As with much of Laney's work as a producer, his second album is informed by the rock giants of the past, like Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones and Def Leppard.
And transparently, he's heavily influenced too by the flashy, trashy aesthetic of seventies' Glamrock.
It takes skill and vision to bundle all this together into one cohesive whole, but that's just what Laney's done here.
'Only Come Out At Night' is a hard rock behemoth, striding across the landscape of popular music, carrying a quiver of naggingly familiar hooks, scooping up 'Kashmir' like riffola and glamrock choruses by the truckload.
His production seems to involve a huge sonic tsunami, sweeping a wall of sound over us on every track, much of it clearly learned from Mutt Lange and Bruce Fairbairn.
You can see why he's such a sought after producer, recently involved with Steevi Jaimz, H.e.a.t. and Crazy Lixx.
'Love So Bad', written with Zinny Zan, is an immense rock song, a kind of 'Jumping Jack Flash Getting His Glam Rocks Off' - paying its respects to the past, but well and truly paying its dues to the here and now.
The recording is just brimming over with brightly polished anthems, like the thrilling
'One Kiss Tonight', written with Anders Ringman, and the balladic
'B4 It's 2 Late', that seems to cut against the album's grain, before a sudden blast of arena rock intervenes, thrusting a vertiginous, aurally adhesive chorus in front of our ears. This is one of 3 tracks written with Bruce Kulick.
'Gotta Run' and
'Playing With Fire' will take you way back to 'Hysteria/Adrenalize' days. Slick, polished, melodic hard rock delivered with real style and panache.
Saving the best till last, the title track
'Only Come Out At Night' brings all these elements together - a wonderfully tentative, Led Zepellin-esque riff; energetic gang vocals and a triumphant, flag waving, fist pumping hook. Album standout by a huge margin.
Laney wears his influences well, integrating them into a skilfully mapped out and carefully constructed album
And arguably, this is as good as an album can get that seeks to put a fresh spin on well explored concepts.
Written by
Brian Wednesday, April 21, 2010
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