Meat Loaf - Hell In A Handbasket on CD

Description

Meat Loaf describes Hell In A Handbasket as "the most personal record I've ever made. It's about how I feel the world's gone to hell in a handbasket. It's really the first record that I've ever put out about how I feel about life and how I feel about what's going on at the moment." Produced by Paul Crook, Hell In A Handbasket once again features some interesting collaborations and special guests. Public Enemy’s Chuck D contributes an original rap mixed into a cover of Tom Cochran’s "Mad Mad World". Entitled "The Good God’s a Woman And She Don’t Like Ugly", it’s every bit as interesting as the titles alludes to. Meat Loaf said, “Chuck D is the rapper’s rapper. He is the original, and every rapper that has come after him wants to be like him. For us to have him on this record is a major coup and I am so impressed with what he wrote!” Lil Jon, another well-known rap artist who appeared in Celebrity Apprentice alongside Meat Loaf, appears on "Stand In the Storm", and no album would be complete without long time duet partner Patti Russo who features on two songs: "Our Love And Our Souls" and a version of The Mammas and The Pappas classic "California Dreamin". Review If we are to assume that Meat Loaf, who doesn't author his own material, has some influence over the conceptual weave of his albums, then we must also assume that his writers were commissioned to write songs reflecting not only his personal malaise, but also his anger at the madness of the modern world. However, this being Loaf – a born entertainer if ever there was one – any ostensibly serious intent is compromised by his unwillingness to nail his colours to the mast. You don't want to alienate your fans, after all. So all he's prepared to communicate is a sort of non-specific rage couched in generic metaphors about rainstorms, making him sound less like an apocalyptic preacher and more like a weatherman having a mental breakdown. "These are my emotions," he thunders on All of Me, as if daring us to believe otherwise. While it's silly to get hung up on notions of integrity when dealing with Loaf – he is, after all, a distinctive interpreter who treats every song as though it's an epic mini-movie – it's simply not good enough to splutter "I cannot believe this stuff!" without bothering to explain what said stuff actually is. Since his musical evolution, such as it is, stopped circa 1989, when fist-clenching stadium rock ruled supreme, perhaps he's still hacked off about the Iran/Contra crisis. It's impossible to tell. Even a cameo from Chuck D – yes, really – fails to elucidate. Sonically, Loaf's latest largely ignores the faux-operatic power ballads for which he's best known in favour of bombastic rockers with ready-made choruses. But aside from the inherently – albeit fleetingly – amusing nature of its trademark excess, overall it lacks that knowing sense of humour which characterises his best work. Maybe the continuing absence of his erstwhile mentor, Jim Steinman, is to blame. Unconvincing and overbearing, it's like being ambushed by the cast of a Broadway rock musical. A Broadway rock musical with a sort of, y'know, political message. And stuff. --Paul Whitelaw Find more music at the BBC This link will take you off Amazon in a new window