Life, Love & Hope
| Life, Love & Hope | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
||||
| Studio album by Boston | ||||
| Released | December 3, 2013 | |||
| Recorded | 2003–2013 | |||
| Genre | Hard rock | |||
| Length | 42:52 | |||
| Label | Frontiers Records | |||
| Producer | Tom Scholz | |||
| Boston chronology | ||||
|
||||
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Aggregate scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | 47/100 |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |    |
| Classic Rock |   |
Life, Love & Hope is the sixth studio album by American rock band Boston. It was released on December 3, 2013 by Frontiers Records, making it their first studio album in eleven years. It is the first album released following the death of Brad Delp. Delp recorded vocals on the songs "Didn't Mean to Fall in Love", "Sail Away", "Someone", and "Te Quiero Mia", the last of which being a re-arrangement of "I Had a Good Time", from Corporate America.
Life, Love & Hope follows up the band's 2002 release, Corporate America. Tom Scholz produced Life, Love & Hope and wrote all of the tracks. Kimberley Dahme makes a vocal performance on several songs as well as the late Brad Delp (who performs on the new song "Sail Away" as well as rearranged songs from "Corporate America"). This album also features new vocalists such as David Victor, Louis St. August, Tommy DeCarlo, and Jude Nejmanowski. It is also the first Boston album to feature Tom Scholz on a lead vocal ("Love Got Away").
Matt Wardlaw of Ultimate Classic Rock says "‘Life, Love & Hope’ carries remnants of those early days in its sound — which is unmistakable from the moment the soaring harmonies kick in on ‘Heaven on Earth,’ the album’s opening track and lead single. It provides a vintage moment on an album that otherwise contains quite a bit of exploration, both musically and sonically — something that we’ve come to expect from Scholz when he’s working in the backroom on new Boston music."
Life, Love & Hope received 47 out of 100 from Metacritic. It earned 2.5 stars from AllMusic's reviewers and 3.5 stars from the AllMusic users. AllMusic reviewer Tim Sendra added, "David Victor, sounds a lot like Delp and does a fine job filling his shoes on the album's best song, Heaven on Earth". Matthew Wilkening from Ultimate Classic Rock called it "a rather frustrating, confusing affair", continuing on to say that "Heaven on Earth" had "a perfectly infectious chorus and that famous Tom Scholz guitar tone."Rolling Stone writer Chuck Eddy said "Everywhere, Tom Scholz fine-tunes the angelic-choir harmonies and aerosol-guitar crescendos until they're spotlessly, unmistakably Bostonlike". Life, Love & Hope received 2.5 stars from the Rolling Stone reviewers and 3 stars from their users.
...
Wikipedia