Corporate America

Boston's first album of all-new material in 8 years, Corporate America has been described by Tom Scholz as 'a marriage of alternative influence with unmistakable, classic Boston style.' It features founding guitarist, keyboard player, songwriter, engineer, & producer Tom Scholz collaborating with original vocalist Brad Delp. They are joined by guitarist Gary Pihl (with Boston since 1986's Third Stage), & Fran Cosmo who contributed guitar & vocals (also with the band since Walk On in 1994). Newcomers to the line-up include his son Anthony Cosmo (guitar & songwriting) & Kimberley Dahme (bass, acoustic guitar, vocals & songwriting). Artemis Records. 2002.

There's something very curious about Boston's fifth album--and the road the band has traveled from arena-rock heights to its current less-than-lofty status. Here, after all, is a band--really, guitarist-studio wunderkind Tom Scholz and company--that emerged from nowhere and set sales records with their 1976 self-titled debut. Since then, Boston's profile has shrunk with each successive, widely spaced release. Their first indie release may not be causing much of a stir, but it's a strange creation from Scholz and his crew, which includes Brad Delp, the voice behind "More Than a Feeling" and "Don't Look Back." Like the Boston of the '70s, this unit creates polished, epic-scaled rock. Scholz's inimitable icy, soaring leads and polished production (call it heavy steel) remain in the fore. But Scholz has a pretty serious agenda here. The CD jacket champions a vegetarian diet, animal rights, and environmentalism, while the title track is a screed against modern living, business misdeeds, and, well, "DVDs, SUVs, and cyberspace." Who'd have thought Boston would pick up the banner of Rage Against the Machine? --Steven Stolder