Bruce Hornsby and the Range • The Way It Is
RCA Records PL89901
33-RPM LP
Originally released in 1986, The Way It Is is Bruce Hornsby and the Range’s debut album, and is probably best-known for its title track. In addition to The Way It Is, the album has eight other tracks, including the singles On the Western Skyline, Every Little Kiss, and Mandolin Rain.
Poppy in nature with Hornsby’s piano being front and centre, the music is upbeat. Even the somewhat pessimistic title track ends each chorus with an exhortion to not believe them (“them” being the people who believe that things are the they are, and that they’ll never change).
The sound quality is what we would expect from a well-produced pop album from the mid-1980s: good, but not excellent (given the genre, it’s probably as good as we could hope for). Re-reading that last sentence, I may sound a bit negative, but I don’t mean that at all! This album is one of my not-so-guilty pleasures and I encourage you to give it a spin.