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Artist: Night Ranger |
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Well it
seems Frontiers Records are on their way to becoming Label Of The Year
with some quite outstanding releases already being released this year
and with many more to follow. We've already had the likes of the
new Whitesnake album 'Forevermore' and will very soon have the new
albums from King Kobra and Journey. The label have also added to
their ever growing roster with the mighty Night Ranger and their
tremendous release 'Somewhere In California'. This
album is without a doubt a true Hard Rock fans wet dream of a release
that encapsulates all that Jack Blades and rest of the band, Kelly
Keagy
(drums & lead vocals), Brad
Gillis (guitar & backing vocals), Joel
Hoekstra (guitar & backing vocals) and Eric
Levy (keyboards) have done for the world of Hard Rock. From the opener
‘Growing Up In California’, the bands class shines through.
The great musicianship of the band and the unequalled song-writing
talent that runs through the band make this release hard rock at its
very finest. There is no throw back to times gone by, this is the
band bringing hard rock right into the now. Yes the band are
renowned for their gentler moments, with the likes of Sister Christian
and ‘Goodbye’ often mentioned, but people tend to forget these guys
can rock it up big style. This is brought to the forefront on this
album with the stunning riff spewn ‘Lay It On Me’, one of my
favourite tracks off this excellent album, which is quickly followed by
the rocking ‘Bye Bye Baby (Not Tonight)' and the equally fine bluesy
hard rock of ‘Follow Your Heart’. Like I said the
band are renowned for their more gentler refrains and any Night Ranger
album simply wouldn't be complete without those gentler moments and this
album contains a stunner to melt even the hardest of hearts in ‘Time
Of Our Lives’. This song is dominated by the fine keys of Levy,
with added orchestration that further add that extra atmospheric touch
to what is sure to be a firm fan favourite. It’s back to the
hard rockin' with the fantastic summer time rock of ‘No Time To Lose
Ya’, before the slide guitar fused southern rocker ‘Live For
Today’. Not resting one for
resting on their laurels the band keep delivering those Hard Rock goods
with the stunning ‘It’s Not Over’, before unleashing another
masterpiece in the shape of ‘End Of The Day’. The band then
move on to really push out the Hard Rock in a big way with the thumping
‘Rock N Roll Tonite’, before bringing the album to a close with the
storming ‘Say It With Love’, which really is the icing on the cake
of a stonking Hard Rock album. It's gems like this that's made
this album my pick of the June releases, such is its splendour and those
of you fortunate to pick up a ticket for the bands only UK date will
just love the new material, because it's Night Ranger at their very
best. This is an album that is easily on par with their debut
release ‘Dawn Patrol’, if not surpassing it at times. |
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Tracklisting: 1.Growin'
Up In California |
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All content copyright of The Mayfair Mall Zine unless otherwise stated. |
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