Label: Shooting Star 2015
Review by Kimmo Toivonen
Shooting Star is still alive and kicking, in case you didn’t know. They have always been more or less a cult band, never selling millions of albums but still loved by many all the same. Most of their US fans seem to favor the band’s early albums, while here in Europe the more polished sound of the late eighties era has its’ own share of fans.
With ”Into The Night” the band has created an album that should please both camps. Maybe soundwise these songs are closer to the early stuff, the keyboard sounds harken to the 70’ies and somehow the whole vibe is pretty ”organic”. The songs range from guitar-driven rockers such as ”This Is Our Town” and ”Bring Down The House” to moody keyboard based songs like ”She Gives Me The Chills” and ”Let Me Know”.
New vocalist Todd Pettygrove impressed me live at Firefest two years ago, and now he does the same on record. His vocal style suits the band really well.
I would have liked to give this album a better rating since the band is obviously on fire and re-energized. If I only rated the vibe and the energy, this would get at least one ”R” more, but once again, it’s the songs that count. All of the songs are decent enough, but how many future Shooting Star classics are among them? Not too many. Most of the songs start with a lot of promise, but fail to deliver the killer hook lines required to take them to the next level. The closest thing to a future S. Star classic might be ”Hole In My Heart”, which mixes powerful riffs with moody keyboards and a rather excellent chorus.
If you’re a fan of the earlier albums you might think that this is full of classics, and I highly recommend you to check this out. There’s no reason not to, as the band is offering it as a free download on their site! Go on, run into the night!
www.shootingstarmaniacs.com/
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Shooting-Star/85242311019
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