Personally I wasn't too fond of this record when it came out, because I wasn't into
AOR. However, one had to recognize there was something unique about
Night Ranger, which justifies this record to be a classic.
Night Ranger was a borderline case of Hard Rock and
AOR. The
AOR touch was obvious with the massive keyboards.
Night Ranger had lots of things going for them, like great vocals, fantastic songwriters and the pairing of super guitarists Jeff Watson and Brad Gillis. This unique constellation called
Night Ranger made an album that totally stood out "Midnight Madness".
The opening song
(You Can Still) Rock in America was among the hit singles off the album and while the song is up-tempo and driven by lots of energy I never really got into the song. It is pure Hard Rock but Alan Fitzgeralds keys wraps up the song too nicely. Jeff Watson and Brad Gillis trade solos and no doubt that these are more than average guitarists.
Rumours in the Air is among my favorites. Jack Blades is a distinctive songwriter and singer. The mix of keyboards, drums, bass, guitars and vocals are perfected on this one. The hard rocking drive gives the song edge. Stripped down it basically all comes down to the songs and Jack Blades has many times proven to be among the greatest writers in this genre. A superior track to the albums' two biggest hits
Sister Christian and
(You can still) Rock in America.
Why Does Love Have to Change follows the same hard rocking beat as
Rumours in the Night - It has
a great drive and the harmonizing guitar solo is outstanding.
Sister Christian was the smash hit off "Midnight Madness" and still gets played on VH1. In a word association 99 percent would probably mention
Sister Christian, when questioned about
Night Ranger. The song was a pioneer in the Hard Rock ballads genre, which later became the hot thing with the second wave of Hard Rock bands like
Poison and Warrant. Many Hard Rockers distanced themselves from
Night Rangers because of this ballad and didn't use much energy on "Midnight Madness" in the 80's. However, time flies by and
Sister Christian is a great anthem. The song is sung by drummer
Kelly Keagy underlining this was a band of extremely skilled musicians. The song is not religious and actually about Keagy's sister Christy.
Driven by an energetic riff and eminent playing from Watson and Gillis
Touch of Madness is pure guitar driven Hard Rock.
Night Ranger has a unique ability to write melodic songs and the chorus to
Passion Play is definitely memorable.
"Midnight Madness'" third hit was
When You Close Your Eyes and just like the other singles I don't consider this an album highlight. However,
When you Close Your Eyes is the strongest of the singles
- a soft rocker cut for US radio.
The extremely catchy
Chippin' Away is back on the guitar driven track. The chorus is classic with Blades in vocal topform. The leads from Watson and Gillis are amazing. The chorus is simply irresistible - definitely among album highlights.
The album closes with
Let Him Run, which is a bit out of place for this pompous record, since its stripped back.
The strength of
Night Ranger is their songwriting capability. "Midnight Madness" is 9 strong songs packed on one album performed by splendid musicians. Earlier I referred to their music as a mix of
AOR and Hard Rock - some call it pop metal, Arena Rock - but all in all it is just good music. Critics love to label the music, but let's just conclude it's closer to Hard Rock than
AOR.
No matter if you are a fan or not I guarantee there is something that you can take away from this album.
Written by
Michael Friday, January 6, 2006
Show all reviews by MichaelRatingsMichael: 7.5/10Members: No members have rated this album yet.
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