Downtown: Journey of a Heart

by Thom JurekIf anyone who cracked the charts in the 1980s got a bum rap and was left hanging, it was John Waite. The British singer and songwriter fronted the intensely melodic Babys, who wrote well-crafted, hooky, straight-up rock tunes and power ballads. Then, with "Missing You," the monster single from his breakthrough record No Brakes, Waite was saddled as one of the dukes of power pop balladry. Nobody ever let him live it down. Waite fronted the supergroup Bad English with bandmates Neal Schon and Jonathan Cain from Journey, scored big once again with the overdone "When I See You Smile," and then went right back to being a solo artist. He has been accused of writing and singing directly for the charts and has been looked at impassively since the early '90s. It's too bad that the ballad and the power ballad have been looked at with such cynical disdain. Everyone looks at Sting as a "sophisticated" pop songwriter simply because he forgot how to rock and has to resort to gimmick-like lute music to get himself across. Waite has been stubborn; he's no changeling. His songs have always stuck closely to big-time rock & roll as a chosen method of expression whether it's an up-tempo shaker or a tear-jerking ballad. It's true that he's not always been wise in his choice of producers, but that said, he's always made exactly the record he wanted to make. Downtown: Journey of a Heart was issued in England and Canada last year, it hits the racks in 2007 on Rounder in the U.S. The title is the story. Waite has consistently written about the human heart seeking rest. The heart is his most consistent image in the same way that redemption has been Bruce Springsteen's. The album contains two new cuts, a cover of Bob Dylan's "Highway 61 Revisited," and a handful-and-a-half of tunes from his catalog. This isn't the first time he's tried to get his songs across on multiple albums, and there's good reason for that: nobody's really heard them apart from hardcore fans -- and God bless them for keeping him in the game, albeit on the margins. Be honest. Who ever heard the fine, sometimes brilliant Figure in a Landscape from 2001? Or the fine Hard Way from 2004? This time out, he's very smart. He's got a tight band that includes ex-Springsteen guitarist Shane Fontayne and keyboard boss Reese Wynans and a slew of others; Waite's name is listed first in the producer's chair. The music here is edgy, sharp and expertly executed. For the first time in a long, long while Waite might get a chance here in the States.... Read More...