Orchestrating My Life is a clever title for an album where
Rick Springfield revisits his catalog with the assistance of a 60-piece orchestra. It's a common move for veteran artist, but
Springfield resists the easy impulse to make an easy listening record. Instead, he pumps
Orchestrating My Life up with big, loud guitars that intentionally echo the arrangements of his original hit singles. Perhaps such a move was inevitable, as so many of his big hits -- "I've Done Everything for You," "Don't Talk to Strangers," "Jessie's Girl," "Affair of the Heart," "Love Somebody," "Human Touch" -- are melodic power pop fueled by massive hooks, the kind of album rock that needs its riffs as a support; remove the guitars and the whole edifice collapses. By relying so much on six-strings,
Springfield acknowledges this situation, but it does mean that
Orchestrating My Life doesn't feel especially orchestral. The strings are there as flair and color on an album of songs that don't require such accouterments. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine