Return to Zero Breaks Free of the Boston Stereotype

The lineup of Boston was stable until after the release of the group's second album, Don't Look Back, but suddenly second guitarist Barry Goudreau vanished. Third Stage, the band's third album, was the last one that lead singer Brad Delp appeared on, and ultimately there was no one left but leader Tom Scholz and various guest musicians to record Boston's fourth release, Walk On. My gut instinct tells me that someone in this band had an ego roughly the size of Texas, but I'm not naming names--you figure it out.

Return To Zero was formed in 1990 or so by Goudreau and Delp, sort of rising from the ashes, like a phoenix, out of the decimated Boston lineup. RTZ released its self-titled album, Return To Zero in 1991, and I believe that another album was released in 1999, but I'm not familiar with it. I am somewhat comforted by the fact that RTZ is apparently following the hallowed Boston tradition of releasing a new album every decade or so.

Although RTZ is led by former Boston stalwarts Delp and Goudreau, the two bands are really different. While each features a straight-ahead rock 'n roll sound, RTZ makes less use of the slick studio production techniques that were featured on the Boston albums. I'll give you one guess why.

RTZ is:

Brad Delp, lead and background vocals
Barry Goudreau, guitar, background vocals
Brian Moss, keyboards, harmonica, tambourine, background vocals
David Stefenelli, drums, background vocals
Tim Archibald, bass

The tracks on Return To Zero are:

1. Face The Music
2. There's Another Side
3. All You've Got
4. This Is My Life
5. Rain Down On Me
6. Every Door Is Open
7. Devil To Pay
8. Until Your Love Comes Back Around
9. Livin' For The Rock 'N Roll
10. Hard Time (In The Big House)
11. Return To Zero

The Music

Both There's Another Side and Every Door Is Open use a tight mix and Brad Delp's best Lou Gramm imitation to sound almost like Foreigner--the acoustic guitar and slide guitar on the latter are accompanied by a driving bass line to create a sense of urgency that gets "in your face" right off the bat. Face The Music defines a lot of musical space with its expansive guitar and Delp's stratospheric vocals, while Rain Down On Me is a harder offering with a loping bass line and a nasty guitar.

Devil To Pay and Livin' For The Rock 'N Roll each feature a barrelhouse piano as a centerpiece for a musical frolic, and Return To Zero, (title track, name of the band and name of the album!) features some excellent slide guitar work by Barry Goudreau. The intense guitar and lush synthesizer texture of This Is My Life fail to redeem an otherwise dreary and listless track, and the strong riffs of Hard Time (In The Big House) can't redeem it from musical mediocrity.

Clearly, the best track on this album is Until Your Love Comes Back Around, a power ballad that features a big piano and Delp's soaring vocals, very reminiscent of Boston's excellent A Man I'll Never Be. All You've Got, despite its trite message, has an appeal created by the homey harmonica, the acoustic guitar, and some positively scalding electric guitar solos.

This is really some good music--the players are excellent and inventive, if a little predictable. If you're looking for some deep inner truths here, forget it--the lyrics are superficial, dismissable and forgettable, but the music is worth a listen.

Thanks for reading.