Welcome to the Neighbourhood is the seventh studio album by American rock singer Meat Loaf, released in 1995 as follow-up to the megahit album '. It went platinum in the United States and United Kingdom. The album is thought of as a concept album, as all of the songs are ordered in the track listing as to tell a story about a relationship throughout the years. Three singles were released: "I'd Lie for You ", "Not a Dry Eye in the House" and "Runnin' for the Red Light ". The first two reached #2 and #7 in the UK charts, while the latter reached #21. In some markets, radio stations were also playing "Amnesty Is Granted", even though it was not released as an official single. Despite the chart success of the album and its singles, only "Amnesty is Granted" has appeared on an official live album, Casa De Carne as a bonus CD with Hang Cool Teddy Bear. "I'd Lie for You " was recorded as a sound check with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, but only included as a bonus download track. Of the twelve songs on the album, two are written by Jim Steinman. Both are covers, the "Original Sin" from Pandora's Box's Original Sin album and "Left in the Dark" first appeared on Steinman's own album Bad for Good. The first two singles are written by Diane Warren, who later also wrote songs for Meat Loaf's albums Couldn't Have Said It Better and '.
Cover art
The theme on the cover art and inside booklet is that of detective novels of the 1950s. The booklet, aside from having the lyrics for every song, features a "Detective Novel" per song with modified titles to accommodate the titles of the songs. At least one image, the one associated with "Where Angels Sing", is easily recognizable: it is the same image, only with slightly altered colors, as in the movie poster for Lolita, Stanley Kubrick's film adaption of the controversial same-titled novel by Vladimir Nabokov; the typeface used to write "Where Angels Sing" is also the same one as in the poster. This style was also used for the three singles released off the album, with the cover art for each of them being its correspondent novel from the booklet.
Track listing
Collector's edition
In 2011, a three disc collector's edition was released. The first disc includes the songs on the original release with four additional tracks. The second disc was recorded live at the Beacon Theatre on 23 October 1995, except tracks 10 and 11. The third disc is a five track DVD.
