BOSTON
''LIFE, LOVE & HOPE''
2013
42:45
1 - Heaven on Earth/3:37
2 - Didn't Mean to Fall in Love/5:13
3 - Last Day of School/2:01
4 - Sail Away/3:42
5 - Life Love and Hope/3:54
6 - If You Were in Love/4:10
7 - Someday/3:44
8 - Love Got Away/4:26
9 - Someone (2.0)/3:57
10 - You Gave up on Love (2.0)/4:05
11 - The Way You Look Tonight/3:51
All Tracks By Scholz
Beth Cohen /Vocal Harmony
Kimberley Dahme /Flute, Vocal Harmony, Vocals
Tommy DeCarlo /Vocals
Brad Delp /Vocal Harmony, Vocals
Jeff Neal /Vocal Harmony
Jude Nejmanowski /Guest Artist, Vocals
Gary Pihl /Guitar, Vocal Harmony
Tom Scholz /Arranger, Bass, Drums, Guitar, Guitar (Rhythm), Instrumentation, Keyboards, Organ, Producer, Vocal Harmony, Vocals, Vocals (Background)
Curly Smith /Composer, Harmonica
Louis St. August /Guest Artist
David Victor /Vocal Harmony, Vocals
REVIEW
By Tim Sendra
Thanks to the meticulous approach Tom Scholz takes when recording Boston albums, every album since their second one, 1978's Don't Look Back, has taken nearly a decade to see the light of day. It's no different with 2013's Life Love & Hope, which follows cold on the heels of 2002's Corporate America. Using a crew of vocalists including longtime collaborator Brad Delp (who tragically committed suicide in 2007) and cleanly processed layers of guitars, keys, and drums much the same way he always has, a majority of the album plays like vintage Boston -- especially the tracks that feature Delp, like the aching love song "Didn't Mean to Fall in Love," which borrows heavily from "More Than a Feeling," and a new version of Corporate America's "Someone." Another male vocalist on the album, David Victor, sounds a lot like Delp and does a fine job filling his shoes on the album's best song, "Heaven on Earth." When these songs click, it's almost like a time machine trip back to the late '70s. Sometimes they don't click, though, and that brings the record down quite a few notches. Some of the songwriting is clichéd and a little trite lyrically, the vocals a little overwrought, and -- most damningly -- the overall sound isn't as full and rich as a '70s Boston album, with the drums sounding curiously tinny and the mix oddly unbalanced. The guitars mostly sound amazing and exactly like one would expect Boston guitars to sound, but quite often the vocals are too far out front, the drums are buried, and the mix feels slapped together. The album sounds more like a GarageBand demo than it does a studio album that someone spent ten years slaving over. Even though it fell short of being a good Boston album, at least Corporate America sounded like a finished product. Life Love & Hope doesn't, and hearing it might lead a devoted Boston follower to believe that, despite the few moments when things come together nicely, maybe Scholz has finally lost his touch. Check back in another decade for further developments.
BIOGRAPHY
By Jason Ankeny
The arena rock group behind one of the fastest-selling debut albums in history, Boston was essentially the vehicle of studio wizard Tom Scholz, born March 10, 1947, in Toledo, OH. A rock fan throughout his teen years, he began writing songs while earning a master's degree at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After graduation, he began work for Polaroid, and set about constructing his own 12-track recording studio in the basement of his home, where demos were recorded that earned Scholz and vocalist Brad Delp a contract with Epic in 1975. Although some recording and overdubs were later done in Los Angeles, the 1976 release of Boston consisted largely of tapes recorded in Scholz's basement. (By then, the lineup had coalesced around Scholz, Delp, guitarist Barry Goudreau, bassist Fran Sheehan, and drummer John "Sib" Hashian.) Boston spawned three hit singles ("More Than a Feeling," "Long Time," and "Peace of Mind"), and shot immediately to the top of the charts, remaining the best-selling pop debut effort in history before it was supplanted by Whitney Houston's first album in 1986. 
Despite the record's overwhelming success, Scholz spent over two years working on the follow-up, 1978's number one hit Don't Look Back; a perfectionist, he only then released the album because of intense label pressure for product. Unsatisfied with the results, he swore to produce the next album at his own pace; as a result, the chart-topping Third Stage did not appear until 1986, at which time only Scholz and Delp remained from the original lineup. 
Scholz spent the next several years in the courtroom: eventually, he won a seven-year battle against Epic, which claimed Boston had reneged on its contract by taking so long between releases. When the band resurfaced again in 1994 with Walk On, Scholz was the lone remaining member; Delp and Goudreau had reunited in 1992 as RTZ, releasing the album Return to Zero. Unlike previous returns, Walk On was a commercial failure. Radio and MTV ignored any attempts at singles or videos, and the minimalist approach taken by the popular alternative artists of the era made the crystalline production and lengthy recording time seem anachronistic. 
