The veteran British singer-songwriter Chris Rea was beginning his third decade in the music business when he released what was to become his best-known and most successful album, THE ROAD TO HELL. Rea suffered the misfortune of starting his professional music career at around the same time as Britain first embraced punk rock, and his tasteful, R&B-inspired songs were initially better received in Europe than in his home country.
THE ROAD TO HELL, released in 1991, centered on Rea's portrayal of a modern world spinning out of control, and stuck close to its narrative throughout, providing a cohesive and musically varied dissection of an increasingly dehumanized society with tracks like the shimmering "Texas," the fiery "You Must Be Evil," and the album's title track, which became one of Rea's biggest-selling records. The spare bass, drums, and guitar instrumentation effectively frames Rea's rough-hewn voice, while his stinging, bluesy guitar playing punctuates his often acerbic lyrics with a biting musical commentary.
Unknown Contributor Roles: Robert Ahwai; Eoghan O'Neill; Kevin Leach; Martin Ditcham; Max Middleton.
Personnel: Chris Rea (vocals, guitar, keyboards).
Recording information: Miraval Studios, Provence, France.
Texas!!!! The Texas Tune was the main reason I purchased the disc and it was worth that . There are one or two other tunes that are worth listing to. But not worth the money it cost for the CD. Submitted by chief700 (Needville, Texas) Was This Review Helpful? YesNo
Some Awesome Sounds This CD is brimming with excellant music. Some songs are upbeat and a few are the sad type. Chris has that wonderful "throaty" voice and it makes his music rich in tone. If you like Willie Nelson, Jonny Lang, Neil Young, Rod Stewart; you should love Chris Rea. Put him on your "buying" list !!! Submitted by a reviewer (Goodridge, Minn. USA) Was This Review Helpful? YesNo
Chris Rea's songwriting and guitar work excels Mr. Rea's Road to Hell is somewhat poetic of the world at the time. The song "Road to Hell" is tremendous. "Daytona" in melodic, "Texas" is wonderful meaning Chris's love the idea of the American West, "Let's Dance" is a happy Tune alittle atypical for Chris. Finally there is "Tell Me There's a Heaven" a sad poetic song about his child's view of child abuse. Very deep and touching. His guitar work reminds me somewhat of Mark Knophler of Dire Straits. Submitted by LK4gold (Reno, NV USA) Was This Review Helpful? YesNo
Chris Rea is definately one of the R&R greats Listing to this wonderful 1992 album kinda reminds me of the depths that MTV has dragged the music industry down to. Submitted by a reviewer (Manila) Was This Review Helpful? YesNo
Glad I found it. A good mix of meaningfull lyrics and entertaing music.
Also just wanted to add this is a perfect example of why file sharing networks like napster need to be..
I had this album 10 years ago and forgot all about it. Just stumbled across Chris Rea and it all came back and immediatly orded another copy of the cd.
Submitted by a reviewer (Buffalo ny) Was This Review Helpful? YesNo
Texas!!!!
Some Awesome Sounds
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