Years pass. No really, years. Jack Blades participated in Damn Yankees. I don’t know what the others were doing. Not working hard to become better song writers that’s for sure. Now, I love Night Ranger, mostly for nostalgic reasons, but I love them enough that not only do I own the albums, but I am outing myself here as a fan by reviewing them all. However, if you listen to Big Life, Man In Motion and Neverland back to back you realize that even though 9 years pass, the band remains the same. Same kinda fluffy songs over a grinding guitar. And it’s not just a stylistic thing, they essentially don’t change. Journey shows more range than Night Ranger.

This isn’t really a bad thing per say. If you like Night Ranger enough to want to listen to them a lot you can be pretty sure that, no matter what album you drop in the player, you’re going to like it. But on to the songs.

Neverland is a bit more … not psychedelic, but maybe hallucinogenic. I guess that means the title is appropriate. "Neverland," "My Elusive Mind," "New York Time," and "Slap Like Being Born," are positively trippy. "Neverland" rambles on about stealing the Queen of Neverland for obviously lustful reasons. (I.e. New Night Ranger meet Old Night Ranger.) "My Elusive Mind" sounds like an apology for a drunken spree. It also sounds like it was cribbed from a Tommy Shaw song off his What If solo album called "True Confessions." (And before you ask, yes, my music collection is riddled with peculiar items.)

"New York Mind" is written and performed in a very staccato, rushed style and while I respect the effort I don’t particularly like the song. However, I must add that I'm not crazy about New York either. There are wonderful things to see and do there, I have friends that live there, I’ve been there I don’t know how many times. And every time I’m there I feel like I’m on the verge of a panic attack the entire time.

I can’t describe "Slap Like Being Born." Instead of me trying here’s a sample of lyrics. "Keystone holiday / You headed for the ‘Show Me’ state / Trials and tribulations / Money came a little late / Stoned downtown // Well so much innocence / Lose it in a second flat / Revolution on the way / You tell me what’s up with that / This stuff was back over in 1972." Ah, yea. Whatever.

"Walk In the Future" is nearly a trippy song, but not quite. It’s odd, the language is loose, the music is … um, Night Ranger. "Sister Christian" older and stoned.

"Forever All Over Again," "As Always I Remain," "Someday I Will," "Sunday Morning," and "Anything For You" are an attempt to have a hit. I can just hear the band sitting around discussing what should go on the album and somebody says "hey, we had hits with ballads. Let’s put a couple of ballads on this one." This would have worked beautifully if music hadn’t changed since 1985. But it did. If you liked those ballads, you’ll like these ballads. They wouldn’t have made the high school prom circuit, but that doesn’t make them bad songs. They just tend to deal with more adult themes. "Sunday Morning" is about a man thinking about the intimate encounter he had the previous night with a married woman. This one shocked me simply because I didn’t think that A) men got themselves into those messes and B) when they did they didn’t fret over it, but that’s just me being sexist.

The last track of harder to peg. "I Don’t Call This Love" seems to be set in the anger phase of the break up. You know, that time just before you're ready to call it quits, but after you’ve become irritated out of all proportion. Crunchy guitar, confused lyrics. It’s good, I like it.

I didn’t even know that Night Ranger had reformed to put out a new album, let alone 2. Well it’s out there. If you liked Night Ranger enough to have purchased the other albums, then by all means you will like this one too. But I’m not going to hold a gun to your head and tell you your life isn’t complete without it.


Recommended: Yes

Great Music to Play While: At Work