when you hold the cover up to a mirror) if you can't flash some roots and crank up the homage? The best bullets here are like excerpts from a fantasy mix tape of classic glam and garage rock. "Shallow" starts with Adams playing a near-twin of the chicken-peck guitar riff in T. Rex's "Bang a Gong (Get It On)." "1974" is a glitter-y goose step, the Rolling Stones' "If You Can't Rock Me" in Kiss makeup. And in the quick, raw "Note to Self: Don't Die," Adams pins Nirvana-style verses to a chorus that shakes like his friend Jesse Malin's old band, mascara punks D Generation. In one way,
Rock N Roll reeks of rush job. Adams hustled this record to life after scrapping his original "next" LP,
Love Is Hell, and there are loose threads hanging everywhere: daffy metaphors, the sheer laziness of a line such as "It's all a bunch of shit" ("Wish You Were Here"). But Adams has never let good grammar get in the way of a better song, and here he is obsessively focused on things that truly matter: his favorite bands, killer hooks, the meaty, rude guitars he plays all over the place.
Rock N Roll is exactly what he says it is. Dance with confidence.
DAVID FRICKE
(RS 935, November 13, 2003)
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