Night Ranger-Hole in the sun

VH-1 Classic
2008



Back in the 1980's Night Ranger were always a band that to me were not quite heavy enough to be hard rock nor were they really catchy enough to be very good AOR. They had a few good songs, but largely they just seem to create some rather bland pop music that would seem rather dated by the time the 1990's rolled around. Still I was willing to check this one out and see if maybe time and the other projects that the band members had been in had perhaps had an impact on how they would approach another Night Ranger outing. They do for the most part manage to shake off the over processed and sometimes wimpy sound that plagued them two decades ago. That's not to say that they adopted a perfect sound on this album though. Honestly it's a relatively varied album as far as the different styles that the band tackled. The worst songs are a few that find them falling into the trap of sounding like old men trying to be cool with beats and vocals that sound both outdated and out of place coming from this band. That's maybe 1/4 of the album, but the rest of the material is a bit more solid and a tad more genuine. There are some solid rockers here and then some slower tracks that manage to avoid being sappy and the strength of the arrangements keeps them afloat. The album as a whole comes across as somewhat uneven in the end. I think that's because the members have done so many other projects over the years that when they came together the results are an album of rock songs than a Night Ranger album. So fans of their other material may find it to be a little different, but I found it to be more lively and overall more appealing. I would say they gave an admirable effort with slightly above average results. This album has twelve songs plus very mediocre acoustic versions of "Don't tell me you love me" and "Sister Christian" that are listed as bonus tracks.

http://www.myspace.com/nightranger