Night Ranger - Hole In The Sun Review
Posted by Dan Haggerty on 07.19.2008
Night Ranger returns after a decade of silence on the new release isle. Can these classic rockers add to today’s rock scene?
Night Ranger is a popular rock band who lit up the charts in the 80’s, and managed to sell over 10 million albums with their first 5 releases. Their patented brand of big rhythms, slicks twin leads, and harmonized choruses gave them a short run as the number one pop-hard rock band. All this orbiting their piece de résistance “Sister Christian”, an early proto-power ballad that was big of hook and paraded pomp without the cheese that would infect the actual power ballad to come.
Despite taking a good bit of the 90’s off, the band continued to tour and even released four albums since that break. Hole In The Sun is their 9th release in total, and the first release after a second break from recording that lasted 10 years. This album was released last year internationally (where the band is more popular these days), and finally gets it’s U.S. release now.
Track Listing
1. Tell Me Your Vision
2. Drama Queen
3. You're Gonna Hear It From Me
4. Whatever Happened
5. There Is Life
6. Rock Star
7. Hole In The Sun
8. Fool In Me
9. White Knuckle Ride
10. Revelation 4 AM
11. Wrap It Up
12. Being
Current Line-Up
Jack Blades - bass, lead vocals
Kelly Keagy - drums, lead vocals
Brad Gillis - guitars, backing vocals
Joel Hoekstra - guitars, backing vocals
Christian Matthew Cullen - keyboards, backing vocals
Collectors Information
The U.S. version of this release includes the bonus tracks Don't Tell Me You Love Me” and
“Sister Christian”. These are both acoustic versions of those songs.
The Review
Even when removed from the beloved age of my musical emergence in self awareness, the 80’s, I still manage to continue to reaffirm two facts despite my best wishes. The first is that I carry particular biases to this day, and have little patience for those offending images, sounds, and those responsible for them. The second is that I still am surprised when a song or group overturns those perceptions. Night Ranger has done that for me with this release.
Night Ranger was the clean version of the sleaze hard rock bands, the hard rock band your parents thought looked good, and the creators of “Sister Christian”. That song infected so many proms I suspect no one my age got away without tripping over it. Not that it was necessarily a bad song, but having it crammed down your throat during your teenage informative years does little to endear it, to say the least. So it was with mild curiosity but firm mental bracing I agreed to check out the first release from these experienced rockers in 10 years.
I’m glad I did – This is a fun rock album.
The album opens up with “Tell Me Your Vision” and I immediately checked my player to make sure the right CD was playing. Where was all these guitars coming from? No… It was the right CD. This wasn’t metal… It was hard rock… But I didn’t remember Night Ranger rocking like this.
And then I fell head first into this album.
It was like falling back to the 80’s again, but in a good way. But the trip was brief; a foundation to start. Some good old fashion guitar leads just rock out, and the solos are technical and rip, climbing and dipping like a passionate dog fight between veterans showing off for the sake of honor. But the music doesn’t stop there, and this is the brilliant thing here: This has advanced beyond the 80’s. It’s like the years of touring and mastering their craft has infused these stalwarts of classic 80’s rock to add an evolutionary spin to their sound. Night Ranger has advanced their sound by its own Darwinian path to what a slight modified incarnation would sound like, well today; and it does. Their patented big hooks are there, but this combines the occasional dirty guitar or Indy rock elements to brush fun and catchy “what-Ifs” across the speakers.
That’s the secret of this album. It’s catchy. You’re not really getting any reinvention of the wheel here, or a tour de force of might. Just one bands thumping claim to a corner of the rock landscape that makes their brand of infectious classic groove a little more modern.
The vocals, while still going down the road of harmonies and big lines at times, also hit you with some great rock vox courtesy of duel lead vocals in Blades and Keagy. And the aforementioned guitars range from big smeared rhythms to dynamic infectious melodies. The range they work is interesting. “You’re Gonna Hear From Me” has a classic metal groove (classic riffs away!) while “Whatever Happened” screams Indy in the verse. The solos are a nod to that era’s love of just hitting technical ecstasy for the fun of it, while the drums are mixed well and thump along nicely. And hell, even the keyboard is much more of a texture than the band used two decades ago. The production is good, and while obviously sterling like most pop rock bands, is good in letting the musicians breathe and rock out. The guitars don’t sound computerized, they race at the speed of live and that does this album good.
A few odd notes: One is the few ballads on here. I still don’t care for them much, but I have to admit they sound good and don’t retrace the well traveled ground of that era, which is nice. But I could leave them personally. Second is that this might still come across a bit dated. The band's sound has advanced, but the base is still that of early 80’s MTV hard rock. If you don’t like that era, this might be an issue.
But for me, that just adds to the charm. Bring on the big hooks in the chorus I say! Go solo-tastic for the hell of it. Cut loose, pass a cold one, and don’t wipe the grin off your face. Music should be fun, after all. Not every track works, but the good tracks work and work well and more than make this album a fun diversion to the same old rock formula we’re fed today.
I might just have to hunt down a few of those old albums and give them a second chance.
The 411: Infectious and fun, this is 80’s rock with modern twists, with great performances to make it win. Imagine 70’s Styx hooking up with an alternative producer on an Indy label and you’ll be close. A shot of then with a splash of now, shaken not stirred into a damn fun album.
