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All rights reserved.If We Fall in Love Tonight - Stewart, Rod (CD 1996)
"I'll Show You Ambient Music, You Show Me Schlock Music" (ISYMYSMY) Write-OffReview created: 05/06/02
by: thevoid99 -- a member of Epinions
Pros:
Some fine ballads from Rod "The Mod" Stewart.
Some fine ballads from Rod "The Mod" Stewart.
Cons:
A Bunch of Adult Contemporary Schlock that made Rod uncool for a bunch of years.
A Bunch of Adult Contemporary Schlock that made Rod uncool for a bunch of years.
When my fellow Epinions cohort and King of Rock himself, MattA75, decided to create another I ll Show You Mine, You Show Me Yours write-off where the object is to make your partner review an album that he/she reviewed and vice versa. I was excited since I knew I was going to give someone the chance to listen to music that my partner wouldn t have heard. My partner ended up being Aerocat, a mainstream rock woman who is into the rocking grooves of her favorite band Aerosmith. After some mind-bending decisions and email conversations with Aerocat, I decided that the CD that she should review is something outside of her rock/pop format. The album she will review is Apollo: Atmospheres & Soundtrack by ambient music pioneer Brian Eno. From her camp, she decides to choose a list of albums that were mixed in the formats of rock, pop, country, and adult contemporary. In the end, the album that I m reviewing is a ballads collection titled If We Fall in Love Tonight from one rock s most brilliant and maligned figures, Rod Stewart.
For me, the best stuff Rod Stewart did in his entire career is from his days in the late 60s and early 70s. From his days with the Jeff Beck Group in the late 60s to the hard-partying sloppiness of the Faces in the early 70s with keyboardist Ian McLagan, bassist Ronnie Lane, future Rolling Stones guitarist Ron Wood, and future Who drummer Kenny Jones. Another thing that made Rod Stewart the great artist he was in the early and mid-70s were his many classic albums like Never a Dull Moment , Every Picture Tells a Story , Gasoline Alley , and Atlantic Crossing . Sadly, Rod The Mod ended up becoming a jet setter that is surrounded by blonde women and the glitz and glamour of Hollywood. By 1976 s A Night on the Town , he started to sing schlock like Tonight s The Night and since then destroyed himself with such atrocities like Hot Legs , Passion , and the god-awful disco hit Do Ya Think I m Sexy? that ruined his greatness.
Although he continued to have hits in the 80s and 90s, he still didn t really gain that greatness he once had in the early 70s. His music in the 80s and 90s were filled with a lot of slickness that was all over adult contemporary radio even though he brought some nice songs including a Tom Waits cover of Downtown Train and Tom Petty s Leave Virginia Alone . In 1996, Rod Stewart decided to release a best of ballads collection titled If We Fall in Love Tonight . If We Fall in Love Tonight is a fifteen-track collection of Rod Stewart s ballads from the 70s and 80s including a few new songs and covers from artists like Cat Stevens, Carole King Robbie Robertson of the Band, Leo Sayer, and Tom Waits. Although the album features some classic ballads from the 70s, the album also featured some well-known ballads that kept him vital in the 1980s and early 90s. Although the album is a record towards the adult contemporary audience was playing to during the mid-90s, the collection feels incomplete due to a number of classic ballads in the early 70s.
The first track off the album is the title track If We Fall In Love Tonight written and produced by famed-Janet Jackson producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. The song starts off with a lovely piano melody but is then ruined by its slick sound of slow 90s R&B rhythms of soft bass drum machine beats that accompany Rod s vocals which is still soulful but its slick production just ruins the track and it sounds like the same schlock that Rod has been doing for the past twenty years unfortunately. Janet Jackson could have easily had a hit with this track but not Rod The Mod . He s too talented to sing boring schlock, especially since the song is five minutes, which is a minute-and-a-half too long. The next song is the first of two songs produced by James Newton-Howard. For The First Time features a soft and slow piano and keyboard tracks along with soft percussion tracks accompany Rod s vocals that are pretty much a bore and sounds like the typical love ballad in a boring romantic comedy during the closing credits.
When I Need You is an old Leo Sayer cover that is produced by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis that is given a slick and smooth R&B makeover that I don t think is needed. Stewart brings in good vocals for the Sayer classic from the 70s but I prefer the Sayer version since I ve heard it several times from my parents. Sayer s version had a more raw feel as opposed to the slick sound that Rod s version was given and the gospel-like chorus in the end of the song was also not needed. The next cover is for the Carole King classic So Far Away that appeared in a tribute album to her masterpiece Tapestry . Produced by famed pop-schlock producer David Foster (the man behind some of the crap made by Celine Dion), the song opens up with a keyboard melody-accompanying Rod as he sings King s opening lyrics of So far away/Doesn t anybody stay in one place anymore/It will be so fine to see your face at my door . King s version was more intimate and had the feeling of King s vulnerability in the original song that is not featured in Stewart s version due to the over-production from Foster who brings in too many instruments like slow drums, guitar power chords, and chiming keyboards that just ruins the King classic. I d just stick to the original Tapestry album where I can actually Carole King s intimacy on that album.
