Meat Loaf "Objects In The Review Mirror Maxi Single": Why Bother?
Written: Aug 26 '08 (Updated Aug 26 '08)
Product Rating:
Pros: Roll Over Beethoven
Cons: Being live kills those songs, poor production on the others.
The Bottom Line: There is just no reason to purchase this CD. If you like these songs or interested in them, Get the Bat Out Of Hell II album and enjoy.
Pandemonium's Full Review: Objects in the Rear View Mirror [Maxi Single] by M...
To start off with, I have never been a huge fan of Meat Loaf but, he has released some songs that I have really liked. Of course releasing as many songs during his career, before and after "retirement", you are going to have at least some songs that will appeal to different audiences. He has always been one of those singers that I just couldn't get myself to buy an entire album just for a few, or even a couple, songs that I liked. I happen to just come by this one day just browsing around in a music store. The CD cover is what caught my eye and stood out making me pick it up and look at the songs. I definitely recognized each of the songs on this Maxi Single but, was a little shy that they were live or acoustic versions of them. I have never been a fan of songs recorded live as they take a lot out of the music so you can hear the singers voice and am picky of acoustic versions. Still, I thought this was a solution to getting some songs I like from him without having the entire album they are on. Needless to say, I gave it a shot and thought I would get some songs that I do like from Meat Loaf rolled up into a nice little CD. What I got was a "just average" remake of some really good songs and unfortunately it was not worth the purchase.
Since there is no picture here at Epinions for this album I will try to at least explain why it caught my eye while browsing through. The name Meat Loaf is at the bottom left corner with the song title Objects In The Rear View Mirror May Appear Closer Than They Are right above it. I didn't even see this as other albums were in front of it. What caught my eyes was, on the right side of the cover is a man dressed in a robe with the hood covering his eyes. He is holding open the robe showing his rib cage and nothing more. The his right is a broken window with a demon sort of "peaking" in. The window is encased in brick and seems to be hovering in mid-air over a graveyard feel to the background. He has always made some interesting looking CD covers, and this is no accept ion.
The Music 1) The CD starts off with Objects In The Rear View Mirror May Appear Closer Than They Are which is a very haunting song. The lyrics are extremely strong and talk about one's life in a long seven minutes and thirty-eight second song. It talks and explains memories of his life as he looses his best friend at a young age, how is father's abuse affected him, and a long lost love that still haunts him to this day. This is done in three separate and strong verses. The song starts with some nice soft guitar and some soft background humming. Meat Loaf joins in and starts to explain about the pain and anguish of his past with the quick story about loosing his best friend and how close they were. Toward the end of the verse there are some drums that enter and get more intense as Meat Loaf finish the verse. The chorus consists of just Meat Loaf and the soft piano once again. In between the chorus and the next verse the piano gets stronger and the drums play a nice strong beat. As quick as that started it ends and the second verse begins. This one has a little background humming once again that is nice and fits the music well. The music in both verses is consistent and mainly the same and on through the second chorus. Before the last verse there is a small guitar solo that is accompanied with more background voices and strong beat. The song itself is played really nice and relaxing and you will catch yourself singing along with the choruses for sure. It's just hard to sing along with the verses and each are extremely sad and I'm sure would bring back really bad memories for others as well that they may not want to think about. This is a song that should come with a warning label "Don't listen if this has ever happened to you". Still, a nice song if you look past the haunting lyrics. There is just enough change from the original to make this just not sound right. It is a very popular song by him and it should never have been touched as far as I am concerned.
