Review: The Doobie Brothers – Walk This Road
The Doobie Brothers – Walk This Road
Format: CD – Vinyl LP – Digital / Label: Warner
Release: 2025
Text: Martien Koolen
China Grove, Listen To The Music, Long Train Runnin’ and What A Fool Believes are all classic rock songs almost everybody knows, right? In former days The Doobie Brothers were legendary hitmakers for sure, but the last years have not been that spectacular for The Doobies…
Now, there is a reunited line up of members Patrick Simmons, Tom Johnston, John McFee and Michael McDonald and these guys release new Doobie music on their 54th anniversary! However, after a couple of spins of Walk This Road, I have to say that I am slightly disappointed as the Doobie Brothers have provided ten rather mediocre songs to the ever-growing stack of easy listening pop/rock.
All of the songs are definitely more laid-back than in the past, just check out the run of the mill ballad State Of Grace or the closing rather dreamy/poppy Lahaina. ‘Walk This Road’ is a slice of the musical past and although the vocals of The Doobies are solid as a rock and the instrumental passages are well played, most of this new material sounds sloppier and most of all slower than their best songs ever! So, if you are a fan of The Doobie Brothers you might want to listen to their far better albums like ‘The Captain And Me’ (1973), ‘Toulouse Street’ (1972) or ‘Minute By Minute’ (1978)!
‘Walk This Road’ is not a bad album, but Simmons, Johnston, McFee and McDonald offer way too little here and this album will soon be forgotten as there is a lot of much more better classic rock music to enjoy these days for sure…..
Tracks:
01. Walk This Road (feat. Mavis Staples)
02. Angels & Mercy
03. Call Me
04. Learn To Let Go
05. State Of Grace
06. Here To Stay
07. The Kind That Lasts
08. New Orleans
09. Speed of Pain
10. Lahaina (feat. Mick Fleetwood, Jake Shimabukuro and Henry Kapono)
Website: https://thedoobiebrothers.com/