Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10
Looking forward it always seems perfectly sensible to Shine A Light into the darkness, into the unexpected and day to day unknown, the challenging, often energy draining, action comes with taking that light and looking at where you have been, behind you, into the past where such regrets and missed opportunities come back to not only haunt you but to make you feel conspicuous as to your mind set in the present day.
Shine a light into the past and you also find solace, it is not all gloom, there is reflection, there is hopefully love and honour, and time, time in which the past heals, is made absolute and in which the act of shining a light upon it exposes all, the fear and the hope to resolution.
It is an act of love into which Bryan Adams returns with his latest album, Shine A Light, more than a one-night love affair, it is the culmination of a journey in which we all must endure but how we look back at the life we once had, the support, or lack of it, is how we approach the future.
There is always something of the gentleman about Mr. Adams, a mirror held up to a society that has changed dramatically since he first burst onto the scene, since that heady time in which he duetted and rocked out with Tina Turner, since the chart-topping record of Everything I Do (I Do It For You), that mirror perhaps has had to be strong, resolute, in the fashion of ever-changing opinions and social expectations, to be honest to your own ideal is honourable.
It is therefore understandable that the album should lead in with a love song, but one also that honours a memory, that remembers parents with grace, Shine A Light does that beautifully and with a slight change on the timbre of the voice which is endearing. Across other songs such as Part Friday Night, Part Sunday Morning, All Or Nothing, Nobody’s Girl and the surprising reading of the traditional Whiskey In The Jar, Bryan Adams returns to the album arena with joy, with a sense of beginning again attached firmly to his rock arrow.
To Shine A Light out into the open and hope that it seen as a guide and a call to the faithful to resume their own journey alongside the artist is to be part of something special, a tough time overcome, and one that always seems to be creatively poised when Bryan Adams is in town.
Ian D. Hall