Hard to believe this album is 21 years old this year. When it came out I received it to write about it. I thought it was ok at the time, but not overly enthused. Wanting to hear some Boston, I pulled Corporate America out over the last couple of days, and although I still don’t think it’s their best, it is better than I recall. The band at this point expanded by Tom Scholz with a number of newer recruits. Brad Delp is still there, though he’s not the only lead singer. Fran Cosmo (who sang on 1994’s Walk On) is also on this, as is his son Anthony (who wrote a number of tracks), and Kimberley Dahme.

Corporate America starts out good with “I Had A Good Time”, not as heavy as previous Boston, but still rockin’, promising and recognizable – a Scholz penned track that he played everything on, and Brad Delp sang on. Overall Corporate America is a more varied sounding album, plenty of ballads, but with more upbeat tracks like “Stare Out My Window” (penned by Anthony Cosmo, who adds guitar, and is sang by Fran Cosmo), “Someone” (another penned by Scholz and only featuring him and Brad Delp) and “You Gave Up On Love” (also penned by Scholz – who also plays almost everything here, and gets a vocal credit, along with Kimberley Dahme (lead vocal), and guests Charlie Farren and Beth Cohen) – are all really good Boston tracks, even if they lack the heaviness of the band’s early approach.

There are a couple of surprises here too, the first being the acoustic ballad “With You”, penned and sang by Kimberley Dahme, an excellent song that is only recognizable by Scholz’ guitar solo plastered over top; this one should’ve been a single and a hit. Corporate America also a live version of their 1994 hit “Livin’ For You”, which was originally on Walk Away, sooo not sure why someone felt the need to put a new version here(!?) But it does make for a good ending.

Anyway, this one charted briefly (Billboard #42), then disappeared along with the band for another decade. They did tour this album in 2003, and Scholz filed a lawsuit against their record company for not doing enough to promote the album. (see article). But, it is a good album, and a nice listen, despite lacking that ‘killer’ Boston rock track. (RIP Brad Delp)

The band Boston has filed a breach -of- contract suit against New York – based indie label Artemis Records and CEO Danny Goldberg, seeking
damages in excess of $1 million. The action, filed June 24 in New
York Supreme Court, claims that while Boston was told by Goldberg
that its 2002 album “Corporate America” -the band’s first for the
label -would be “the highest priority” for Artemis, the company
“[failed] to execute almost every element of [the Boston marketing]
plan.” An Artemis spokesman says the company has not received the
suit and has no comment. Released Nov. 5, “Corporate America” has
sold 119,000 copies to date, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
– CHRIS MORRIS, Billboard, 2003, 07-05