again this has a detrimental effect as far as my ability to enjoy this album is concerned.
With a long career behind them – Boston will celebrate 40 years as a band next year if I remember correctly – these guys show that they still can create some fine melodic rock and hard rock tunes. It’s just too bad that mix and production has such a serious negative impact on what might have been if not a great then at least a fairly good album. There are quality producers out there for a band of Boston’s stature, and I do hope that they employ one of them next time around.
My rating: 49/100
