Label: Frontiers Music Srl.
Release date: July 10, 2020
Production: Steve Brown & Ted Poley
Album length: 47.57 min
Genre: Melodic Rock / AOR
Rating: 8.0/10
Nobody expected this project with the rather goofy name to get a follow-up three years after its self-titled debut. But it did. The team-up of Danger Danger singer Ted Poley and Trixter guitarist Steve Brown clearly isn’t done yet, and it keeps on running. And it runs really well. “Lions” is a fresh musical manifesto of exactly what the debut was about. It brings no change, but it is once again a seriously bold and fun collision of the musical cross-section of the two bands mentioned above, with arrangements that also lean decisively on the look and legacy of Def Leppard (the albums “Hysteria” and “Adrenalize”).
“Lions” is another album seasoned with a heaping dose of ‘party time’ anthems that know no limits in hookiness and get under your skin right away. Poley and Brown go back a long way, to the days when each with their own band they worked pretty much every club venue in Los Angeles. And since it’s more than obvious on this album that both of them love Def Leppard, “Lions” is really an achievement of full-blooded, over-the-top but masterfully applied “cheesy” production makeup, plus arrangement tricks (especially the multi-vocal harmonies) that crank up the extreme bombast and the arena-sized hookiness of the album’s “big” chorus melodies.
Despite some venomously musical moments that fuel the album’s high-octane substance, all that recycling means the new record doesn’t feel quite as fresh as the debut. The formula is tried and tested and it still ignites, but the album could easily have been seven minutes shorter. That’s two songs shorter. Well, or at least one (and a half) songs. Simple as that. As the album rolls on, the songwriting recipe gets a little overcooked, and after about half an hour on the player it starts to get a bit dull.
On the new album, Ted Poley and Steve Brown are again surrounded by an excellent rhythm section, once more bassist Greg Smith (Ted Nugent, Rainbow, Alice Cooper) and drummer Chuck Burgi (Rainbow, Blue Oyster Cult, Joe Lynn Turner). Brown and Poley’s other calling cards are their remarkably skillful songwriting and great command of sound production, and “Lions” is a guarantee of exceptional tightness and arrangement coherence, with no creative solutions or songwriting moves that would call the product’s high quality or its highly vibrant dynamics into question.
An album like “Lions,” which rummages through the bag of recycled ideas from the classic AOR school, is definitely still a ton of fun to listen to in 2020. Why? Simple: first, it’s still a very good product in every respect, and second, there are very few similar releases today. And when an album like “Lions” comes out, it takes you back to the golden days of the eighties, when AOR shook up radio programs that much more intensely. The knock on the door of nostalgia has done its job, and the album will more than satisfy fans of both Danger Danger and Trixter, while fans of Def Leppard’s golden era absolutely have to check it out too.
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Track list:
1. Youngblood
2. Monster In Me
3. Around Midnight
4. Mean It
5. Lions
6. Decadence On 10Th Street
7. Dream Your Heart Out
8. Blow Your Mind
9. Sedona
10. Look Into Me
11. Winner Takes All
Line-up:
Ted Poley – vocals, backing vocals
Steve Brown – guitar, keyboards, backing vocals
Greg Smith – bass guitar, backing vocals
Chuck Burgi – drums
