Search - Chris Rea :: Road to Hell

Blues Rock Worth The Purchase !

Bill Appel | Virginia USA | 05/01/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"With his Mark Knophler style smoky baritone voice with a cool, mellow delivery, Chris Rea puts together a dark semi-concept album with "The Road To Hell" that flows very smoothly with some of his best material of his career. Hard to believe this is the same artist that did the 1978 hit "Fool (If You Think It's Over)" as most of his career has taken place in the U.K. with very little exposure here in the U.S. Rea's tight band cooks very well with a bluesy assault throughout "The Road To Hell". Though each song is enjoyable with the usual Rea wistful sentimentality, one song that stands out for all-time for me is the fantastic, smooth "Texas". This classic track starts out with Rea's mellow voice and dialog accompanied with a very enjoyable, keen vibe-keyboard rhythm groove backdrop as he "talks" to his wife to consider moving the family to Texas. The song eventually smoothly energizes with a tight Joe Walsh-like sounding/style bluesy guitar that again flows so smooth and is absolutely awesome. The state of Texas should be proud of "Texas"!!! You will enjoy this album!!!"

Better than any of the 'BEST OF' Chris Rea CD's

russell r whiting | JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA United States | 06/13/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I have been a CR fan for quite a few years. However, I found that many of his earlier works seemed to lack continuity. Even the so called 'BEST OF' compilations did not do much for me. This, however, could easily be described as a true best of CD. Every song is tight, and the songs all seem to flow into each other. I have played this CD over and over, since receiving it. 'Road To Hell' will be in my rotation for a long, long time to come. Attaboy Chris!!!"

Solid blues-rock

J. Houzet | Chicago, IL | 02/19/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I'm glad someone pointed out that this is a concept album with all the songs integrated as part of the same story. I hadn't really thought about that before. I know this was a darker Chris Rea album, especially after the celebratory Dancing With Strangers. But I enjoyed the difference. There is still a lot of musical diversity on this album, which was to be diminished with later, more heavily blues albums.
From the moody intro and brooding blues-rock of the title track, to the gentle appeal for a brighter day (Tell Me There's a Heaven), this is a strong, musically infectious album. In fact, both the opening and closing songs were included on Rea's "Best of," but there were other singles from Road inexplicably left off greatest hits compilations. Both Daytona and That's What They Always Say were released as singles in South Africa with some success."