Frontiers [Release date: 28.01.22]
Neptune Blue is Lana Lane’s first album release since 2012.
The close knit band that surrounds her includes her husband/ producer/ keyboard player, Erik Norlander, with Jeff Kollman on guitar and John (Asia) Payne on vocals, both of whom are bandmates of Norlander on the new Alan Parsons’ Live Project.
Neptune Blue signals a change in musical direction for Lane.
It’s hardly radical, the symphonic rock and prog stylings of her previous 20 solo albums (not to mention Ayreon and Rocket Scientists recordings) have not been totally jettisoned, but she’s moved off now into more of an AOR/Melodic Rock direction. Although at times, she wanders off the path into the undergrowth.
Opener, ‘Remember Me’s churchy organ, thumping rhythms and just about pulse quickening hook would have been called “mainstream” rock in the eighties. ‘Under The Big Sky’ is a close relation, pulling a strong, hooky chorus out of a soft rock arrangement. Both are very Heart. Lane’s vocals resemble Ann Wilson’s to the extent you initially might think these tracks got left on the cutting room floor after the Bad Animals and Brigade sessions.
Apart from a few beacons of light toward the back end of the album, the songs bland out into Carpenter’s cut outs (Come Lift Me Up, Neptune Blue) and uninspired lyrical choices (Don’t Disturb The Occupants).
The funky country rock of ‘Bring It On Home’ (Kollman is superb here), the balladic, Beatlish heavy pop of ‘Someone Like You’, and ‘Miss California’ lift the album considerably toward the end. The pace and intensity of this latter tracked is badly missed earlier in the album, as are the insightful observations on the human condition. Even the title is a neat play on words.
It’s a bit of mixed bag of delights and disappointments then. Prog and Symphonic Rock fans will miss their fix. AOR fans might enjoy only the occasional high. ***
Review by Brian McGowan
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Power Plays w/c 9 December 2024
In this sequence we play ‘The Best of 2024′ GRTR! reviewer selections
Featured Albums w/c 9 December 2024
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