Taking another eight years to work on the next record, he targeted the Internet crowd first by releasing a single to www.MP3.com in the summer of 2002. The track became the site's number one download, and word of their new album spread quickly. (Delp's return to the group also helped matters.) Secondly, Scholz set his lyrical sights on political targets, going so far as to title the record Corporate America as he emphasized his disdain for the system he had been a vital part of at one time. After releasing the record in the fall of that year, Boston embarked on a tour that took them into 2004. Around this time Scholz began work on the next album, using the same studio equipment the band had used since their inception. The work moved slowly and a shadow was cast over the project by the 2007 suicide of Brad Delp, but the band's sixth album, Love Life & Hope, was released by Frontiers Records in late 2013. The album featured vocals by Delp and was something of a return to the classic Boston sound of the '70s.
''LIFE, LOVE & HOPE''
2013
42:45
1 - Heaven on Earth/3:37
2 - Didn't Mean to Fall in Love/5:13
3 - Last Day of School/2:01
4 - Sail Away/3:42
5 - Life Love and Hope/3:54
6 - If You Were in Love/4:10
7 - Someday/3:44
8 - Love Got Away/4:26
9 - Someone (2.0)/3:57
10 - You Gave up on Love (2.0)/4:05
11 - The Way You Look Tonight/3:51
All Tracks By Scholz
Beth Cohen /Vocal Harmony
Kimberley Dahme /Flute, Vocal Harmony, Vocals
Tommy DeCarlo /Vocals
Brad Delp /Vocal Harmony, Vocals
Jeff Neal /Vocal Harmony
Jude Nejmanowski /Guest Artist, Vocals
Gary Pihl /Guitar, Vocal Harmony
Tom Scholz /Arranger, Bass, Drums, Guitar, Guitar (Rhythm), Instrumentation, Keyboards, Organ, Producer, Vocal Harmony, Vocals, Vocals (Background)
Curly Smith /Composer, Harmonica
Louis St. August /Guest Artist
David Victor /Vocal Harmony, Vocals
REVIEW
By Tim Sendra
Thanks to the meticulous approach Tom Scholz takes when recording Boston albums, every album since their second one, 1978's Don't Look Back, has taken nearly a decade to see the light of day. It's no different with 2013's Life Love & Hope, which follows cold on the heels of 2002's Corporate America. Using a crew of vocalists including longtime collaborator Brad Delp (who tragically committed suicide in 2007) and cleanly processed layers of guitars, keys, and drums much the same way he always has, a majority of the album plays like vintage Boston -- especially the tracks that feature Delp, like the aching love song "Didn't Mean to Fall in Love," which borrows heavily from "More Than a Feeling," and a new version of Corporate America's "Someone." Another male vocalist on the album, David Victor, sounds a lot like Delp and does a fine job filling his shoes on the album's best song, "Heaven on Earth." When these songs click, it's almost like a time machine trip back to the late '70s. Sometimes they don't click, though, and that brings the record down quite a few notches. Some of the songwriting is clichéd and a little trite lyrically, the vocals a little overwrought, and -- most damningly -- the overall sound isn't as full and rich as a '70s Boston album, with the drums sounding curiously tinny and the mix oddly unbalanced. The guitars mostly sound amazing and exactly like one would expect Boston guitars to sound, but quite often the vocals are too far out front, the drums are buried, and the mix feels slapped together. The album sounds more like a GarageBand demo than it does a studio album that someone spent ten years slaving over. Even though it fell short of being a good Boston album, at least Corporate America sounded like a finished product. Life Love & Hope doesn't, and hearing it might lead a devoted Boston follower to believe that, despite the few moments when things come together nicely, maybe Scholz has finally lost his touch. Check back in another decade for further developments.
BIOGRAPHY
By Jason Ankeny
The arena rock group behind one of the fastest-selling debut albums in history, Boston was essentially the vehicle of studio wizard Tom Scholz, born March 10, 1947, in Toledo, OH. A rock fan throughout his teen years, he began writing songs while earning a master's degree at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After graduation, he began work for Polaroid, and set about constructing his own 12-track recording studio in the basement of his home, where demos were recorded that earned Scholz and vocalist Brad Delp a contract with Epic in 1975. Although some recording and overdubs were later done in Los Angeles, the 1976 release of Boston consisted largely of tapes recorded in Scholz's basement. (By then, the lineup had coalesced around Scholz, Delp, guitarist Barry Goudreau, bassist Fran Sheehan, and drummer John "Sib" Hashian.) Boston spawned three hit singles ("More Than a Feeling," "Long Time," and "Peace of Mind"), and shot immediately to the top of the charts, remaining the best-selling pop debut effort in history before it was supplanted by Whitney Houston's first album in 1986.
