It seemed like things are looking up for Bryan Adams’ fans. First with the Canadian Icon’s 30th Anniversary tour of his breakthrough album, Reckless. Second, he teams up again with Jim Vallance for his release of Get Up. Come on, Vallance had helped him co-write some of his biggest hits, (Cuts like A Knife, Summer Of 69’ & Heaven) after all. Third, ELO front man and producer extraordinaire, Jeff Lynne is attached to the project. Wow, expectations are high.

That being said: the good news is that Jim Vallance co-wrote songs and Jeff Lynne, produced the album. The bad news is many fans will surely be disappointed with Get Up. The album is made up of only nine songs and the so-called ‘deluxe edition’ contains 4 acoustic versions of songs from the album. Although Get Up is a return to Adams’ rock roots, it’s just not the rock ‘n roll style that the fans have come to expect from him. It’s a tribute to the rock sound that inspired him; imagine Buddy Holly releasing an album today.

Look, Jeff Lynne is a fantastic producer and has done wonders for Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Tom petty, but there is definitely a lack of Adams’ own identity on this album. For the most part, Get Up sounds like a Jeff Lynne solo project, with Bryan Adams on vocals. I thought that Jeff Lynne would update Adams’ brand of rock ‘n roll but instead it seems that Bryan just let Lynne control the whole project, and in doing so, there is something lacking throughout the album. Get Up isn’t a bad album, I personally enjoyed it but was also a bit disappointed. It’s just not exactly what I was expecting, I guess.

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