NELSON

LIGHTNING STRIKES TWICE

FRONTIERS RECORDS

Track Listing:

1. Call Me
2. Day By Day
3. Ready, Willing and Able
4. How Can I Miss You
5. You’re All I Need Tonight
6. To Get Back To You
7. When You’re Gone
8. Take Me There
9. Come
10. In It For the Money
11. Change a Thing
12. Kickin’ My Heart Around

It’s not often you know half way into the first track that what you are getting is the definitive article. From the opening bars of opener ‘Call Me’ to the end of the first chorus you know that this is what it says on the packet: a worthy successor to the classic ‘After the Rain’ album that is now almost 20 years old.

We get it all here: the soft wave of lyrics, the intense feeling of blue skies above and the most beautiful harmonies. Nelson is back, though if you are a fan like me then they never really went away, so perhaps I should say that Nelson is back to the sound that gave them number one hits and sell out tours at the start of the nineties.

There’s a certain maturity in the grooves, but still plenty of reminders of the glory years: the opening riff to ‘You’re All I Need Tonight’ for example could only be Nelson. It’s a great song with the trademark harmonies to the fore.

But there’s more to this growth. Elsewhere ‘Ready Willing and Able’ starts off with a riff that sounds almost like Aerosmith at the end of their first-time-round life and then turns into a trademark up-tempo rocker with almost gospel-like under-stated backing vocals. ‘How Can I Miss You’ is a melodic classic and almost has a Latin Rick Springfield meets early Bon Jovi vibe to it (no really, that means it’s good). Throughout the brothers hardly put a foot wrong.

‘When Your Gone’ is perfectly crafted, with a sweeping Bon-Jovi-like bass line and wringing wet with the kind of vocal harmonies most bands only dream of. Strangely for me, aside from my favourite track, the opener ‘Call Me’ I don’t have a particular favourite here, the consistency is incredible.

‘To Get Back to You’ the big ballad features a staggeringly good cameo from Steve Lukather of Toto and again reminds you of how good the debut album was but more importantly shows you that, hey these guys still have it all (nice woodwind too!).

If you are already a Nelson fan then you are in for a real treat. If you appreciate great sounding, well-written melodic rock, with a decidedly eighties flavour then you won’t find better. A real contender for Melodic Album of the year: and well worth the wait. Mission accomplished guys- Lightning has just struck twice!

LINKS:

Website: http://nelsonkicksass.com/

Check out my interview with Gunnar from earlier this year: http://www.therockpit.net/Articles/2010%20Interviews%20Articles/InterviewGunnarNelson.php

Mark Rockpit