You can be forgiven for not realizing that Walk On, Boston's 4th album released in 1994, even existed. After taking a 'short' 2 and a half years to follow up Boston's mega-selling classic debut album with the almost as fine Don't Look Back, Scholz vowed to create future albums 'his way'. Unfortunatley, 'his way' means 'All you fans are going to be waiting a LONG FREAKIN TIME'.

Third Stage came out in 1986 and charted 3 singles, one of which hit #1 (Amanda). Boston's 4th album, Walk On, would take even longer to complete, a full 8 years, and by that time Tom Scholz, guitarist, keyboardist, and producer, was the only man left from the original lineup, even golden-voiced vocalist Brad Delp lost paitence.

Add all of these factors up with the year of Walk On's release (1994) and you get an album that is totally ignored. It's also popularly viewed as Boston's worst album. To me, it's hard to say, but I'll discuss that later.

Walk On immediatley sets it's tone with the opening song, the downright perfect 'I Need Your Love', a song that could've easily held it's own on Boston's first 2 albums. Instead of the soft acoustic ballad that opened Third Stage (Amanda), this song kicks off with a crescendoing organ and a burst of harmonized guitar soloing that merges seamlessley as only Tom Scholz can do. New lead vocalist Fran Cosmo proves more than up to the task of following in Brad Delp's footsteps, actually going quite a bit higher at times than Delp usually did. Vocals, no problem. The only problem is that Fran Cosmo is undermixed, and at times, blended with backup vocalist David Sikes (who has a rough, lower-register voice) so it gives off the impression that Scholz is almost trying to duplicate Delp's voice artifically, instead of moving on.

I stated that 'I Need Your Love' sets the album's tone much the same way that 'Amanda' set Third Stage's tone. But these albums are quite different, 'Amanda' set the stage for an album full of softer, introspective ballads, and 'I Need Your Love' delievers foresight into an album full of driving, up-beat rock that tries it's darndest to be reminiscent of Boston's first 2 albums. The closest it comes (and in my mind, it succeeds) is the album's mid-section, the 'Walk On Medley', which starts off with a 2-minute guitar wankfest courtesy of Scholz, who pulls off a mean Eddie Van Halen imitaton. This instrumental segues into the proper 'Walk On' song, a great, driving guitar-boogie fest with some stellar singing and an ultra-catchy chorus. The song 'Walk On' is split into 2 parts by a simply amazing instrumental section called 'Get Organized' featuring, you guessed it, Tom Scholz's weapon of choice, the old-school Hammond B3 Organ. 'Get Organized' starts off with Scholz soloing on the organ, and then it slows down into an anthemic, pounding crescendo that is almost reminiscent of Pink Floyd's 'Great Gig in the Sky' from Dark Side of the Moon, and then it goes right back into the 'Walk On' song.

This medley, taken in it's entirety, is easily a highlight of Boston's career, right up there with 'A Man I'll Never Be' from 'Don't Look Back' and 'More than a Feeling' which needs no introduction.

As for the rest of the album, it doesn't deviate from course much, the only 'real' ballad is 'Living For You', which is a very good song and the only one off of this album to garner any remote hint of radio airplay. Fran Cosmo drops all pretensions of sounding like Brad Delp and sings in his high-register rasp and really works this song well. The guitar breaks are reminiscent of the aforementioned 'A Man I'll Never Be'.

'Surrender to Me', the album's second song, is another hard-rocker on the lines of 'I Need Your Love', with a bit more edge to it (well, all the edge that Scholz's ultra-clean production will allow, anyway), and the chorus is EXTREMELY reminiscent of the verse for 'Amanda' in melody and progression, but it's a fine song, only marred by a very strange, thudding synth pulse throughout the song.

The album isn't quite as consistent from there, the final 3 songs aren't quite as good as the first 3 and the Walk On Medley. 'What's Your Name' is unremarkable at best, a midtempo poppy number with an extremely cheesy lyric. Another 'female' song in the tradition of 'Amanda' and 'Hollyann' from Third Stage follows, 'Magdeline'. The album closer, 'We Can Make It' does close Walk On with a high note, though. Featuring a catchy chorus and handclaps straight from the days of 'Long Time', 'We Can Make It' rounds this album out into consistency.

The problems with Walk On are few, but they do their share in marring it. The drums are totally mechanized, which is sad, because one of the best parts of the early Boston sound was the drumming of Sib Hashian. A drum machine just doesn't do these songs justice and makes them sound very out of time. Also, the vocals are undermixed and blended, as stated before, to give one the impression that Tom Scholz is trying to fool you into not noticing that Brad Delp is gone.

This album and Third Stage stand on equal footing, just below the debut. They're vastly different albums in overall tone and song structure, and Walk On, thankfully, is a bit longer than Third Stage, which ran for barely a half hour, very disappointing considering the album took 6 years to make. Tom Scholz has been working diligently on a new Boston album, and it's been 7 years since Walk On, which means it should be due anytime. Until then, if you're a Boston fan and you haven't checked this album out yet, do so. You'll be pleasently surprised.


Recommended: Yes

Great Music to Play While: Waking up