Roll With The Punches

Tracks: Roll With The Punches; Make Up Your Mind; Never Ever Let You Go; A Little More Understanding; Life Is Beautiful; Love Is Stronger Than The Hate; How's That Workin' For Ya; Two Arms To Hold; Be The Reason; Will We Ever Be Friends Again

Label: Bad

Bryan Adams is the 48th best-selling artist of all time, with over 20 Juno Awards, alongside a Grammy Award for Best Song Written for Visual Media. On top of that, he has been nominated for five Golden Globe Awards and three Academy Awards for his songwriting for films. He's on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Canada's Walk of Fame, the Canadian Broadcast Hall of Fame, the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame. Suffice to say, he is one hugely successful recording artist, and, despite that accolade-fuelled introduction, he is also an artist that we all already know and who needs no introduction. Having spent the year so far performing numerous shows and releasing a string of striking singles, he is finally ready to unveil his sixteenth studio album – Roll With The Punches.

As an artist, Adams has found his sound, and while he has occasionally veered away from expectation, he is aware of what his audience wants and what they love. Roll With The Punches is an album that fits within these walls and excels in delivering what his audience is hungry for.

Adams is at his best when he delivers rock-leaning anthems with a pop radio sensibility. Subtle hooks and prime singability are his essential ingredients, and these are very present throughout the ten tracks that form this body of work.

With his voice still in very fine form, he wears his heart on his sleeve but is never fully revelatory in a set of songs that's easily relatable to his listenership, allowing his story to be told but for it to easily be bent into an interpretation related to their own experience.

While the former single, A Little More Understanding, is destined to be the big hit from the release, the other key moments are Life Is Beautiful and Be The Reason, both of which are destined to become firm fan favourites.

Roll With The Punches is not an artist trying to be something they are not. Adams is comfortable in his sound, and he knows how to deliver a quality album that has no skip-ahead moments without losing himself in trying to keep up with the Joneses.