After dabbling in soundtracks, Adams finally settles down in a hotel room and writes out his album. One listen to the album and its pure Adams - adrenaline all the way. Tracks shift from raging guitars to harsh vocals, to skilful drumming, to more down tempo cool melodies and yes sappy and mushy lyrics – its all there.

The album starts off with the simple East side story a pleasant, catchy track about a female friend who casts a spell on Adams. There’s also the neat This side of Paradise with its very catchy tune, that speaks about loneliness, while Not Romeo Not Juliet describes in simple words how the concept of love has changed. Talking of love, not much need be said about Adams touching ballads, for he excels, where none could have done better. There’s the incredible Flying, a touching ballad, that boasts of the instruments like the accordion and piano. Adams hits out again with Nowhere fast that has beautiful lyrics…. ‘We’re always on the run these days / we hardly have the time to say / what matters most of all’. There’s also the flawlessly heartbreaking Why do you have to be so hard to love and medium paced I was only dreamin reminiscent of his early super hits of the 90s.

The only downers that you could give a miss to is the unimpressive She’s a little too good for me and Right back where I started from that’s noisy, while Open Road with its rock edge puts everything at ease and catches your attention for its melodic hook. The title song talks about Adams life on the road, living out of his suitcase and how every knock on the door is only Room Service and not his ‘babe’.

The whole album exhibits Adams same songwriting approach, his vocals, fine tuned here and there while dexterously twisted, giving more credit on the creative side. Adams has the usual rock cum ballad selection and fulfils all required obligations of his fans, complete with an inviting photo of himself on the inlay cover. The fresh tracks probably written during tour and while staying in certain hotels, has an impressive listing of all the hotels where he stayed and did his songwriting. Though the album is pretty short in duration with just 11 songs, its created to rock and also soothe, and it justifiably does. Lyrics included.

Rating: ****

Reviewed by Verus Ferreira