Track Listing

1. Road To Hell
2. Road To Hell (2)
3. You Must Be Evil
4. Texas
5. Looking For A Rainbow
6. Your Warm And Tender Love
7. Daytona
8. That's What They Always Say
9. I Just Wanna Be With You
10. Tell Me There's A Heaven

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4754 in Music
• Released on: 1989-10-30
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .22 pounds

Amazon.co.uk Review
This album, with which the singer reached his commercial peak, reflects Chris Rea's love/hate relationship with the car. The title track is famously inspired by Rea's experiences of the M25, but this is not a simple tract on the evils of the automobile--in 1988, he bought himself a racing car. His vision of hell is the traffic jam that stops you from using all that expensive acceleration. In this sense Chris Rea--the epitome of maturity compared to most in his business--shows himself still very much a rock star. The Road To Hell, despite the melancholy piano riff of the song itself and its Leonard Cohen-ish lyrics, is an optimistic album with a warm, embracing sound. This album is graced with some of Rea's finest creations: the spacey "Daytona", the topicality of "You Must Be Evil" and the catchy "That's What They Always Say". "Texas" is another witty commentary on the need for speed, and like many of the tracks on this disc it has the mellow groove that Rea has made his own. On The Road To Hell, Rea successfully marries the philosophy of the family man with the ethos of a rock star, in a way that many other forty-something crooners can only envy. He also marries a measure of self- expression with real commercial success: his first number one album, The Road To Hell went triple-platinum. --James Swift

CD Description
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, centeredon 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 sparebass, 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.

Customer Reviews

The road to greatness...
Released in 1989, this is the album that changed Rea's career achieving him mainstream popularity. All the tracks save the last one are superb. The first track builds the listener up nicely for the loud upbeat onslaught of the next eight tracks. The pick of which are the title track, "You must be evil" and "Texas". The guitaring is quite simply first class and the songs are well written. "Road to Hell" is a masterstroke and compares well to other concept albums such as Pink Floyd's "The Wall" and The Who's "Quadrophenia". The record however, runs out of steam with the weak "Tell me there's a heaven," Overall though, a modern masterpiece which was deservedly given a gramaphone award by the H.M.V music catalogue.

Chris Rea's tour de force
The album which alerted a whole new geneartion of fans to Chris' phenomenal songwriting talent, "The Road To Hell" was, without any doubt, the last great album of the 1980s. Opener "The Road To Hell Part I" is a slow, gentle piece which runs into - and starkly contrast - the following track, "The Road To Hell Part II", a mellow, laid-back, but pensive rock ballad, inspired by a journey around the funky M25 while reminiscing about his mother's death.

The latter is undoubtedly Chris best-known song, but the other tracks are equally good. "Texas" is vaguely reminiscent of Sting's "Brand New Day" (which came out ten years later), while "You Must Be Evil" and "Looking For A Rainbow" effortlessly showxase Chris' undeniable wizadry when it comes to ballads.

All in all, I can't find fault with this album - still sounds fresh nearly 15 years later.

Another Gem
It's a Chris Rea album... No different to any other - a shockingly frank, revealing, and emotional expose into the mind that created it - Chris Rea. I see it simply as his statement of what he dislikes in the world, and if you take (say) his previous album Dancing With Strangers, we find that that album is also a 'protest' album. So it's slightly strange that some people would be surprised.

So, one could say the 'theme' running through this album is Rea's anger at what is wrong with the world - the song titles give it away somewhat: (taking a selection)

Road To Hell
You Must Be Evil
Thats What They Always Say
Tell Me There's a Heaven

Even songs such as Texas, and Daytona explore a theme of 'simply getting away from it all' - possibly why the album is so revered in Rea's repotoire.

Despite this, those who enjoy actually 'listening' to the music - the marvellous musicianship, the astounding lyrics, the incredible production and clarity, will be left with the conclusion that this is a landmark album - as high up on the musical flagpole as Brothers In Arms, and certainly making more of a statement.

There are no weak tunes, and one can hear elements of the delta blues sound that Rea would eventually fully succomb to after his illnes.

If you are serious about your music, and want to listen, and come away enlightened, refreshed, and even 'changed' by the experience, I would say you would be making an investment in buying this album. All the very best to you. I hope you enjoy it.