Bryan Adams

Bryan Adams

'Room Service'

(Polydor)

At 44, Bryan Adams is still singing about 'cars and girls', the charge once laid at Bruce Springsteen's door by Prefab Sprout. But as Adams might counter, if it ain't broke, why fix it?

What Adams does, he does well - even if his mission sometimes seems to be to keep cigarette-lighter manufacturers in business. When it comes to playing cuts from this collection in concert, many an Adams-ite will risk having her hairdo set ablaze with all the anthem-inspired arm-waving going on.

Elsewhere, and oddly for the son of a diplomat who grew up in a series of countries, Adams still plays the city tough, the street kid too tongue-tied to talk about his feelings. What doesn't stick in his throat, however, is that trademark croak, which he must have spent the three years since his last album sandpapering to just the right texture of gravel.

That, and an FM radio-compatible pop/rock dimension, is what drives this hit factory of an album. It's an irresistible platter, if you like big servings of air guitar in your choruses.

A musical curiosity here is the use of a keyboard sound pioneered by The Who in the 70s. And an inexcusable shortcut is the release of a collection only 37 minutes long. Quality counts, and half an hour of gems might be permissible in the CD age of 60- or 70-minute albums. But a set with the odd diamond sparkling in the balladic wilderness is hardly value for money.