Bryan Adams “How’s It Goin’” Released 6 November 2026 via BAD Records album review

There aren’t many genuine surprises left in a career as long as Bryan Adams.’ After over four decades of arena rockers, radio staples, ballads and enough instantly recognisable choruses to fill several greatest-hits records, you could probably forgive him for simply sticking with what works. “How’s It Goin’,” however, is considerably more interesting than that.



This is Bryan Adams going home.

Not geographically, perhaps, but creatively. Conceived as a musical celebration of Canada, “How’s It Goin’” finds Adams digging into the people, places, landscapes, history and character of the country that shaped him. The idea grew from ‘Canada’s Wild Eastern Edge,’ written for the documentary of the same name. Researching the song sent Adams down something of a rabbit hole, and before long, one composition had expanded into an entire album.

And here’s the unexpected part: Canada hasn’t just given Adams something new to write about. It’s given him some diverse ways to make music.

Adams increasingly blends the melodic rock he is known for with country, folk, bluegrass, and Americana, yet he avoids making it feel like he is playing dress-up. That rasp of a voice remains unmistakable, as does his almost infuriating ability to construct a chorus that moves into your head after one listen. But there’s a looseness and warmth here that makes “How’s It Goin’” feel like a genuine diversion rather than another variation on a familiar formula.

The title track makes that clear straightaway. ‘How’s It Goin’’ heads for the hills with acoustic guitar picking and a distinctly mountain-music flavour, bluegrass and country forming the foundations underneath one of those deceptively simple melodies Adams excels at. It’s light on its feet, immediately likeable and ridiculously easy to remember. Give it a few plays, and there’s a fair chance you’ll find yourself greeting people with ‘How’s it goin’?’ whether or not you intended to.

‘Highway 16’ brings some familiar Adams muscle back into the picture, its strummed guitar carrying us along British Columbia’s stretch of the Yellowhead Highway. That’s one of the album’s recurring pleasures. Rather than simply write in vague terms about national pride, Adams attaches songs to actual places, people and events. The result occasionally feels like a road trip through Canadian history with an extremely tuneful tour guide riding shotgun.

And history features prominently.

‘The Battle of Lundy’s Lane’ takes Adams back to the War of 1812 and the battle fought near present-day Niagara Falls in July 1814, turning an event from over two centuries ago into the subject of a rock song. These aren’t exactly the topics filling contemporary playlists, which is precisely what makes the whole exercise so refreshing. At this stage in his career, Adams hardly needs to prove that he can write another radio-friendly rocker. Instead, he’s found fresh inspiration by looking backwards and outwards.

‘The Ballad of Terry Fox’ is different again. Written for the documentary ‘Run Terry Run,’ it commemorates the Canadian athlete and activist whose Marathon of Hope became part of the country’s national story. Musically, it sits closer to the sound of recent Adams records, making it one of the album’s more immediately familiar moments and providing a useful bridge between past and present.

Then politics enters the room.

‘51st State’ has the classic Adams bounce, but its message couldn’t be much clearer. Written amid renewed rhetoric from Donald Trump about Canada becoming part of the United States, the song is Adams planting his flag firmly on the Canadian side of the border. There’s defiance in it but also humour and the sense of communal pride that runs throughout the record. Adams isn’t delivering a political lecture; he’s defending home turf.

That same willingness to venture beyond conventional rock-song subjects gives “How’s It Goin’” much of its personality. ‘When Canada Joined Newfoundland’ continues the journey through the country’s past, while ‘A Handful of Gold’ heads north into the Klondike Gold Rush. At times, you realise you’re effectively being given a Canadian history lesson, yet the record rarely feels weighed down by its research. Adams understands something crucial: however interesting the story may be, the song still has to work.

‘Iron Ribbon’ may be where this new direction really clicks.

Here Adams goes full folkie. This is folk delivered in the way Bruce Springsteen has in the past (think ‘The Ghost of Tom Joad’ and ‘Devils & Dust’). It has similar earthy storytelling instincts, although Adams approaches the territory in his own more naturally upbeat fashion. Built around the story of Canada’s industrial expansion and the railway that helped bind the country together, it carries the thump and call-and-response energy of a good stomp-and-holler tune. Pat Steward’s drums give it real physical heft, turning history into something you can feel in your chest.

‘The Bridge,’ meanwhile, looks towards a darker moment: the 1958 collapse of Vancouver’s Second Narrows Bridge during construction, a disaster in which 19 men died. It’s another striking example of just how far Adams has travelled from the standard subjects of mainstream rock writing. Yet one of the album’s strengths is that even when the stories become tragic, the music is rarely oppressive. There is sadness, but also dignity, warmth and an underlying sense of optimism.

Eventually, we arrive at the song that started the whole adventure, ‘Canada’s Wild Eastern Edge.’ Knowing its place in the album’s genesis gives it particular significance. What began as a commission for a documentary turned into the spark for a complete collection and, perhaps more importantly, opened a door Adams hadn’t previously had much reason to walk through.

By ‘Heave Away,’ he’s practically leading the crew from the deck of a ship. Its chant-like quality and sea-shanty spirit bring another stylistic shift, with something of The Lumineers’ communal folk-rock energy about it. Once again, it shouldn’t sound like obvious Bryan Adams territory, yet his melodic instincts hold everything together.

The digital edition adds ‘Lake Ontario,’ released ahead of the album on 28 October 2026. It’s another pointed response to developments south of the border, beginning with one of Canada’s Great Lakes before expanding into a wider swipe at political grandstanding and the idea of attempting to rename things whose history will long outlive whichever politician occupies office. Alongside ‘51st State’, it gives the record some contemporary bite among its excursions into the past.

What really binds “How’s It Goin’” together, though, isn’t history, geography or politics. It’s affection.

You can hear that this matters to Adams. There’s none of the feeling of an artist searching desperately for a concept because another album is due. Instead, one idea appears to have unlocked another, then another. Research becomes inspiration; inspiration becomes storytelling; storytelling pushes the music towards different instruments, textures and traditions.

That musical shift is crucial. Roots music, folk, country and Americana provide colours Adams hasn’t always used prominently, while his own acoustic and slide guitar work helps give the record an appropriately handmade character. Keith Scott is still around to supply rock weight and those sweeping guitar flourishes when required, while Pat Steward can turn the rhythmic temperature up whenever the songs demand it. The result stretches Adams’ established sound without asking him to stop being Bryan Adams.

And perhaps that’s the cleverest thing about “How’s It Goin’.”

Artists with careers this long can end up trapped by their own success. Audiences want the sound they remember; artists understandably don’t want to spend the rest of their lives remaking records they made 30 or 40 years ago. Adams sidesteps the problem by changing the scenery rather than abandoning his strengths. The strength of the melodies remains intact. Consistently, the hooks reach exactly the right spot. The choruses still sound designed to be sung by a room full of people. It’s the stories and musical surroundings that have changed.

There is something wonderfully unforced about the entire enterprise. “How’s It Goin’” doesn’t sound like Bryan Adams changing his style. He’s not suddenly trying to convince anyone he’s become an Appalachian folk troubadour or dusty Americana historian. It feels more like curiosity got the better of him. One song about Canada led to another, then another, and somewhere along the line, he discovered that writing about railways, highways, gold rushes, national heroes, battles, bridges and the country itself could take his music somewhere fresh too.

That’s probably why the album’s positivity feels so natural. Even when Adams looks at hardship, disaster or political tension, bitterness never takes control. There is an uplifting spirit running underneath “How’s It Goin’,” born from the obvious affection he has for his subject.