LOVER UNDER COVER: "Into The Night"

Rating: RRRR
Label: Escape Music 2014
Review by Rich Dillon

I’m not sure if Sweden has always been a veritable hotbed for great rock and roll of a variety of styles or if I’ve only recently become attuned to it. Lover Under Cover is a relatively new band out of Gothenburg Sweden founded by multi-talented Mikael Carlsson who plays bass guitar, guitar, keyboards and supplies backing vocals. With Carlsson is vocalist Mikael Erlandsson vocalist of Last Autumn’s Dream and Tommy Denander’s Radioactive. The two had originally had a relationship that began way back in 1982 when they were both members of a southern rock style band called Rain. Always wanting to work together again they formed Lover Under Cover and issued a debut album, "Set the Night on Fire" in 2012. Martin Kronlund serves as producer and guitarist for "Into the Night" and Perra Johansson (Coldspell) sits behind the kit. Johansson, Kronlund and Carlsson are also a part of the new Dogface band as well.

"Into the Night" leads the melodic rock charge with “A Fight”, the keyboards being in the forefront until the song kicks in fully. This keyboard laden melodic masterpiece sets the tone perfectly for the whole album. “Into the Shadows” follows flowing right into the opening guitar riff of “Miracle” featuring a group vocal catchy chorus. Next up was a surprise when I first heard it and it took me several minutes to place the song. A cover version of Martika’s “Toy Soldier” originally recorded in 1988 and played constantly throughout the house courtesy of my sister in our youth. Not a favourite of mine then, it sure sounds different here and is an odd choice for a cover I think, but they pull it off quite well. “Crushing Stones” is next in rotation and is an upbeat masterpiece in what I would call the gem of the album. “Life Is Easy” and “Playboy No. 7” follow in the same vein, the latter with a little of a harder edge, dirtied up a bit maybe. Another showcase for catchy, hooky riffs and soaring vocals is “The Game is On” while “Fantasy Man” and “Closer to the Truth” are a little more on the ballady side and represent the weaker side of the album to me. “No Place Like Home” sits in the close out position and is also the longest composition contained herein beginning with soft piano. Even though this album that started out strongly lost it’s lustre in the final three cuts this terrific melodic rock offering is still well worth the purchase price for fans of the genre.

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