Boston

It took Tom Scholz and company almost 10 years to produce this contractually-obligated record but judging from the fact that it is almost identical to their first two records, you wouldn't know it from the overall sound, since it has an unmistakably '80s feel. "Amanda" was a No. 1 hit but the real winner is "Cool the Engines."

In the liner notes for 'Third Stage,' amid plugs for such organizations as the Vegetarian
Information Service and the Animals' Agenda, Boston scholars will discover the first
recorded evidence that the group's reclusive leader, Tom Scholz, has a sense of humor. In
an essay titled "For the Technically Curious, or How to Make a Record in Just Six Years,"
Scholz spends a few paragraphs talking around the issue of why it took him subs... More >

Never again can us wiseasses call it corporate rock without thinking twice. Whatever possessed Tom Scholz to spend seven years perfecting this apparently unoccupied articulation of an art-metal thought extinct years ago, it wasn't megaplatinum ambition. He's more like the Archbishop of Latter-Day Arena Rock, perfecting majestic guitar sounds and angelic vocals for hockey-rink cathedrals the world over--and also, since he's patently reluctant to venture from his studio retreat, elegiac melodies suitable to a radio ministry. If he seems more hobbyist than artist, more Trekkie than Blind Boy Grunt, that's no reason to get snobbish. And no reason to listen, either. (Grade - C)