Artist: Dokken
Label: Cleopatra Records
Released: 2010
Length: 53:20
Rating: 4.2/5
What the gloomily lukewarm Lightning strikes again robbed die-hard fans of hard rock heavyweights Dokken of, we’ve finally gotten with their latest record, albeit in a somewhat less original form. With both the musical inspiration and Don’s voice reduced to a fleeting memory of heroic days gone by, that studio album from two years ago was a perfectly logical result of creative stagnation in the face of new musical currents and trends. So how do you get back on the road to old glory? By reworking your biggest hits, of course. The title Greatest hits can be misleading here, since this isn’t yet another best-of compilation but a set of re-recorded songs with a noticeably different production and approach. That’s how the ill-fated Lightning strikes was supposed to work, but despite all the hype about a return to the original guitar sound, the album sank completely in a sea of dry choruses and the haunting legacy of grunge. And if it seems that the band’s real comeback is only possible within the framework of the music they’ve already made, it has turned out, on the other hand, that Dokken can (at least in theory) do a lot more in modern conditions than their recent releases offer.
So the collection includes all of the biggest Dokken hits, from Breaking the chains all the way to Dream warriors, plus two new tracks, Almost over and Magic man, which are completely unnecessary on this record. Partly because they’re probably leftovers from the already lukewarm Lightning strikes again album. The rest of the songs, though, bring that mighty past back to life in the best possible way, and some of them, even if it sounds blasphemous to some, are even better than the original recordings. As mentioned, Don has dropped into lower registers because of vocal cord problems (he’s facing surgery this year), and it works great, especially on the choruses of Just got lucky, Into the fire and most of all It’s not love, which unfortunately lacks the punch of Lynch’s rhythm work. Guitarist Jon Levin, meanwhile, did a great job. His solos are mostly almost note-for-note copies of master Lynch’s, deviating from the orthodox line only in the hardest passages (like the lightning-fast picking cadence in the middle of the solo in In my dreams). Otherwise, too, the guitar “wall of sound” is fully on par with Lynch’s, except on Dream warriors, where the acoustic guitar takes the front seat and only underlines the sleepiness of a chorus that was already depleted for the reasons described. But that soundtrack from the film of the same name in the Nightmare on Elm street series is, besides the two new songs, the only weak spot on this otherwise very solid album.
Unfortunately, these re-recorded greatest hits aren’t a sign of a band reunion, since despite plenty of rumors to that effect, George Lynch recently explained that, because of the well-known and still very much alive feud between him and Don Dokken, he won’t be returning to the original lineup. What the record does prove is something else: that even with a modern sound it’s possible to make music that doesn’t bow to trends and doesn’t fall one bit short of the harmonic perfection of our recent musical heritage. Of course it’s clear that these songs belong to a completely different musical era, but if that is at least partly true, it’s worth at least as much as a Dokken reunion.
Lineup
Don Dokken – vocals
Jon Levin – guitar
Sean McNabb – bass
Mick Brown – drums
Tracklist
1. Just got lucky
2. Breaking the chains
3. Into the fire
4. The hunter
5. In my dreams
6. It’s not love
7. Alone again
8. Dream warriors
9. Unchain the night
10. Tooth and nail
11. Almost over
12. Magic man
