Rod Stewart -- Still the Same...Great Rock Classics Of Our Time CD review

It's great to see Rod finally leave The Great American Songbook behind and return to rock, but he brings absolutely zero passion or craft to these remakes, and the natural beauty of his old voice remains severely compromised, causing one to wonder exactly to whom this album could possibly be marketed.

Rock critics have been accusing Rod the Mod of selling his beautiful Americana soul for trashy glitz at least since he moved to the Atlantic label in 1975; country boy goes city and all that. But his muse never really left him -- it was just on a long leash, ready to snap back the minute he was sufficiently inspired (think "Downtown Train," "People Get Ready," "I Was Only Joking," or any Dylan song). If you really want to document the minute the Old Rod gave out entirely, however, just pick up this 13-track wonder, which has Stewart glossing over glorified MIDI tracks that are supposed to represent '70s rock-ballad classics. When one of rock's greatest interpretive voices can't be bothered to filter a song through his own personality, he may as well be doing karaoke -- and this even extends to cuts like John Waite's "Missing You" and Bonnie Tyler's "It's a Heartache," smashes which leaned heavily on Rod's laurels in the first place. Stewart merely trudges through, replicating each song faithfully, his voice still a mere wheeze of what it once was, yet you can't help but feel that it's not technical concerns which keep him from putting his own stamp on quiet yet emotionally rich works like Cat Stevens' "Father and Son," the Eagles' "Best Of My Love," and the title track. A Rod Stewart without a voice or a personality is hardly a Rod Stewart at all, which may explain why TC commercials for the album resemble nothing so much as Zamfir or Anne Murray's ads. Sad.