Peter Frampton - Breaking All the Rules
#193
By Julia Talbot
May 14, 1981
Peter Frampton
Breaking All the Rules
Genre: Exhausted Resentment
Allen’s Rating: 1.5 out of 5
Julia’s Rating: 2 out of 5
Highlights: This album only has nine songs. Its peak position was number 89 on the Australian Kent Music Report Albums Chart. I now am certain that I wouldn’t want to have dated Peter Frampton in 1981.
I was so excited to broaden my admittedly limited Peter Frampton listening base by reviewing Breaking All the Rules. Frampton Comes Alive – while not on my personal top ten, is such a bright star. I was all poised to embrace late in life fandom. Well, it might happen one day but this yawn of album is not going to help. But why? Why did a talented, on point artist of the era and a bunch of amazing session musicians produce such a sleepy album?
I believe the answer lies in Brian Kushnir’s review on this site, of TOTO’s (January 1981) album, Turn Back. As Brian outlines, Turn Back nearly cost TOTO their band and here they are a mere five months after that album’s lukewarm public embrace/fuck you, with fully half the band reluctantly (and perhaps resentfully) session musician-ing it up for Frampton; playing a line-up of songs (that - wait for it), half of which had already been released in Brazil as promotional gimmick the previous year as the album Rise Up. Aside from Frampton himself, the only musician listed as playing on both albums was John Regan, I think the rest of the gang were off doing better things post tour, so here we are with Frampton, Regan, half of TOTO and Arthur Stead on keyboards doing the best they can. Put it all together and it is a recipe for tired mediocrity and boy does it come through.
On the other hand, maybe we expect too much from albums and/or the musicians who create them. We look to them to inspire, uplift and generally make us feel better about our tiny lives or in the very least provide a background or context to whatever the hell it is we are doing. My life has been punctuated by such moments. Would my life experiences or memories be as rich and multidimensional without the addition of a soundtrack of my picking but not one bit of my creation? I sort of doubt it. So, what does it mean when someone produces nine songs (one being a fairly meh cover of a completely excellent song, the Easybeats, Friday on My Mind) that are entirely forgettable if not interchangeable? All the familiar tropes are there in addition to a hint of a narrative arc- or perhaps I am imagining things. Listened to in order, this album is the story of a failed relationship – although given Frampton’s lyrics, I don’t blame the women who broke up with him, he sounds like a self-involved mess. Here’s a cheat sheet:
"Dig What I Say" – I’ve found a new love and boy is she hot.
"I Don't Wanna Let You Go" - You are over me. I still think you are hot. You are making a big mistake.
"Rise Up" - You have broken up with me.
“Wasting the Night Away"- Our love was a complete sham, but I may have convinced you to sleep with me one last time.
"Going to L.A." - I regret saying that our love was a sham. I can be a better boyfriend.
"You Kill Me" – I am asking for a second chance. You are right, I didn’t understand you.
"Friday on My Mind" - Maybe I have moved on….
"Lost a Part of You" – I am sorry, I am too broken to date anyone.
"Breaking All the Rules" – Weird quasi-political song about humanity’s dystopian state of being.
During the recounting of this (I am assuming) blissfully short relationship we are wowed with lyrics like:
“Put on some make-up baby dress up to kill
Dig what I'm saying cause it gives me a thrill
That's what I want to see, you know it's all for me” (Dig What I Say)
“When I love with you
All the things we plan to do
Now they tell me you've gone
Well it won't be for very long, baby” (I Don’t Want to Let You Go)
“Yesterday you called my name
Now you're gone and I'm insane
Seems I've made the same mistake again” (Going to L.A.)
“Hey baby, give me a break
I seem so frantic
It might be too late
I'm trying, trying to hard
Trying to see what's behind the façade” (You Kill Me)
“Oh, nobody helped me when I lost a part of you
No one can help me through this crazy world but you” (Lost a Part of You)
Excuse me while I go make sure 1981 Peter Frampton never gets my phone number.
https://open.spotify.com/album/0eoiL2myrVme6wUkuKiAhs?si=jsDW6l6kQRq1buSf37OuYg
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