Einige Wochen vor dem offiziellen Veröffentlichungsdatum erhielt ich die neuen Songs von Rick Springfield's "Venus in Overdrive". Die düstere Atmosphäre seines Albums "Shock/Denial/Anger/Acceptance" ist vergessen, das neue Material erinnert an Springfields Heydays in den 80ern. "Ich dachte wir sollten das Album "Son of a working class dog" nennen", so Springfield. "Es ist ein Album über die Liebe in all seinen Formen und seinen verschiedenen Gefühlslagen."
Die erste Single "Victoria's secret" hätte vom Songwriting her auch auf seine Alben "Living in Oz" oder "Working class dog" gepasst. Der Stil ist retro, der Sound up-to-date, passt so perfekt in die Paylisten der Radiostationen. Für mich hätten etwas rauere Kanten und weniger Mainstream gut getan.
"I'll miss that someday" - Breitwandriffs, ein griffiger Chorus und ein stimmlich gut aufgelegter Rick Springfield, wir sind im Heute gelandet. Bedeutend "eckiger" der Titlerack "Venus in Overdrive". In kompakten 3 Minuten bläst er uns Powerriffs im vertrackten Reggaerhythmus in die Gehörgänge. "Oblivious" steht im Gegensatz zu seiner wörtlichen Bedeutung. Für mich einer der schönsten Songs des Albums.

"3 Warning Shots" beginnt mit Reminiszensen an Springfields Idole die ihn maßgeblich beeinflusst haben. Jedoch werden die "Lucy in the sky" Adaptionen schon nach 15 Sekunden mit brachialen schweren Riffs ad-acta gelegt. "Time stands still" lässt uns kopfnickend zurück, Powerpop par excellence.
Die letzten drei Stücke schieben den munteren Powerpop in den Hintergrund. Die Songwriting Einflüsse der Fab Four drängen sich bei "She" nach vorne. Das akustische und vielstimmige "Nothing is ever lost" mündet in das epische "Saint Sahara".
Die letzten 3 Songs zeigen einen differenzierten Springfield den ich mir Laufe der CD etwas öfter gewünscht hätte. Bitte nicht falsch verstehen: "Venus in Overdrive" ist bestes Futter für Powerpop und Rick Springfield Fans. Er ist musikalisch up-to-date, aber ich vermisse neben den Gitarrensolis eines Tim Pierce auch die leiseren Töne zu denen Springfield mühelos in der Lage ist. Vielleicht bin ich aber auch etwas zu retro?!

Venus in Overdrive was recorded in a record 32 days by Springfield and Matt Bissonette, Springfield's long time bass player. According to Rick, "it is an album about love in all its forms, and since Venus is the goddess of love, it's called Venus in Overdrive. There is a lot of personal stuff in these songs but we have tried to craft them so they still have a universal voice. We are older, yet still teenagers, we have lost people we love and still love the people who are on our journey with us, we are angry at some of the crap in the world yet love our human failings."

The first single from Venus in Overdrive is "What's Victoria's Secret?" Rick says the title of the song "is one of those titles that was waiting to be written and we just got there first. Matt came up with it and we wrote the song while we were doing 5 nights of shows in Milwaukee. I had some recording gear brought into my hotel room and we wrote it there at the haunted Pfister hotel, room 804. It's basically about the sexualization of women and how we as males, want that, but also resist it and mainly need to connect to women as human beings. It's a dichotomy that most men feel I think."

Two songs on the record, "Saint Sahara" and "Oblivious," pay tribute to Sahara Aldridge, a young girl who frequently attended Rick's shows and whom the entire band came to love and who recently passed away. Rick explains that "Saint Sahara" "is about who Sahara was and how hard it was to have her leave. It's also a celebration and recognition of the people she affected in this world. Her mom said (before she died) that if I were to write a song about her daughter, could I make it a celebration and not something maudlin, so it's basically a song celebrating her great sprit. `Oblivious,' is the soul side of the song, `Saint Sahara,' what we all felt and how we dealt with it. It is sometimes so good to be numb to pain but life can't go on if you stay numb all the time. The song itself is about the denial of the finality of death, but it's still a love song."