I'll confess that I haven't heard any of his new stuff, but, of the albums I own (specifically, his four previous to this one), I listen to this one the most. It seems a lot more mature than his previous albums, music-wise. The guitars seem less rough and the vocals seem to blend a lot better with the music. This could be a production trick, but it's still true of the album.

There are so many good songs on this album, it's hard to know where to start. There are rockers like IS YOUR MAMA GONNA MISS YA?, HOUSE ARREST, ALL I WANT IS YOU, and DON'T DROP THAT BOMB ON ME. All of these songs are great to listen to...pure rock 'n' roll fun. Then there are the ballads...THOUGHT I'D DIED AND GONE TO HEAVEN, DO I HAVE TO SAY THE WORDS, and (EVERYTHING I DO) I DO FOR YOU. All of these songs are heartfelt and emotional. They are well written, both lyrically and musically. The way the two types of songs are interwoven with each other makes this a really strong album. Most rock 'n' roll albums only have one ballad on them. This one has three, not to mention the fact that ALL I WANT IS YOU is thematically a ballad, but musically a rocker. This album was put together brilliantly with changes in tempo in all the right places.

If you're looking for a good Bryan Adams' album to start with or just a good rock 'n' roll album in general, this is a sure bet.

WAKING UP THE NEIGHBOURS is the last great album that Bryan Adams did until ROOM SERVICE. It sounds a lot like Def Leppard (he used that band's producer, "Mutt" Lange, for this one), but somewhat earthier. This album contains plenty of great rockers, but also increases his ballad quotient. His next couple of albums would turn him into a fairly faceless adult contemporary artist, but here he was still good for some great field-day-ready rockers.

Before I mention the other songs from this album, my favorite song on here is "Thought I'd Died and Gone To Heaven." It is such a strong record with the bridges and the hanging-with-the-fellows big chorus of woooohhh, wooooooooooodhhhhhhhh. It is one of Bryan Adams' best songs to date and it should have gone higher than No. 13 on the charts in spring 1992. But this album is full of big rockers, solid rhythms, and unique songwriting. I like Do I Have to Say the Words more than the overplayed "Everything I Do (I Do It For You)". Everything's kind of LOUD for a power ballad, but that sappiness is all too obvious on that one. I also like "Can't Stop This Thing We Started", "There'll Never Be Another Tonight" and the big closer, "Don't Drop That Bomb On Me." Three crank-it-to-11 rockers that still sound strong today! Bryan really got better as an artist with this album!

I consider Bryan Adams' 1987 "Into the Fire" his best album. It was his most complete album and showed a more serious and socially aware side to Adams that had not been seen on his first 4 albums. However, "Into the Fire" didn't generate the commercial success that its predecessor "Reckless" had done. As a result, Bryan definitely went back to basics on "Waking Up The Neighbours" by returning to those songs that are of a 20 something male adult. Going back to basics didn't come without change. The good news is despite the changes, Bryan still manages to put out a solid album and once again had the major commerical success he had with "Reckless". The bad news is that some of the changes to affect the depth of this collection and as a result this is more of a 4 star effort as opposed to the last 3 albums that I rated 5 stars.

"Waking Up the Neighbours" marked the end of the Bryan Adams/Jim Vallance songwriting combination that had been the staple of the 1st five albums. Adams and Vallance would combine for only 4 songs on this album as Bryan started a new era with Robert "Mutt" Lange (Better known as Mr. Shania Twain) as his main songwriting partner. It is also worth noting that Lange would be credited as a co-writer on the songs Adams did with Vallance. Another change is that Bob Clearmountain, the master mixer who would co-produce the last 4 studio albums for Bryan Adams was no longer the co-producer. In once again is Lange who also takes the co-producer duties while Clearmountain still stays on as the mixer. Bryan's studio musicians are still in tact as Mickey Curry (Drums), Tommy Mandel (Keyboards), Dave Taylor (Bass), and Keith Scott (Guitar) still prove they are as good you can get in the business.

