MEAT LOAF – Couldn’t Have Said It Better

Guess you know what to expect when there’s a new Meat Loaf album roaming the racks of your local music dealer?

Dramatic vocals, repetitive title lyrics and long, drawn out songs. Oh, and large dose of pomposity. Crazy thing about it all is that the guy has been hitting the jackpot on several occasions, and have sold millions of records. Helped by his preferred partner in crime: Jim Steinman, the music they’ve made together has been spectacularly successful. Actually, some professor claims that if you DON’T like Bat out of hell, you’re crazy! Meat Loaf’s problem has been the lack of interest he gets whenever Jim Steinman has not been on his records.

This album does not contain one Steinman song, but Meat tries the trusted formula once again. Couldn’t Have Said It Better contains several songs written by Nikki Sixx (Mötley Crüe) and other songwriters, and it’s obvious they’re trying to copy Steinman. Both the song structures, lyrical content and arrangements, are sounding almost like Steinman, but only almost. They lack that little twist that only Steinman can muster up. Still, Meat Loaf gives his all. Title song and the first single are quite catchy, and have received a lot of airplay. It’ll be interesting to see if this record can still be a big seller. So far, it seems like it’s only the hardcore Meat Loaf fans that are picking up his latest offering. The album is littered with songs that are only ok. “Testify,” “Tear me down” and the title track are the best of the bunch, but this is not an album that’ll occupy much time on my stereo. Let’s hope Dylan won’t hear Meat’s version of “Forever Young”…

Better wait for that next album. With songs written by Jim Steinman.

Highlights: Couldn’t have said it better, Testify and Tear me down