In keeping with youthful appearances, Rick Springfield has delivered on this album – a well overdue return to the sound of short and snappy early 80’s pop rock.
Written by: gdmonline
ARTIST: Rick Springfield
ALBUM: Automatic
LABEL: SongVest Records
SERIAL: SVR21
YEAR: 2023
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: USA
LINEUP: Rick Springfield – lead and backing vocals, guitars, keyboards
TRACK LISTING: 01 Exit Wound * 02 She Walks With The Angels * 03 Automatic * 04 This Town * 05 Love Ain’t Cool * 06 Come Said The Girl * 07 Broke House * 08 When God Forgets My Name * 09 Heroes * 10 Works For Me * 11 Fake It Til You Make It * 12 The Cure For Loneliness * 13 Invisible World * 14 Make Your Move * 15 In Case Of Fire Break Glass * 16 Did I Just Say That Out Loud? * 17 Someday I Will Fly * 18 Neutron Star * 19 Feed Your Soul * 20 We Are Enternal
RATING: 80/100
WEBLINKS: Site Link
Background
Rick Springfield the renowned pop rocker and actor has been in the public eye for decades now. Rick turned 74 back on 23rd August, and truth be told, he does not look his age. Congratulations to him for looking so great. He’s an inspiration to all of us menfolk that look positively elderly beyond the age of 50, lol.
In keeping with youthful appearances, Rick Springfield has delivered on this album – a well overdue return to the sound of short and snappy early 80’s pop rock. It’s comparable to much of his music between 1980 and 1985. All of the songs are timed at the 2 to 3 minute mark, so much so that the shorter run time of each song results in more of them – a whopping 20 if you please!
The Songs
Because there are so many tracks, I’m not going to write about each of them, just those that caught my attention. To start, Rick played nearly all the instruments himself, apart from bass and horns. As a fan of the late 70’s punk scene, he attributes some of that punk energy into some of these new songs.
He also mentioned that he wanted to keep a high level of energy permeating through the songs, which resulted in minimal gap space between songs – more like an instant segue from one to the next. Some interludes were added on occasion. Mostly though it’s energetic 80’s powered pop rock with the odd ballad here an there.
This energy you can hear as soon as the opening track ‘Exit Wound’, spaced with acoustic intros and verses, interesting effects plus vocal woah woah’s. The same approach applies to the title track ‘Automatic’. ‘This Town’ is a brief melodic excursion, while ‘Come Said The Girl’ borrows heavily from the 1985 hit ‘Walking On Sunshine’ made popular by Katrina And The Waves.
For something different, Rick tosses in reggae flavours on ‘When God Forgets Your Name’, whereas ‘Heroes’ is an unashamed foot stomper from the long forgotten 70’s glam scene. ‘Invisible World’ was a melodic affair played with modern elements. ‘Did I Just Say That Out Loud’ is another modern outing with trance like synths and busy vocals. The synth overload is heard once more on ‘Neutron Star’.
In Summary
With ‘Automatic’ you certainly get value for money. Not only this album, but some of his earlier material too, reissued in recent times including ‘Working Class Dog’ and an overdue digital recording of the unreleased ‘Springfield’ album from 1974, first mentioned in our Forum several months ago. Both issued last year (2022). Check out the YouTube Music link immediately below and take a listen to ‘Automatic’.
Rick Springfield on Video
Click to go to YTM album page.
