“I am pretty sure that you didn’t expect such a great record by Night Ranger”, a good friend of mine says to me and I agree…after all, I always expect only the best from Blades/Keagy/Gillis and Co. I am one of those guys who really enjoyed the band’s previous effort “Hole In The Sun” and I sincerely believe that if you take aside the mediocre “Seven” the rest of the albums of their entire career are with one word “brilliant”!
“Somewhere in California” is a truly inspired and unbelievable record, the result of Ranger’s decision to return to their old, trademark sound with an up to date production. The overall atmosphere of the majority of the songs refer to such classics as “Midnight Madness” and “Man In Motion” while the freshness and the energy of the band is obvious to every single note, chord structure, drum beat…everywhere! Songs like “Growing Up In California”, “Time of our Lives”, “Live For Today”, “Lay It On Me” should be already considered classics and I must underline that there is not even a filler on the album! Night Ranger is here and they celebrate their 30th anniversary with an album that shows how AOR meets Hard Rock music should be performed. They absolutely took us by storm…or even better by sun Somewhere In California!
Highlight: The superb and absolutely representative video for “Growing Up In California”.
