Drive At Night: Echoes Of An Era

This is a new project put together by Joachim Nordlund and Johan Lindstedt who have been friends and musical allies for some time, so it made perfect sense for them to join forces and create an album that would demonstrate their love of all things melodic rock and very much in the vein of the 80`s variety.

This project goes under the name Drive By Night and this album has fairly effectively captured the essence of the melodic rock scene of that decade they both so admire, just look at the album`s title for that!!

That is perfectly demonstrated with the opening track `The 80`s Calling`, it’s their paean to that decade and is a song with a fair few Bon Jovi-isms in it. There`s the sprinkling of keyboards to back up the guitars, it could have ended up sounding a little hokey, but it’s done with a real sense of affection and therefore comes across as sincere.

`The Youth of Today` is cast from a similar mould and is a fairly enjoyable romp, but as the album progressed I did find my attention starting to waver as the songs did begin to merge into one another, and the overtly Bon Jovi similarities did start to wear thin with me, there is of course the obligatory ballad in the form of `Endless Kind of Love` which is an acoustic number and is a little too close to Bon Jovi, right the way down to the call and response that Messr`s Bon Jovi and Sambora pretty much trademarked back then. Even some of the song titles wouldn`t be out of place on an 80`s Bon Jovi album there`s `One’, ‘Wild In the Streets` and `United`, you can probably predict what they are going to sound like even before you hear them.

I may be coming over as hypercritical as this album is certainly a labour of love for both musicians, and it is without doubt been extremely well put together and it all sounds crisp and dynamic. This is a release aimed directly at those melodic rock fans that still yearn for the catchy melodies, big keyboards sounds and punch the air sing-a-long choruses that were so prevalent in the 80`s, so if you still hold a candle for 1980`s Bon Jovi then this is most definitely an album for you.

Track Listing
1. The 80’s Calling
2. The Youth Of Today
3. Partners In Crime
4. Weekend Fun
5. Endless Kind Of Love
6. One
7. Wake Up
8. Kings Of Kings
9. Wild In The Streets
10. Time
11. High Enough
12. United

Added: June 20th 2022
Reviewer: Malcolm Smith
Score:
Related Link: Band Facebook Page
Hits: 802
Language: english

[ Printer Friendly Page ]
[ Send to a Friend ]