This CD has 15 tracks - this makes for 75 minutes of music. Of the 15 tracks - some are very good songs like "Can't Stop This Thing We Started", "Thought I Died and Gone to Heaven", "Not Guilty", "Vanishing", and "There Will Never Be Another Tonight". There are some good songs like "(Everything I Do) I Do It For You", "Do I Have to Say the Words", "House Arrest", and "If You Wanna Leave Me". There is also some songs that I don't like such as "Is Your Mama Gonna Miss Ya", "Hey Honey I'm Packin It In", and "Touch the Hand". The album title comes from a line in the song "House Arrest". The negative is the 15 songs. Perhaps if this was an 8 or 9 song album, Adams would be looking at another 5 star album, but there is some stuff like like "Touch the Hand" that I just wonder "What is this doing here?"

This album contains "(Everything I Do) I Do It For You" from the movie "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves". This was a song wasn't a Vallance song. It would become Bryan's biggest selling single and one of the biggest sellers of all time. Although I don't think its an "Adams song", the version that is contained on this album is 6.5 minutes and is much better than the overplayed shorter version you will hear on commerical radio. It is a classic Adams ballad though.

The Vallance songs are "House Arrest", "Do I Have to Say the Words", "There Will Never Be Another Tonight", and "Depend on Me'. Surprisingly, with the exception of "There Will Never Be Another Tonight", there isn't that legendary Adams/Vallance song. Lange does a very good job at becoming Adams co-collaborator in the songwriting department. Two songs that are very underrated on this album are "Not Guilty" and "Vanishing". "Not Guilty" is a song in which Bryan and Lange draw an analogy of romance to the legal system ."Vanishing" is probably the best song on the album. It's another analogy song between rich wasting away money to a romance wasting away. It contains some powerful vocals especially when Bryan sings "You're gonna giss ge when I'm gone. Watcha gonna do without a shoulder to lean on?"

Classic Adams sound is alive and well on this album too. The Commercial singles "Can't Stop This Thing We Started", "Thought I Died and Gone to Heaven", "and "There Will Never Be Another Tonight" do a great job at capturing the sound as well as the lesser known "If You Wanna Leave Me". "If You Wanna Leave Me" shows a bit of the blues which will become more prevelent on his subsequent work from this album. Another thing to note is the background vocals on this album are incredible. They are credited to "The Tuck Back Twins". Much of the background vocals sound like a bunch of partying guys on songs like "Can't StopThis Thing We Started", "There Will Never Be Another Tonight" and "Not Guilty" or sound just real good like in "Thought I Died and Gone to Heaven". It's really good stuff.

The CD liner notes contain all of the lyrics. The only thing is - the songwriting are bunched together and are difficult to read. The other thing is there are guest musicians called "Honorary Dudes of Leisure", but the 'Dudes' aren't mapped to the songs they participate on. Another negative is that with Clearmountain as the producer, Bryan and Clearmountain had the perfect formula for picking the starting track, ending track, and ordering all of the ones in-between. With Lange, they don't seem to be able to order things as well.

There's a lot of positive with this CD and if you want the last great studio album by Bryan Adams, I would definitely recommend getting this one. The ones that follow won't be quite as good as this.

I am a 13 year old true Bryan Adams fan. I can remember being around 5 and my mom made me listen to all these soft rock/adult contemporary stations. Well, one song was getting so much airplay it wasn't funny. I finally found out it was "(Everything I Do) I Do It For You," by a man named Bryan Adams. My aunt bought me the CD single and then one day after school, I came home and lying on my bed was my dream...a cassette of Waking Up The Neighbours. I was in love with every song on there and eventually I became a Bryan Adams fanatic.

Even today when I pull out my CD (I had to buy one when I wore out my cassette) I love the lyrics of "Everything I Do," "Do I Have To Say The Words?" and "Thought I'd Died and Gone to Heaven," and then the fun of "Is Your Mama Gonna Miss Ya?" and "Hey Honey I'm Packing You In," is unmatchable.

This CD is classic Bryan Adams, though I'd also reccomend So Far So Good which compiles the best songs from this album and his other stuff...and remember that his Unplugged album is wonderful too.

Long live the world's greatest Canadian rocker.