AS a lifelong fan who owes many a raucous drive in the car to Bryan Adams, what follows pains me in the same way you get to 14 and realise your dad, a hero up until that point, is actually a bit of a loser.

I'm not saying the Canadian country rocker suddenly sounds like someone's dad, more that new album 'Tracks Of My Years' casts Adam's in a different light.

The meat of his 12th studio release are cover versions, and the danger of any cover version is losing what made the original good in striving to find a new twist.

Adam's textured voice is perfectly suited to the rousing rock anthems with which he will always be associated - 'The Summer of '69, 'Run To You' - or even a ballad like 'Heaven' or 'Everything I Do'.

When turning to 'Rock and Roll Music' by Chuck Berry, or Eddie Cochran's 'C'mon Everybody', it sounds, frankly, like a jukebox cameo.

Ditto Bob Dylan's 'Lady Lady Lay'.

The tracks may have been painstakingly chosen but nostalgia doesn't hide the fact they simply don't suit Adam's voice, and that is exaggerated by trying to sing them in an original way.

'She Knows Me', one of a handful of tracks self-written, is vintage Adams, a soft rock ballad that hits the same notes as 'Please Forgive Me'.

But it's probably not a good enough reason to buy this album.