2) Off to the second song written by Chuck Berry in Roll Over Beethoven (Live). This was the only song really worth the purchase of the album to me. If this song is on a different album I do not know which one it is. I even looked and couldn't find it on any other album. This one is much faster and starts with the classic guitar sound of Chuck Berry. Also, some extremely fast piano play and fast beat that is very catchy. I don't think you can have a bigger change in music between the first two songs on this CD but, that is Meat Loaf for you. After the first verse that Meat Loaf sings faster than most of his songs, it goes into a nice fast piano solo. The piano fades away and a ripping guitar solo comes in with a strong base that keeps your head swaying back and forth. A second electric guitar comes in and plays a solo then it goes back to the first as if they were battling each other. The solo with Piano then the two separate guitars is unique and really makes this song stand out. Then some quick singing comes back in from Meat Loaf. This is a very fast a couple of lyrics then the song repeats "Roll Over Beethoven". A quick drum solo plays out the rest then it's Meat Loaf thanking everyone and reminding them to "Never stop rockin". The only downfall to this song is that it was recorded live. It really takes a lot of the strength out of this fast pace song and that is to bad. This is a prime example of why I don't like life recordings. Still, this song is what made my rating two stars instead of one and I would have given this song five stars itself it wasn't live.
3) The third song is another one that I have always liked called Rock And Roll Dreams Come Through (Live). Again, unfortunately it is live as well. Still being a good song it does play pretty well but, has that "live" echo and the music just doesn't have that strong sound as it should. The lyrics in this song are great as he explains how to mend a broken heart. This is a slow song that has a very catchy rhythm to it. There is some uniqueness to it though and it is not just a typical heartbreaking song if you really listen to the lyrics. It starts out with the crowd cheering then some nice female background humming like in the previous song. With a very soft tapping beat as Meat Loaf begins and goes through the heart filled verse. As the chorus begins Meat Loaf's voice gets stronger and the background singing comes back and sounds great. Then following the chorus is a pretty solid guitar solo after the song slows down a bit. The second verse is much like the first but, shorter and stronger meaning lyrics. Then the song repeats itself with the background vocals singing "The beat is yours forever, that's when rock and roll dreams come through". Just as you think the song is winding down the guitar comes back for another nice strong solo followed by a pretty fast guitar play that fits well with Meat Loaf's voice. This is probably one of my, if not the, favorite song by him as he really gets into and shows off that he does have a good voice. The only downfall is that, with being live, the beat is really hard to hear in some parts and gets very over shadowed by the guitar play. This is also true for some of the background vocals which really is to bad because this song supports some excellent singing.
4) The CD finish off with another version of Objects In The Rear View Mirror May Appear Closer Than They Are acoustic style. There really is not much of a difference between the the two songs on this CD except this one sounds much better. If you play one and then the other version, there is a huge difference in recording and presentation. As for the actual song there is not really much difference except for this being a much shorter version. Some of the, in between, verses and choruses are shorter and then end is just a soft fade away of Meat Loaf and the background vocals. Then some nice piano work with just him. I think I would have been happier with just this version on the album then the stretched out first song. Still, your much better off just hearing the original as it is the true song.
Conclusion
In all, this "Maxi Single" is not worth picking up. You are much better off just getting the entire album to listen to these songs. The remakes and the love versions are not good enough to warrant a purchase and take away to much of the original music. I would not recommend picking this up unless you were a huge fan of the CD title song "Objects In The Rear View Mirror" and wanted to hear a different versions of it. There is really nothing that stands out at you here and the CD is more money now than it was when I purchased it years ago. After hearing it, I can't imagine telling anyone that this is worth picking up and let my mistake save you the money if you are thinking about purchasing this CD.
Thank you for reading.
*Quick Note
You can find the original versions of "Objects In The Rear View Mirror May Appear Closer Than They Are" And "Rock And Roll Dreams Come Through" on the Meat Loaf album Bat Out Of Hell II: Back Into Hell.
Band: Meat Loaf
Album: Objects In The Rear View Mirror (Maxi Single)
Genres I would place this in: Rock, Soft Rock, Classic Rock, Pop.
Released: 1994
Written, Arranged, and Produced by Jim Steinman
Associated Producer: Steven Rinkoff
Mixed: David Thoener
Tracks, Time, My Rating:
1: Objects In The Rear View Mirror May Appear Closer Than They Are (Wild Car) (7:38) ***
2: Roll Over Beethoven (Live) (5:50) ****
3: Rock And Roll Dreams Come Through (Live) (6:32) **
4: Objects In The Rear View Mirror May Appear Closer Than They Are (Acoustic Version) (5:52) **
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