The next cover on the album is a studio remix of the Van Morrison song Have I Told You Lately which Rod had a hit with back in 1993 when he performed it on MTV Unplugged that featured his old Faces guitarist Ron Wood. The unplugged version had a more intimate and soulful tone to the song especially when Rod got emotional during the latter part of the song as he was singing it to his wife at the time, model/actress Rachel Hunter. The studio version in this album just takes away the intimacy of the album and is replaced with a slick sound including a slow, electric guitar solo that is need along with Chic s Bernard Edwards production. I would ve replaced that version for the unplugged version since it was more emotionally driven and the listener actually feels Rod s pain when he sang the song. The next song that was also co-produced by Bernard Edwards along with former Duran Duran guitarist Andy Taylor is the song My Heart Can t Tell You No from his 1988 album Out of Order . Although the song features 80s drums and synthesizer tracks, the ballad is actually one of Rod s better songs from the 80s since it features nice melodic hooks that accompanies Rod s soulful vocals as he sings the songwriting team of Simon Climie and Dennis Morgan s lyrics of When the one you love s in love with someone else/Don t you know it s torture/I mean it s a living hell, a living hell that is one of the reason why this song actually stands up against most of his stuff in the 80s.
The next four ballads on the album are songs Rod did in the mid-1970s. First is the acoustic-love ballad to his Scottish football team (soccer for you Americans) You re In My Heart . The song starts off innocently as Rod sings the opening lyrics of I didn t know what day it was/When you walked into your room/I said hello unnoticed/You said goodbye too soon as he is then accompanied by a violin solo. As he continues singing softly, he then goes into pub-like chorus of You re in my heart, you re in my soul/You ll be my breath should I grow old/You are my lover, you re my best friend/You re in my soul which is a nice chorus to sing-a-long to while being drunk. Ask Mike Myers when he was in that movie So I Married An Axe Murderer as he played his main character s father as he sang that chorus drunk. Next is a cover of the Cat Stevens classic First Cut Is The Deepest that is basically an acoustic track that begins as Rod sings, I would have given you all of my heart/But there s someone who s torn it apart/And she s taken just all that I had/But if you want, I ll try to love again/Baby, I ll try to love again but I know . The song that is in a lovely acoustic-pop setting that is set in 70s pop structures is very well-done and remains faithful to the original Cat Stevens classic.
Next from his 1975 album Atlantic Crossing is the song I Don t Want To Talk About It is a slow, acoustic ballad that features a lovely acoustic guitar accompaniment along with a soft bass groove as Rod sings Danny Whitten s heart wrenching lyrics of I can tell by your eyes that you ve probably been crying forever/And the stars in the sky don t mean nothing to you, they re a mirror/I don t want to talk about it, how you broke my heart/If I stay here just a little bit longer/If I stay here, won t you listen to my heart, whoa heart . Rod brings in his soulful vocals to the song as if it s a blues song that features American 70s pop elements. The next song is a song I think people either love or hate. It s that awful schlock of Tonight s The Night that opens up with a nice country-like intro that then moves into this slow and awful schlock pop that was constant in the late 70s as Rod sings the love ballad that featured a line that made the song be banned by the BBC which was Spread your and let me come inside which then leads into its racy chorus of Tonight s the night/It s gonna be alright/Cause I love you girl/Ain t nobody gonna stop us now . At the end of the song, a woman talks in French saying the lyrics, which is really Rod s girlfriend at the time, Swedish actress Britt Ekland.
Next is the second James Newton-Howard production of an old Dan Hill song Sometimes When We Touch that features the same pop production that was in For The First Time but the tempo isn t as slow. The song does feature nice vocals from Rod but is mired by the production that features slick keyboards and rhythms that must ruins the Dan Hill song. Next is a cover of the Tom Waits classic Downtown Train that features the typical 80s production that was constant in Rod s 80s work but in this song, it actually works thanks to Rod s vocals and Waits songwriting structure. Rod sings Waits opening lyrics of Outside another yellow moon/Has punched a hole in the night time mist/I m climbing down to the window and down to the street/I m shining like a new dime/The downtown trains are full/full of all of them Brooklyn girls/They try so hard to break out of their little words . Rod continues singing Waits New York-filled lyrics that lead to its chorus of When I see you tonight/On a downtown train/Every night, every night, it s just the same/On a downtown train . Rod s version is one of his best-loved songs and it s one of my favorites but I prefer Waits version even though he doesn t have great vocals like Rod has.
