Return To Zero (©1991 Giant)

the songs: Face The Music / There's Another Side / All You've Got / This Is My Life / Rain Down On Me / Every Door Is Open / Devil To Pay / Until Your Love Comes Back Around / Livin' For The Rock 'N' Roll / Hard Time (In The Big House) / Return To Zero

I had been looking for this one for a while, and finally found a copy at half.com for (wait for it) .75 cents. I couldn't believe it. I tried to order it and found to my horror they only serviced the lower 48 states. So I bugged a buddy of mine who lives stateside to get it for me.

So how is this one? It's pretty solid. Barry and Brad are only again working together, and they make a good team. The songs are what you'd expect - it was 1991 and it wasn't taking too much from the tail end of the hair band era, and they weren't totally flogging their Boston roots either.

This one's been spending a lot of time on my stereo lately. It's not the best album in my collection, but there is something about it I like. This time out there are a few pretty solid rock songs, but it's the sucky one - Until Your Love Comes Back Around - that really stands out.

Reviewed April 17, 2002

Lost (©1998 MTM)

the songs: When You Love Someone / Turn This Love Around / Someday / Violent Days / Change For Change / One In A Million / Given You Up For Dead / Don't Wait / Talk To Me / Don't Lead Me On

Sometimes you find things by accident that turn out to be pleasant surprises. RTZ features Brad Delp, and Barry Goudreau from Boston. It falls into the pleasant surprise category.

I'm always more than a little suspicious about "found" albums that are made up of bits and pieces the band was working on before breaking up. These tracks were to be the second RTZ album when Brad once again joined Boston, leaving Barry to his own devices. So he polished up the bits and pieces and Lost is the result.

The music is typical AOR stuff, and hits a lot of the right notes. Barry is a solid player, and Brad is in fine voice throughout. If you like the 80's sound and miss guitar driven rock with nice hooks this is a pretty good find. The stand out tracks are When You Love Someone, and Turn This Love Around, and Don't Lead Me On.

Reviewed November 27, 2001

Lost And Found (©2004 Frontiers)

1: One Step Away 2: Fool For Love 3: Such A Fool 4: Rise Above It All 5: Social Disease 6: I'm On A Roll 7: Rock The Night 8: Winners And Losers 9: Power Of Love 10: Show Me 11: Better And Better

Barry Goudreau must have a huge cache of demo recording lying around his studio. Lost and Found does a back to the future trick and returns to less than zero. The songs here are all from sessions preceding the release of the first album in 1991.

While I’m not especially enamored with this record, there is a certain guilty pleasure in listening to both Barry and Brad pull of decent pop songs full of clichéd riffs and the tried and true formulaic song structure. Barry and the late Mister Dangerfield have a lot in common. I don’t think Barry will ever get any respect or recognition for his contributions to Boston, nor for his own work.

The songs here actually sound pretty good, although you can hear some wear and tear on the masters, they are good sounding demos. If you’ve not heard of RTZ or are curious about the collaboration between Messieurs Delp and Goudreau I’d recommend you look for Lost, which was a pretty good 80’s styled rock album. Then if you like what you hear move on to Lost and Found. The draw to Lost and Found is that the fine folks at Frontiers coupled the release with the Delp and Goudreau album (reviewed here). One thing that would have been nice on the liner notes would be some explanation about the songs, recording dates etc. However, it’s a small complaint, and nothing I’m likely to lose any sleep over.

RTZ was a real band for a short time, and although Lost and Found is a collection of demos, they show what could have been if the band had been able to carry on. Sadly any project featuring both Brad and Barry will have a hell of a time trying to be seen as anything other than Boston-lite.

Reviewed January 10, 2006