In the 11 years since Boston last released an album, the band has undergone many changes, with the death of their lead singer, Brad Delp, and the addition of new vocalists to fill his place. In the band’s new album, Life, Love & Hope, guitarist and producer Tom Scholz attempts to pull these pieces together to make something great. Unfortunately, he and the band fall just short.
The album, as a whole, serves as a pretty standard reminder of the music of the 70s, featuring loud guitars, screaming synths, and righteous harmonies in every track. For the most part, Boston sticks to their established sound and it works through the LP’s short 40-minute run. The opening track, “Heaven and Earth,” is emblematic of the traditional classic rock anthem, which Boston and other bands like Kansas, Blue Öyster Cult, and Styx perfected in their heyday. The song is backed by a very simple, rhythmic guitar beat that is accompanied by various ornamental riffs by another lead guitar. “Once I thought life was easy,” David Victor, one of Delp’s replacements, croons. These themes of uncertainty and unfulfillment, which were present in Boston’s initial discography, are still relevant today, allowing this song to resonate with its new audience.
The problem that Boston and other older bands now face, however, is that this type of music, which once brought down stadiums and rocked the brains of thousands of fans, has been developed, perfected, and curated so much over the last few decades that simply following the formula of heavy guitars and simple chord progressions is no longer enough to create great music. Life, Love & Hope is not particularly imaginative or innovative. The album gets boring very quickly.
It’s clear that Boston realized this as they were recording, though, as there are moments throughout the LP where there are overt and heavy-handed attempts to add something new to Boston’s sound. An example of this is the song “Didn’t Mean to Fall In Love,” which begins with a very disquieting phone ring scored by an ambient synth chord. It feels as if Boston is attempting to remain fresh by adopting techniques often used in concept albums to create stories, but unfortunately this just ends up being awkward, actively harming what could have been a decent album. The band leaves little to love and even less to hope for.
Voice’s Choices: “Heaven and Earth,” “You Gave Up On Love”
