Rod Stewart - 'Tears of Hercules' Album Review
Known for his signature raspy voice, British singer-songwriter Rod Stewart performed in several U.K. bands in the 1960s. Embarking on a solo career, "Maggie May" became his first hit single in 1971. Moving to the United States in 1975, Stewart's hit songs included "Tonight's the Night" (1976) and "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?" (1978). He experienced a career lull during the 1980s and only had a few hits in the 1990s, but came back strong singing the classics in the 2000s, winning a Grammy Award for best traditional pop vocal album in 2004.
During the 1960s, Stewart was a part of several different bands. In 1966, he joined the blues-influenced Jeff Beck Group and experienced his first taste of success. The group toured the United Kingdom and the United States and released two hit albums. In 1969, he joined what became known as the Faces. Ron Wood was one of his bandmates and became a member of the Rolling Stones. Stewart also performed as a solo artist and scored his first big solo success with the album Every Picture Tells A Story, which featured the hit single "Maggie May" in 1971. That same year, the Faces had a hit with the song "Stay With Me."
In 2006, Stewart returned to rock music with Still The Same: Great Rock Classics of Our Time. The album reached the top of the pop charts in October of that year. Stewart put down the microphone and picked up a pen to write his 2012 memoir Rod: The Autobiography. The following year, he made an impressive return to songwriting with his album Time. Stewart co-wrote of many of the record's songs as well as serving as a co-producer on the project.
Stewart's thirty-second studio album, 'Tears of Hercules', was released on 12th November 2021.
Released as a single on 16th September 2021, the first track on the album is One More Time, and came with an accompanying video. It is fun and quite memorable, and I am particularly fond of the spoken parts of the song "the devil wears prada" despite not liking them when I first heard the song. They definitely grew on me.
The second song on the album, Gabriella, is almost annoyingly catchy! It is not so different to One More Time which is the previous song, however they somehow sound miles apart from each other. I admire Rod Stewart's ability to both make songs familiar whilst also making them individual and interesting. Gabriella, I think, is ruined slightly by Stewart's clear attempts to not get himself cancelled, which is unfortunately necessary. He is being careful within it not to raise any red flags, and I think that an element of his talent is lost because of this. Stewart has spoken many times about his negative views around cancel culture, including most recently earlier this month.
All My Days starts with Stewart describing a morning routine, something which instantly made me think of the famous McCartney part of 1967's A Day In The Life. The chorus is good and strikes me as quite easy to learn. It has a call/recall element to it, and for this reason I think it will be added to future live shows because it is a song that the audience can get involved in. Additionally, the song sounds quite familiar, but I can't place why. If I manage to find out, I will update this post.
The fourth song on the album was originally written by John Ellison, and recorded by his group Soul Brothers Six in 1967. It has a slightly glam-rock sound, however Stewart has definitely put a more modern spin it. I love this, and think that it is truly a mark of a talented artist who can adapt an old song to new sounds. The guitar solo in it is sick, and I also think would be fun to do live. I am excited to hopefully hear more from Rod Stewart with this kind of sound.
A tribute to Marc Bolan of T.Rex, who died in 1977, Born To Boogie features several mentions of works by the band, and a distinctly T.Rex guitar sound. It is clear from this song that Stewart clearly idolises the man so many years after his death, and it is a fitting tribute to one of the defining artists of the 70s.
The next song, Kookooaramabama is one that I felt was unnecessarily uncouth and rude. It talks of how good sex can be, and how much Stewart likes it. It is disturbingly catchy, which I put down to the ridiculous title. Rod Stewart is well known for putting sexual connotations into his songs - see his 1976 song, Tonight's The Night (Gonna Be Alright) - but this song is taking the cake a bit - especially for somebody who has seen the better side of 70 years. There is nothing cute, or even remotely sexy, about a septuagenarian singing about sex, no matter whether he was a sex idol in his younger years or not.
Written for wife Penny Lancaster, I Can't Imagine is a very romantic, very beautiful that is in stark contrast to the previous track. It is, in my opinion, what everybody wants to hear from their partner. Stewart doesn't write many of his songs and never has - or if he does, it is usually a work between him and somebody else - but the ones that he does write are individual, and special and always have a distinct sound to them.
The titular song of the album, The Tears Of Hercules originally featured on Canadian singer-songwriter Marc Jordan's 2004 album, Make Believe Ballroom. It was written by Jordan and composer Stephan Moccio. The piano throughout is simply beautiful, and sounds almost like a lullaby, and Stewart's voice is perfectly suited to singing it. He does slow songs well - one need only look back to 1975's Sailing, or 1977's You're In My Heart (The Final Acclaim) for two of the best examples.
Hold On is perfect. It encourages strength and love in the face of racism, and to be thankful for what you have been given instead of wanting more than you've got, and I think it sounds quite a lot like the slow side of Stewart's 1975 'Atlantic Crossing' album - in particular, Sailing, the video for which can be seen below. The lyrics are questions from one of music's best - somebody who has truly been through it all and lived through things that some of us can only imagine. Hold On is tantalisingly moreish, slow and simple. The simplicity of the song works in its favour - and the beautiful backing vocals on the track blend brilliantly with the guitar melody which I can't get out of my head. In truth, I am in love with this song, and itching to hear the rest of 'The Tears Of Hercules'.
Precious Memories gives me Blue Moon (1956, Elvis Presley) vibes. It is a sweet song, almost too sweet, and references the music of George Michael by the artist's name several times. It is not clear from this song whether Stewart is a fan of George Michael (of Wham! fame). The vocals are amazing, and definitely some of the more impressive on the album.
Originally a song by Johnny Cash, These Are My People is the second-to-last song on Tears Of Hercules, and upon the first lesson, I was sure that it was a song for Scotland by Stewart; however it was only with further research that I learned it was a Johnny Cash song first. Overall, These Are My People is a sweet little ditty, but I don't think there is much to it. It is simple, but not to its detriment.
The final song on Tears Of Hercules is entitled Touchline, and I think is a song for those who have relied on their fathers and have had to say goodbye to them. There are also a lot of football anecdotes and puns in it, which make sense as Rod Stewart is a massive football fan, having supported the Scottish team 'Celtic United' since he was a child. He has an almost full size football pitch in the grounds of his Essex mansion. It is a heart wrenching song, and one that I struggled to listen to more than once because of the loss of my own father in 2013. Again, Stewart's vocals are perfect for the song because he has such a distinct, prepossessing sound.
The album is not as good as previous albums, but no one can still be accepted to be turning out albums that consistently consist of bangers when they've released over thirty, can they? Nevertheless, this is one of his better more recent albums. It is sweet - almost saccharinely so - and packed with fairly catchy songs. I like it, though I will admit that I wouldn't have bothered to buy a physical copy of it if I hadn't been promised pre-release ticket codes.