Bryan Adams’ 17th studio album How’s It Goin’

Purely based on being Canadian, I feel like I need to begin my review at 3 stars and see how it goes up.

Known for his classic rock anthems, Bryan Adams is coming out with his latest album titled "How's it Goin'." Described as a love letter to his home country, this album feels quintessentially Canadian. By that I mean, that it sounds like the songs we'd have been playing at school assemblies or prior to morning announcements. Your fingers are frozen and you can't get your locker open while the most string-focused song ever is being played. Now playing the national anthem and you're stuck around the corner from your class while a teacher stares you down so as not to move while the anthem's being played.

What's refreshing though is that this isn't a surface-level love that he has for the country, Adams makes references to the drawbacks of being here in this current day with lines like "the heavy cost of living right across the nation" and "the housing market is literally a joke" in the title track. For all the folksy tunes, this is a political album.

However, being super Canadian, there will be some references not caught by global listeners. "Highway 16," for example, is also known as the highway of tears in British Columbia. This is in reference to the missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls found along this highway and its connecting routes. This region is characterized by major poverty and lacked adequate public transit until about 2017. According to Human Rights Watch, "British Columbia has the highest rate of unsolved murders of Indigenous women and girls in Canada."

Then there's "51st State" which is Adams trying hard not to cuss out Donald Trump set to music. Although the line "Up here we take care of our own" was rather ironic considering Alberta and Quebec's separatist movements and the most pushback our leaders have given Trump is seemingly taunting him with billboards. One song I enjoyed quite a lot was "Canada's Wild Eastern Edge." Mainly because I've been yearning for a trip to Nova Scotia.

This album is a Canadian album. There isn't really another way to describe it. Folksy to the point of ridiculousness, supporting local farmers, standing against Trump's America, and Terry Fox. All he omitted were the geese attacks if you dare get too close. I will say, I feel like I don't hear "how's it goin'" as much as implied here.