“No-one ever gets discovered in Boston.”
John Irving, A Prayer For Owen Meany
It's late night in Erinsborough. Carmella and Ringo lie awake thinking about their illicit love affair, trying to make decisions from their respective beds as the night wears on. Expect shots of full moons and time passing. Expect the soundtrack to be 'Flynn.'
“The Answer's Not Enough” is the fourth album from Flynn, who, I am told is a “less eccentric version of Sting.” Not exactly a title one is inclined to wear like a badge. It is hard to imagine that world needs a fourth Flynn album, or that the world would be able to tell you which one is which.
This is an album that limps along in a torturous fashion from start to finish. Never much over bland, it's the sound of a pub singer being let loose on a really expensive studio (possibly from the proceeds of writing the title track of a Farrelly Brother's film).
It's very easy to take pot-shots at meaningless AOR music, but there is a reason for that. As a genre it is as uninspiring as it's title suggests, and this is just another needless addition to the library of banal music. Standard earnest AOR vocals seep out over text-book riffs, but when the vocals make way for the instrumental sections, we're in hold music heaven. Anyone who makes it to the end of the album is either very brave or clinically dead.
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It. Is. Bland. Songs that say nothing and sound even emptier. There is not a strong chorus on the album and there is certainly not an original idea. “No Sympathy” is clearly meant to be an angry song, but it's hard to detect a change in tone from all of the other songs. At any given moment, it would seem Flynn could burst out into a rendition of “Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeey Mona!” and even then he wouldn't do justice to the original.
I can see that the duet with Antje Duvekot, Breathless, is meant to be powerful and heart-wrenching, but even a Top Gear Compilation would turn it's nose up at. This is an album that will please Flynn's fanbase, I'm sure. Presumably that fan-base are those who are one shock away from a fatal heart attack, and thus are destined to a life without any shocks what-so-ever. For the enquiring muso, there is nothing to see here.
The Answer's Not Enough will leave you wishing you'd never asked the question.
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