himself. They'd normally order a couple of rooms, order room service, and then begin the recording season. Adams believed it to be a better working environment, even when he and the crew moved the gear many times during a season, and they would normally get help from the local staff. Regarding "East Side Story", the opening track, when asked why he picked New York for the song, Adams replied, "Probably because there is so much street activity there, even though there is an east side to every city, the NY east side, or lower east side, is particularly full of character. It just seemed to paint the picture." The second track, "This Side of Paradise", is about finding the truth; there were many American radio stations that refused to play the song because of the line "There ain't no Santa Claus". The first single, "Open Road", was completed over two continents while Adams was touring. "The basic track was recorded in Vancouver, at the Warehouse studio," Adams notes, but the vocals were done in Paris, France and guitarist Keith Scott started working on the song backstage in Lethbridge, Alberta. The music video for the song is not so much about traffic as it is about "power, authority [...] and anti-establishment" statements. The album's title track deals "with the idea that touring can be very lonely". When writing the song, Adams wanted to make the "peephole in the hotel door" so people could know what he was doing, while acknowledging that isn't always like that, "but you do end up really missing the things you have at home". Critical response Reviews were generally lukewarm to poor. Elysa Gardner of USA Today gave the album two-and-a-half stars out of four, noted how many of the songs were similar to much of Adams previous work, calling the songs "solid, digestible meat-and-potatoes rockers delivered in the '80s pop icon's immediately familiar rasp." BBC reviewer Michelle Adamson gave the album a mixed review, claimed the album had a reasonable beginning but quickly descended to its low point on track four, "Flying". However, she liked the nearly "cliché-free lyrics" of "I Was Only Dreamin’" which offered a little variety from the normal Adams treat. Adamson wrote in her conclusion that she felt there was too little to win over new fans, while acknowledging it would sink well in with old ones. David Wild of Rolling Stone