The next cover is a Robbie Robertson song called Broken Arrow that features a slow and kind-of slick sound but is powered by Rod s vocals and Robertson s lyrics that opens up with Who else is gonna bring you a broken arrow/Who else is gonna bring you a bottle of wine/There he goes, moving across the water/There he goes, turning my whole world around . Rod sings the love ballad that features lyrics about the struggle of love and he feels alive when he sings it since he was in love with Rachel Hunter at that time. Next is an unneeded remake of the ballad Forever Young that he originally did in 1988 for the Out of Order album. The song does feature lyrics of youth and age in an innocent tone as he sings, May the good Lord be with you/Down every road you roam/And may sunshine and happiness/Surround you when you re far from home/And may you grow to be proud, dignified, and true/And do unto others as you d have done to you/Be courageous and be brave/And in my heart, you ll always stay/Forever young, forever young . The 1996 version is a soft, acoustic track that just slows the song down from its original tempo and actually ruins it. I would ve put the original version instead of this remake.
Finally, there s the god-awful power ballad from Robert Mutt Lange for the song All For Love which is sung by Stewart with Sting and Bryan Adams. The trio switch verses on the love ballad that was written for the 3 Musketeers movie with Kiefer Sullivan and Charlie Sheen that is filled with the typical power-ballad schlock of guitar power chords, slow-up tempo changes, and slick production. Stewart and Adams would be found guilty for singing such trite but Sting would kind of redeem himself a bit in the late 90s even though he sang a sung for P. Diddy.
If We Fall in Love Tonight is a decent best-of-love-ballads collection from Rod Stewart. While there are a nice handful of ballads from the 70s and a few from the 80s and 90s, the rest of the album is just adult contemporary crap. Of course, the old-school Stewart fan will wonder where s Maggie May ? and other stuff from the early 70s. Sadly, Rod Stewart s ballads album is merely nothing more in trying to capitalize on the success of Madonna s best-of-love-ballads collection Something to Remember which had more depth than Rod s. Since that release, Rod Stewart continues to make terrible music with his most recent album Human in 2001. It would be best if Rod Stewart should go to Austin, Texas to hang out with his old Faces keyboardist Ian McLaglan and kick out some tunes in a blues, acoustic style that made Rod Stewart so great. In the end, If We Fall in Love Tonight is just a ballads collection that will be enjoyable for the fans of adult contemporary but not for the true rock n rollers that Rod once was.
I ll Show You Mine, You Show Me Yours Write-Off participants besides me and my partner Aerocat:
Lambchops & Paulyoungotti
Jennjoy & Cletta1201
Freak 369 & KcFoxy
Kristinafh & our host, MattA75
For me, the best stuff Rod Stewart did in his entire career is from his days in the late 60s and early 70s. From his days with the Jeff Beck Group in the late 60s to the hard-partying sloppiness of the Faces in the early 70s with keyboardist Ian McLagan, bassist Ronnie Lane, future Rolling Stones guitarist Ron Wood, and future Who drummer Kenny Jones. Another thing that made Rod Stewart the great artist he was in the early and mid-70s were his many classic albums like Never a Dull Moment , Every Picture Tells a Story , Gasoline Alley , and Atlantic Crossing . Sadly, Rod The Mod ended up becoming a jet setter that is surrounded by blonde women and the glitz and glamour of Hollywood. By 1976 s A Night on the Town , he started to sing schlock like Tonight s The Night and since then destroyed himself with such atrocities like Hot Legs , Passion , and the god-awful disco hit Do Ya Think I m Sexy? that ruined his greatness.
Although he continued to have hits in the 80s and 90s, he still didn t really gain that greatness he once had in the early 70s. His music in the 80s and 90s were filled with a lot of slickness that was all over adult contemporary radio even though he brought some nice songs including a Tom Waits cover of Downtown Train and Tom Petty s Leave Virginia Alone . In 1996, Rod Stewart decided to release a best of ballads collection titled If We Fall in Love Tonight . If We Fall in Love Tonight is a fifteen-track collection of Rod Stewart s ballads from the 70s and 80s including a few new songs and covers from artists like Cat Stevens, Carole King Robbie Robertson of the Band, Leo Sayer, and Tom Waits. Although the album features some classic ballads from the 70s, the album also featured some well-known ballads that kept him vital in the 1980s and early 90s. Although the album is a record towards the adult contemporary audience was playing to during the mid-90s, the collection feels incomplete due to a number of classic ballads in the early 70s.
