Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Night Ranger
Label: Frontiers Records
Release: 2011
Runtime: 53:34
Rating: 4.5/5
When an album like this lands in your hands, your heart just starts singing. Of course, that’s assuming you dig the melodic rock of the eighties, the kind that got popular through heavy rotation on wide-reaching radio frequencies, especially American radio stations. This is yet another revived eighties rock outfit that scored a huge commercial breakthrough, particularly in the US and Japan. Even today it’s mostly the American market that keeps them alive. We’re talking about California AOR rockers Night Ranger, fellow San Francisco natives of Journey. Thanks to a deal signed with the Italian label Frontiers Records, Night Ranger’s music is now within closer reach of fans of this kind of sound on the old European continent too.
The real fans and connoisseurs of the golden-age legacy of eighties melodic rock and AOR haven’t forgotten hits like Don’t Tell Me You Love Me, Sing Me Away, (You Can Still Rock) In America, When You Close Your Eyes or Sister Christian, of course. And it’s unbelievable. “Somewhere In California” is a studio album that you could easily, no hesitation, place between “Midnight Madness” and “Seven Wishes”. To be more specific, “Somewhere In California” is snarling and punchy enough rock-wise, while also having that proper retro-nostalgic arrangement touch of the band, which puts the album between those two, in the period before the guys upgraded the sound of their first two albums with “Seven Wishes” and reached that proper “pumping, arena-bombastic sonic supremacy of accentuated contrasting width and depth, which became the standard of the recognizable AOR albums of the second half of the eighties. Production-wise, “Somewhere In California” of course picks up the sound of its predecessor “Hole In The Sun”, that is, a stripped-down, rocking sound seasoned with active dynamics from every building block, which gives it a live feel, as if the album had been played like a concert performance in the studio.
“Hole In The Sun” (2007) showed that the guys’ proper rock fire was far from burnt out. The album is an excellent Night Ranger manifesto that belongs in the collection of every true AOR/melodic rock fan. And yet. So why all this excitement about its successor “Somewhere In California”? Because “Somewhere In California” is an album that, track after track, relentlessly forges proper “Night Ranger-style” anthem after anthem, and it breathes more nostalgia and throwback (eighties) than its otherwise fascinating predecessor. It’s exactly what the guys knew how to pull off most effectively in the first half of the eighties. It’s like hopping into a time machine and heading back to their golden days. What’s incredible and thrilling is the sheer freshness and inspiration of the songs created this way, every one of which boasts a remarkably sharp and infectious atmospheric build-up, peaking in melodically polished, bombast-packed choruses of the most authentic Night Ranger jurisdiction. The songs are more compact compared to the light breeze of experimentation on “Hole In The Sun” (2007), where there was even room for pure acoustic numbers.
The opener “Growing Up In California” is a kind of expected, almost mandatory ritual for the band, a way for the guys to tell the faithful that untamed, party-hungry blood still runs through their veins, demanding absolute devotion to the lifestyle Night Ranger mapped out in the early eighties. The track has it all. A positively charged, ultra-bombastic galloping “party time” rhythm. The album opener is draped in a mild lucidity, really in the youthful potency of the quintet, kicking uncontrollably from excess testosterone. Of course it comes off a bit “redneck” thanks to the verses’ big show of devotion to the symbols of the American flag, but Night Ranger have never hidden that. From the debut onward, this tactic won them massive support from American audiences. The energy of the opening “Growing Up In California” comes back near the end in another playful, direct rock n’ roll sorcery called Rock N’ Roll Tonite, which could easily have swapped places with Growin’ Up In California as the album opener. Here’s another cheeky, bouncy number with an outstanding platform for an album “kick start”, and it carries everything. A greedy pairing of hard-hitting riffs, a rock-solid rhythmic backbone and a catchy chorus melody that carries the song’s atmospheric peak. It’s called No Time To Lose Ya.
The rest of the material delivers the biggest charm, the thing that already earned Night Ranger a pedigree among the finest AOR/melodic rock bands the East Coast of the US has given the planet. The band managed, track after track, to craft excellent melodic chorus hooks, subtly seasoned of course with layered vocal harmonies that fill out the mid-range and create that familiar, pleasant feeling in the listener’s ear. “Somewhere In California” does this unerringly. Even in the album’s longest anthem Follow Your Heart, which opens with a venomously raw rock riff. That track and one like End Of The Day carry a touch of darkness, catching a breath of welcome drama theater. Then there’s the excellent ballad Time Of Our Lives, which has a distinct proto-form of a commercial hit evergreen and which will instantly feel familiar to anyone who knows the hit Sister Christian or “Man In Motion” from Restless Kind. Definitely the album’s peak. On “Hole In The Sun” you could find a fitting counterpart to this track in There Is Love.
Say It With Love, after the souped-up Rock N’ Roll Tonite, brings back to the album the traits that this review mostly describes. In the verse, the rapid-fire string of words in a lower register even conjures up a bit of Lynott-style Thin Lizzy connotation, while Night Ranger, in an excellent, melodically polished multi-harmonized chorus, pull a new winning poker hand of aces out of their sleeve. This is really where the album ends. With one of their finest choruses.
Night Ranger have never offered anything in their career with guitar playing as bravura as on “Somewhere in California”. Joel Hoekstra and Brad Gillis sound unstoppable, in some brilliant moments inexhaustible, totally fired up! The two guitarists are hungry to prove themselves, and they actually manage to bring out the best on the album. And these moments of inspired playing are built into the basic form of the songs so well that the tracks breathe fully in their dynamics and coexist very compatibly in a boldly established mix of riff punch and melody.
“Somewhere In California” is an absolute surprise on the AOR (underground) map in 2011. Nobody really expected Night Ranger to put together an album with such inspiration, freshness and a playful dose of party spirit, combining melodic compactness with hard-hitting rock sharpness. The album doesn’t contain a single clunker. It brims with rock catchiness and the noble AOR seasoning of chorus arrangements. It’s an album Night Ranger fans can only wish for!
Lineup
Kelly Keagy – vocals, drums
Brad Gillis – guitar, backing vocals
Jack Blades – bass guitar, vocals
Joel Hoekstra – guitar, backing vocals
Eric Levy – keyboards, backing vocals
Production
Night Ranger
Track List
1. Growin’ Up In California (4:25)
2. Lay It On Me (4:36)
3. Bye Bye Baby (Not Tonight) (4:34)
4. Follow Your Heart (6:45)
5. Time Of Our Lives (5:15)
6. No Time To Lose Ya (4:29)
7. Live For Today (6:03)
8. It’s Not Over (4:34)
9. End Of The Day (4:07)
10. Rock N’ Roll Tonite (4:11)
11. Say It With Love (5:18)
