L.S. Media Rating **
When Meat Loaf released Hang Cool Teddy Bear in 2010, there was an element of joy that the man had released his greatest piece of work since 1993’s Bat out of Hell II. There were some real high’s to be found within the tracks and the posturing and good will extended with the addition of Patti Russo and Cher adding the class of feminine perspective to Meat’s tireless and overtly male mannerisms.
For the man’s new album, Hell in a Handbasket, the highs, unfortunately are getting lower and it’s with deep regret that there is very little to find on the album that can even conjure up any excitement or any depth of sincere feeling for a man who has inspired so many and asked so little in return.
Hell in a Handbasket really could have been a stand out and defining moment for the singers 12th studio album but this now being the fifth on the trot without Jim Steinman at the helm and stirring the imagination, it’s hard to see where Meat Loaf now goes from here. That’s not to say Meat Loaf needs Steinman in his life, however it is telling that the best tracks, the songs that touched a million hearts and catapulted this likeable and endearing singer into the realms of superstardom is now becoming a fading supernova. He has burned so brightly with so much earthly quality about him that the sound of this once mighty, booming voice is now a pale shadow, a remnant of what was and with much sorrow no longer can be.
Even the appearance of the great Patti Russo on a re-working of the Mama’s and Papa’s California Dreaming feels narrow and constricting to the point where instead of feeling elation at hearing this great female vocalist recorded for all time in subtle warming tones, it comes across a desperate and undeserving use of her time.
It always feels awkward to write about one of the great Rock icons when they have possibly come to the end. It never feels right to accept that sometimes a band or a singer can go just that one album too far but in Hell in a Handbasket is that album. It is a shame, as there will be those who really will want to love it, to savour another morsel of Meat loaf, but this serving should have been like Oliver Twist’s demands, unasked for.
Ian D. Hall