03. Boston - Don’t Look Back (1978)
Don’t Look Back the second album from
Boston, is very much an album that divides opinions amongst most band aficionados. Is it a typical case of a sophomore slump or is it simply an undervalued album? From a personal perspective and fence sitting as usual, I’m of the belief that it's a combination of these two distinct viewpoints, as the album does have some very good material. Now because we do a voting system for these albums, my fellow reviewer here
Anteater clearly belongs in the second camp as I know he rates this album highly, which is why it’s managed to feature so high up the 1978 list. As always though and as already said, the truth behind
Don’t Look Back falls somewhere in-between these two differing opinions and it’s an album that really has its own story to tell.
After the band’s legendary debut album simply titled
Boston and surely the archetypal statement of what a 1970s classic rock era-album should sound like, the pressure was surely on the band to follow up with something equally as good. Now enter band maestro
Tom Scholz a multi-instrumentalist and tinkerer who clearly as time would reveal, hated being rushed when he was working on material, as the man was quite simply a musical perfectionist. The band’s label Epic were clearly in favour of a quick follow-up regardless of the outcome it seemed and were quickly at loggerheads with Tom Scholz over the recording schedule for the album, on top of this the band were also having problems with their management as well which compounded the issues that the band were going through. The end result was a 33 minute album which was deemed far too short by Tom Scholz for an album of this kind and later claimed that the album was not only rushed due to label pressure, but also fell one song short as well something that is plainly obvious by the album’s running time. As for Epic they were rubbing their hands as the album topped the US Billboard album chart and cracked the UK top 10 album chart as well, while still managing to go 7x Platinum. The album also gave the band another huge single in its title track “Don’t Look Back” and two additional hit singles as well.
The album starts with the impressive title track “Don’t Look Back” which feels like classic Boston all the way. The song is underpinned with a barrage of guitars and has vocalist
Brad Delp who without doubt was one of classic rock’s greatest vocalists, fighting his way through the impressive guitar sound of the song. The song is further highlighted by its almost anthemic chorus section and memorable vocal touches. The song is also highlighted with its softer easier listening tones in order to be receptive to radio listeners. Instrumental “The Journey” at less than 2 minutes was clearly designed to show off Tom Schultz’s studio wizardry and in many ways it was the kind of instrumental musical section that some AOR bands liked anyway. Of the album's pure rockers “It’s Easy” which despite having some nice musical sections, is a perfect example of where the album suffers from that sophomore slump and is clearly not to the height of something similar from the debut album. "A Man I'll Never Be" which despite nearly falling into dreaded
Queen territory, ends up being a pretty epic type of ballad track with some great guitar work, saved by Brad Delp's voice and that Boston signature sound stitched into the song.
The third killer track on the album is "Feelin' Satisfied" which despite starting off as a rather mediocre rocker, reveals itself to have a great burning section accompanied by handclaps and sounds like an archetypal late 70s rock staple, this is clearly Boston at their best. This is followed by "Party" which performs like a part animal in every aspect and is top draw and one of my favourites from the album all the way. "Used to Bad News" is a free flowing b-side sounding track that neither disappoints but neither ignites either and just ends up sitting there. The album finishes up with "Don't be Afraid" which is a blustery rocker and in reality is no better than the earlier "It's Easy" and certainly not quite upto finishing the album off as it stands. Now had the album had one extra song of real quality that Tom Scholz desperately required, this is clearly where it should've been placed to either close the album off or switched places with the aforementioned "Don't Be Afraid" which would've played better with a quality song before or after it.
Now no Boston review would be complete without mentioning the album cover and again this one fits neatly into the spaceship, sci-fi album cover concept of the band, something that would typify all of their studio albums over the years and much something that would be integral to the band.
On a final note Tom Scholz would finally have his way for the band’s third album
Third Stage, where he would make both the record label and the general public wait some eight years before its release……………. and was it worth the wait? Well for me yes, as it’s my favourite album from the band’s menial release of six studio albums across their lengthy career. As for
Don’t Look Back, it’s an album that gets kind of forgotten but all in all it has enough of the band’s good old fashioned rock ‘n’ roll slant on the AOR concept to keep most happy.