The greatest hits collection The Very Best of Meat Loaf (which is seemingly the same collection that appears now as The Essential Meat Loaf–I don’t know why the name change has occurred) included three newly-recorded tracks written or co-written by Jim Steinman, all of which were produced by Steinman and co-produced by Steven Rinkoff.

In an odd move for a greatest hits collection, the album actually opens with one of these in “Home By Now/No Matter What,” a combination of two of the Andrew Lloyd Webber/Jim Steinman songs from Whistle Down the Wind. Boyzone had an enormous worldwide hit with “No Matter What” that barely scraped the top 40 in the United States, so perhaps Meat Loaf and/or his label thought that putting the same song in the hands of someone with more of an established commercial name in the US would break it here as well.

Adding fuel to the fire for believing this track to be primarily a commercial endeavor, the arrangement doesn’t differ all that much from the Boyzone soft pop version that appeared on Songs from Andrew Lloyd Webber and Jim Steinman’s “Whistle Down the Wind.“ A short second song named “Home By Now” is split in half and performed on either side of “No Matter What,” and “Home By Now” definitely has a level of drama that “No Matter What” lacks without any context, so that improves things, but that’s essentially the only difference.

While there are points that sound like a clean electric guitar and others that sound like an acoustic guitar, plus some church bell sounds, the only credited instruments on this recording are vocals and Jeff Bova for “programming and keyboards,” which suggests to me that it’s really all synthesized instruments. Eric Troyer, Kasim Sulton, and Crystal Taliefero provide backing vocals while Meat Loaf provides the lead and that’s all we have on this track.

Hauntingly, the song opens with an organ sound and church bells before Meat Loaf’s delicate vocal begins delivering the anxious “Home By Now” melody. The organ sound gives way to more of a piano sound playing softly behind him as he transitions to “No Matter What,” joined by some guitar sounds and string sounds, and nothing really changes again. It’s a very small, heavily synthesized sound that really just sounds like late ’90s pop without the usual dance beat. Excising the dance beat helps for me, but I still am not at all a fan of this sound.

To give credit where it’s due, Meat Loaf’s delivery is excellent. He doesn’t even come close to going over the top anywhere. Frankly, he’s more restrained in this than Boyzone was. It doesn’t require a lot of him, but it does require what has often been his weakest point, and he still delivers, so he deserves some credit for this performance.

While the chorus melody is good enough and Meat Loaf sings it well, I just can’t get on board with anything else about this song. This one is a miss for me.