Night Ranger hits the ground running on their 12th studio album ATBPO (i.e., “And The Band Played On”). The band began writing this bunch of songs in early 2020, just as the global pandemic rose. Each player — Jack Blades, Kelly Keagy, Brad Gillis, Eric Levy, and Keri Kelli — hit the studio separately to complete this follow-up to 2017’s Don’t Let Up. You’d never know the difference because ATBPO certainly features this band ‘playing on’ as a collective rocking unit.
From the heavy stomp of opener “Coming For You,” to Gillis and Kelli delivering that nearly classic Night Ranger double guitar riffing and Keagy growling through the lead vocal on “Breakout” and “Monkey,” this is the Night Ranger we have all come to love and depend on since 1979. The quintet even delivers a big middle-of-the-album power ballad anthem “Dance,” sounding as if it was plucked from 1980s heavy MTV rotation. Another ballad, “The Hardest Road,” seems to speak especially to these times, presenting the best harmonies between Blades and Keagy on all of ATBPO.
Adding to their thick swatch of hits like “Sister Christian,” “Don’t Tell Me You Love Me,” and “(You Can Still) Rock In America,” Night Ranger delivers a variety of harmony-leaden rockers and ballads on this album. As they always have been, the five-piece is just snapping out pop rock tunes as if it’s the easiest thing in the world — as if they are just ‘motoring’ by and finding them at the side of the rock music road.
~ Ralph Greco, Jr.
