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Track List
01) All of Me
02) Fall From Grace
03) The Giving Tree
04) Mad Mad World / The Good God Is a Woman and
05) Party of One
06) Live or Die
07) California Dreamin'
08) Another Day
09) Fourty Days
10) Our Love & Our Souls
11) Stand in the Storm
12) Blue Sky
01) All of Me
02) Fall From Grace
03) The Giving Tree
04) Mad Mad World / The Good God Is a Woman and
05) Party of One
06) Live or Die
07) California Dreamin'
08) Another Day
09) Fourty Days
10) Our Love & Our Souls
11) Stand in the Storm
12) Blue Sky
5:17
3:46
4:54
4:06
4:00
4:27
4:06
5:03
5:23
4:01
4:38
2:57
Data Complete
90%
Total Rating
90%Total Rating
(0 users)
Back Cover
CD Art
3D Case
3D Thumb
3D Flat
3D Face
3D Spine
First Released
2011
Hard Rock
In Love
Rock/Pop
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Album
0 copies
Album Description
Available in:
Hell in a Handbasket is the 12th studio album by Meat Loaf, released September 30, 2011 by Sony Records in Australia, followed by a release in early 2012 worldwide.
The album was produced by Neverland Express guitarist Paul Crook. Songwriters who had worked on his previous album also made a return, including Gregory Becker and John Paul White ("Let's Be in Love") and Tommy Henriksen (co-author of the digital bonus track "Prize Fight Lover"). Also prominently featured on the album is songwriter Sean McConnell, whose contributions were originally developed for Hang Cool Teddy Bear but wound up being discarded as the album took a different direction creatively (however, he is still thanked in that album's liner notes).
Due to the lengthy gaps between releases in various regions, Meat Loaf has intimated in response to public demand that there is still time for longtime collaborator Jim Steinman to make a contribution to the album in its internationally-released form. Meat Loaf concluded by noting "don't rule it out." This was a more specific variation on a previous statement, namely that he would work with Steinman again but that Steinman "doesn't know it yet." Speculation has since occurred as to what the contribution may be. As recently as September 2008, Steinman stated on his website he was creating an album as a promotional tie-in to the forthcoming Bat Out of Hell musical with a working title of Bat Out of Hell: The Climax or The Final at Bat, which would feature "new versions of classic BOOH 1&2 songs, and ALL the brand newest songs, sung by many amazing artists." He hastened to add that there was "NO REASON Meat couldnt [sic] sing these too."
User Album Review
If we are to assume that Meat Loaf, who doesn't author his own material, has some influence over the conceptual weave of his albums, then we must also assume that his writers were commissioned to write songs reflecting not only his personal malaise, but also his anger at the madness of the modern world.
However, this being Loaf ”“ a born entertainer if ever there was one ”“ any ostensibly serious intent is compromised by his unwillingness to nail his colours to the mast. You don't want to alienate your fans, after all. So all he's prepared to communicate is a sort of non-specific rage couched in generic metaphors about rainstorms, making him sound less like an apocalyptic preacher and more like a weatherman having a mental breakdown.
"These are my emotions," he thunders on All of Me, as if daring us to believe otherwise. While it's silly to get hung up on notions of integrity when dealing with Loaf ”“ he is, after all, a distinctive interpreter who treats every song as though it's an epic mini-movie ”“ it's simply not good enough to splutter "I cannot believe this stuff!" without bothering to explain what said stuff actually is.
Since his musical evolution, such as it is, stopped circa 1989, when fist-clenching stadium rock ruled supreme, perhaps he's still hacked off about the Iran/Contra crisis. It's impossible to tell. Even a cameo from Chuck D ”“ yes, really ”“ fails to elucidate.
Sonically, Loaf's latest largely ignores the faux-operatic power ballads for which he's best known in favour of bombastic rockers with ready-made choruses. But aside from the inherently ”“ albeit fleetingly ”“ amusing nature of its trademark excess, overall it lacks that knowing sense of humour which characterises his best work. Maybe the continuing absence of his erstwhile mentor, Jim Steinman, is to blame.
Unconvincing and overbearing, it's like being ambushed by the cast of a Broadway rock musical. A Broadway rock musical with a sort of, y'know, political message. And stuff.
External Album Reviews
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User Comments
Available in:
Hell in a Handbasket is the 12th studio album by Meat Loaf, released September 30, 2011 by Sony Records in Australia, followed by a release in early 2012 worldwide.
The album was produced by Neverland Express guitarist Paul Crook. Songwriters who had worked on his previous album also made a return, including Gregory Becker and John Paul White ("Let's Be in Love") and Tommy Henriksen (co-author of the digital bonus track "Prize Fight Lover"). Also prominently featured on the album is songwriter Sean McConnell, whose contributions were originally developed for Hang Cool Teddy Bear but wound up being discarded as the album took a different direction creatively (however, he is still thanked in that album's liner notes).
Due to the lengthy gaps between releases in various regions, Meat Loaf has intimated in response to public demand that there is still time for longtime collaborator Jim Steinman to make a contribution to the album in its internationally-released form. Meat Loaf concluded by noting "don't rule it out." This was a more specific variation on a previous statement, namely that he would work with Steinman again but that Steinman "doesn't know it yet." Speculation has since occurred as to what the contribution may be. As recently as September 2008, Steinman stated on his website he was creating an album as a promotional tie-in to the forthcoming Bat Out of Hell musical with a working title of Bat Out of Hell: The Climax or The Final at Bat, which would feature "new versions of classic BOOH 1&2 songs, and ALL the brand newest songs, sung by many amazing artists." He hastened to add that there was "NO REASON Meat couldnt [sic] sing these too."
User Album Review
If we are to assume that Meat Loaf, who doesn't author his own material, has some influence over the conceptual weave of his albums, then we must also assume that his writers were commissioned to write songs reflecting not only his personal malaise, but also his anger at the madness of the modern world.
However, this being Loaf ”“ a born entertainer if ever there was one ”“ any ostensibly serious intent is compromised by his unwillingness to nail his colours to the mast. You don't want to alienate your fans, after all. So all he's prepared to communicate is a sort of non-specific rage couched in generic metaphors about rainstorms, making him sound less like an apocalyptic preacher and more like a weatherman having a mental breakdown.
"These are my emotions," he thunders on All of Me, as if daring us to believe otherwise. While it's silly to get hung up on notions of integrity when dealing with Loaf ”“ he is, after all, a distinctive interpreter who treats every song as though it's an epic mini-movie ”“ it's simply not good enough to splutter "I cannot believe this stuff!" without bothering to explain what said stuff actually is.
Since his musical evolution, such as it is, stopped circa 1989, when fist-clenching stadium rock ruled supreme, perhaps he's still hacked off about the Iran/Contra crisis. It's impossible to tell. Even a cameo from Chuck D ”“ yes, really ”“ fails to elucidate.
Sonically, Loaf's latest largely ignores the faux-operatic power ballads for which he's best known in favour of bombastic rockers with ready-made choruses. But aside from the inherently ”“ albeit fleetingly ”“ amusing nature of its trademark excess, overall it lacks that knowing sense of humour which characterises his best work. Maybe the continuing absence of his erstwhile mentor, Jim Steinman, is to blame.
Unconvincing and overbearing, it's like being ambushed by the cast of a Broadway rock musical. A Broadway rock musical with a sort of, y'know, political message. And stuff.
External Album Reviews
None...
User Comments
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