It's a testimony to the rock behemoth's sheer bull-headed longevity that despite the absence of long time collaborator and hit machine Jim Steinman, Couldn't Have Said it Better sounds cut from the same sonic cloth as classic chart-toppers Bat Out of Hell (1977) and Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell (1993).
Revelling in delicate piano ballads that suddenly mutate into full-blown middle-of-the-road bar rockers, Meat manages the miraculous. The sheer emotional scope of his delivery coerces even the most unwilling listener into submission.
Listening to him moving from sensitive quaver ("Did I Say That") to gargantuan bat from hell ("Why isn't that Enough") you start to realise that this is a man who's been the butt of so many bad jokes that he simply has no option but being deadly serious about what he sings.
Try singing this lyric from the defining "Man of Steel" on for size and see if you can avoid sounding corny:
'I left a message at the hotel/They said you checked out/They said you ain't coming back/I tried to call you/But you turned off your cell/And it said at the tone/Just leave me alone.'