The first track off the album is the title track If We Fall In Love Tonight written and produced by famed-Janet Jackson producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. The song starts off with a lovely piano melody but is then ruined by its slick sound of slow 90s R&B rhythms of soft bass drum machine beats that accompany Rod s vocals which is still soulful but its slick production just ruins the track and it sounds like the same schlock that Rod has been doing for the past twenty years unfortunately. Janet Jackson could have easily had a hit with this track but not Rod The Mod . He s too talented to sing boring schlock, especially since the song is five minutes, which is a minute-and-a-half too long. The next song is the first of two songs produced by James Newton-Howard. For The First Time features a soft and slow piano and keyboard tracks along with soft percussion tracks accompany Rod s vocals that are pretty much a bore and sounds like the typical love ballad in a boring romantic comedy during the closing credits.
When I Need You is an old Leo Sayer cover that is produced by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis that is given a slick and smooth R&B makeover that I don t think is needed. Stewart brings in good vocals for the Sayer classic from the 70s but I prefer the Sayer version since I ve heard it several times from my parents. Sayer s version had a more raw feel as opposed to the slick sound that Rod s version was given and the gospel-like chorus in the end of the song was also not needed. The next cover is for the Carole King classic So Far Away that appeared in a tribute album to her masterpiece Tapestry . Produced by famed pop-schlock producer David Foster (the man behind some of the crap made by Celine Dion), the song opens up with a keyboard melody-accompanying Rod as he sings King s opening lyrics of So far away/Doesn t anybody stay in one place anymore/It will be so fine to see your face at my door . King s version was more intimate and had the feeling of King s vulnerability in the original song that is not featured in Stewart s version due to the over-production from Foster who brings in too many instruments like slow drums, guitar power chords, and chiming keyboards that just ruins the King classic. I d just stick to the original Tapestry album where I can actually Carole King s intimacy on that album.
The next cover on the album is a studio remix of the Van Morrison song Have I Told You Lately which Rod had a hit with back in 1993 when he performed it on MTV Unplugged that featured his old Faces guitarist Ron Wood. The unplugged version had a more intimate and soulful tone to the song especially when Rod got emotional during the latter part of the song as he was singing it to his wife at the time, model/actress Rachel Hunter. The studio version in this album just takes away the intimacy of the album and is replaced with a slick sound including a slow, electric guitar solo that is need along with Chic s Bernard Edwards production. I would ve replaced that version for the unplugged version since it was more emotionally driven and the listener actually feels Rod s pain when he sang the song. The next song that was also co-produced by Bernard Edwards along with former Duran Duran guitarist Andy Taylor is the song My Heart Can t Tell You No from his 1988 album Out of Order . Although the song features 80s drums and synthesizer tracks, the ballad is actually one of Rod s better songs from the 80s since it features nice melodic hooks that accompanies Rod s soulful vocals as he sings the songwriting team of Simon Climie and Dennis Morgan s lyrics of When the one you love s in love with someone else/Don t you know it s torture/I mean it s a living hell, a living hell that is one of the reason why this song actually stands up against most of his stuff in the 80s.
The next four ballads on the album are songs Rod did in the mid-1970s. First is the acoustic-love ballad to his Scottish football team (soccer for you Americans) You re In My Heart . The song starts off innocently as Rod sings the opening lyrics of I didn t know what day it was/When you walked into your room/I said hello unnoticed/You said goodbye too soon as he is then accompanied by a violin solo. As he continues singing softly, he then goes into pub-like chorus of You re in my heart, you re in my soul/You ll be my breath should I grow old/You are my lover, you re my best friend/You re in my soul which is a nice chorus to sing-a-long to while being drunk. Ask Mike Myers when he was in that movie So I Married An Axe Murderer as he played his main character s father as he sang that chorus drunk. Next is a cover of the Cat Stevens classic First Cut Is The Deepest that is basically an acoustic track that begins as Rod sings, I would have given you all of my heart/But there s someone who s torn it apart/And she s taken just all that I had/But if you want, I ll try to love again/Baby, I ll try to love again but I know . The song that is in a lovely acoustic-pop setting that is set in 70s pop structures is very well-done and remains faithful to the original Cat Stevens classic.
