I have a theory about Night Ranger’s last album. Ok, 2 if you count the theory that it is their last album.

This is my theory. I think that the members of Night Ranger knew, after the dismal sales of their last album (Neverland) and the pathetic tour (heaven help them, they appeared here in Akron at Tangiers, a place that hosts washed up greats such as Blue Oyster Cult and Michael Stanley. It’s 2 blocks from my house and right around the corner from the largest concentration of drug dealers in town) that they were never going to be recording another album. So they threw caution to the wind and did what ever they wanted to.

And it’s still not strikingly different from the rest of the catalogue, just a little crazier. In fact, a couple of the songs are positively hallucinogenic. But let’s start at the top, shall we?

Track 1, "Sign Of the Times" is still the basic Night Ranger song but the lyrics are not so much sung as babbled. It always makes me think of listening to a drunk, bouncing from subject to subject with little regard to organization or theme. And for that reason it’s charming.

"Jane’s Interlude" is an instrumental. Give yourself a minute to let the idea soak in. Night Ranger? Instrumental? Well, yea. What’s even scarier is that they used the musical themes from the next song (which is kind of crazy) to make this beautiful little acoustic number. It’s utterly jaw dropping. Especially when you’ve just listened to the entire catalogue and you never thought they had it in them. This is good. I mean really good.

"Panic In Jane" is one of those hallucinogenic songs I was referring to earlier. The fact that is follows "Jane’s Interlude" is nearly mindbending. It’s lively, it’s energetic, and it uses the same musical themes as the sweet acoustic number that precedes it. Amazing. This has to be another of my all time favorite songs.

"Don’t Ask Me Why" is so repetitive and dull that I won’t speak of it again.

"Kong" was written by Jack Blades and Tommy Shaw. It’s hallucinogenic and misogynistic (or as misogynistic as those 2 will get.) "I feel like Sodom and Gomorrah / but I tell you pretty mama I / could use a little more of / you you you you."

Every time I hear "Mother Mayhem" I think back to "I Need a Mother" oops, "I Need a Woman" off 7 Wishes and I smile because "Mother Mayhem" makes it sound like the singer got his mother, um, woman and got just what he deserved. (Teehee.) "You mother me / You ooze affection / You smother me / With protection / When I’m in need / You pour your sweet cider / And when I bleed / You tie the tourniquet tighter." There’s also a reference to wiping away tears with nylon. The music is slightly manic to match the wild subject matter. It’s fun and it makes me happy to hear it.

"Soul Survivor" is a clumsy attempt at social awareness. It actually makes Michael Jackson’s "Man in the Mirror" sound pretty wise and profound.

I suspect that "Sea Of Love" was originally written when the Honeydrippers song of that name was airing, but Night Ranger is much too small a fish to go after those orcas so they waited. It’s fun and I like it for itself, but I won’t try to convince you that that notion of mine doesn’t bump up its value in my eyes.

In "Peace Sign" the singer fell in love with a hippie chick and by the end of the song he’s picking flowers for 50 cents a day and she’s running a multinational corporation taking down millions "oh happy day!" Now I can’t guarantee that "oh happy day" is supposed to be sarcastic, but it always seems to run through my mind when I need a sarcatic rejoinder to the hand that life is dealing. This is another song that ranks in my all time happy songs with "Get In the Car" by Moxy Fruvous. "Oh happy day!"

"When I Call On You" is standard Night Ranger power ballad material. If you want to read more about Night Ranger and power ballads please refer to my other Night Ranger reviews.

The last song on the last Night Ranger album, "Revelation," is downright weird. It’s fun, but it’s nuts. "A rollercoaster / magic carpet ride / around the moon / Like falling backward / In a room without a view." It’s classic, it’s fun, and in some odd way it veers toward being profound. It’s a little sad that this is the end, but I can’t believe that they will get another record contract. Shoot, the greatest hits collection they released (I think) last summer didn’t even do so great. But I’ll leave you with the word they left us with. You decide if they are intriguing enough to buy the album.

"California splits in twos and threes
Would you have been everything
That you set out to be
Revelation deep inside of me
Revelation is a moment of clarity."


Recommended: Yes

Great Music to Play While: At Work