Next from his 1975 album Atlantic Crossing is the song I Don t Want To Talk About It is a slow, acoustic ballad that features a lovely acoustic guitar accompaniment along with a soft bass groove as Rod sings Danny Whitten s heart wrenching lyrics of I can tell by your eyes that you ve probably been crying forever/And the stars in the sky don t mean nothing to you, they re a mirror/I don t want to talk about it, how you broke my heart/If I stay here just a little bit longer/If I stay here, won t you listen to my heart, whoa heart . Rod brings in his soulful vocals to the song as if it s a blues song that features American 70s pop elements. The next song is a song I think people either love or hate. It s that awful schlock of Tonight s The Night that opens up with a nice country-like intro that then moves into this slow and awful schlock pop that was constant in the late 70s as Rod sings the love ballad that featured a line that made the song be banned by the BBC which was Spread your and let me come inside which then leads into its racy chorus of Tonight s the night/It s gonna be alright/Cause I love you girl/Ain t nobody gonna stop us now . At the end of the song, a woman talks in French saying the lyrics, which is really Rod s girlfriend at the time, Swedish actress Britt Ekland.
Next is the second James Newton-Howard production of an old Dan Hill song Sometimes When We Touch that features the same pop production that was in For The First Time but the tempo isn t as slow. The song does feature nice vocals from Rod but is mired by the production that features slick keyboards and rhythms that must ruins the Dan Hill song. Next is a cover of the Tom Waits classic Downtown Train that features the typical 80s production that was constant in Rod s 80s work but in this song, it actually works thanks to Rod s vocals and Waits songwriting structure. Rod sings Waits opening lyrics of Outside another yellow moon/Has punched a hole in the night time mist/I m climbing down to the window and down to the street/I m shining like a new dime/The downtown trains are full/full of all of them Brooklyn girls/They try so hard to break out of their little words . Rod continues singing Waits New York-filled lyrics that lead to its chorus of When I see you tonight/On a downtown train/Every night, every night, it s just the same/On a downtown train . Rod s version is one of his best-loved songs and it s one of my favorites but I prefer Waits version even though he doesn t have great vocals like Rod has.
The next cover is a Robbie Robertson song called Broken Arrow that features a slow and kind-of slick sound but is powered by Rod s vocals and Robertson s lyrics that opens up with Who else is gonna bring you a broken arrow/Who else is gonna bring you a bottle of wine/There he goes, moving across the water/There he goes, turning my whole world around . Rod sings the love ballad that features lyrics about the struggle of love and he feels alive when he sings it since he was in love with Rachel Hunter at that time. Next is an unneeded remake of the ballad Forever Young that he originally did in 1988 for the Out of Order album. The song does feature lyrics of youth and age in an innocent tone as he sings, May the good Lord be with you/Down every road you roam/And may sunshine and happiness/Surround you when you re far from home/And may you grow to be proud, dignified, and true/And do unto others as you d have done to you/Be courageous and be brave/And in my heart, you ll always stay/Forever young, forever young . The 1996 version is a soft, acoustic track that just slows the song down from its original tempo and actually ruins it. I would ve put the original version instead of this remake.
Finally, there s the god-awful power ballad from Robert Mutt Lange for the song All For Love which is sung by Stewart with Sting and Bryan Adams. The trio switch verses on the love ballad that was written for the 3 Musketeers movie with Kiefer Sullivan and Charlie Sheen that is filled with the typical power-ballad schlock of guitar power chords, slow-up tempo changes, and slick production. Stewart and Adams would be found guilty for singing such trite but Sting would kind of redeem himself a bit in the late 90s even though he sang a sung for P. Diddy.
If We Fall in Love Tonight is a decent best-of-love-ballads collection from Rod Stewart. While there are a nice handful of ballads from the 70s and a few from the 80s and 90s, the rest of the album is just adult contemporary crap. Of course, the old-school Stewart fan will wonder where s Maggie May ? and other stuff from the early 70s. Sadly, Rod Stewart s ballads album is merely nothing more in trying to capitalize on the success of Madonna s best-of-love-ballads collection Something to Remember which had more depth than Rod s. Since that release, Rod Stewart continues to make terrible music with his most recent album Human in 2001. It would be best if Rod Stewart should go to Austin, Texas to hang out with his old Faces keyboardist Ian McLaglan and kick out some tunes in a blues, acoustic style that made Rod Stewart so great. In the end, If We Fall in Love Tonight is just a ballads collection that will be enjoyable for the fans of adult contemporary but not for the true rock n rollers that Rod once was.
I ll Show You Mine, You Show Me Yours Write-Off participants besides me and my partner Aerocat:
Lambchops & Paulyoungotti
Jennjoy & Cletta1201
Freak 369 & KcFoxy
Kristinafh & our host, MattA75
Review ID: 10000000000250281
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