CHRIS LANEY - review added 19th April 2010
Album Review: Only Comes Out At Night (2010)
For fans of: Hard Rock... and naming songs after drinks
Only Comes Out At Night, which is possibly an album about false teeth, is Chris Laney's second solo album. It follows last year's Pure and again sees Chris joined by numerous guests. This time, however, the cast lost is longer and considerably more impressive. How does Bruce Kulick (KISS), Brian Robertson (Thin Lizzy, Motorhead), Conny Bloom (Hanoi Rocks, Electric Boys), Ian Haughland (Europe), Zinny Zan (Shotgun Messiah, Zan Clan) and Nalle Grizzly Pahlsson (Treat, Therion, Randy Piper's Animal) grab you? There were even more besides that lot too...
The sound this time around is similar to the first. It's full of bouncy fun hard rock with elements of punk, metal and more. Chris' voice is again on the outer reaches of excellence, directly straddling the border between characterful and out of tune. There's something innately loveable about his style though, and he really does sound like nobody else.
Song wise, Only Comes Out At Night doesn't come across quite as well as Pure. The quality of production and performance is just as high, but the number of monster choruses, spine-tingling hooks and catchy tracks is lower. I'm also not that impressed with Chris' efforts at taking corporate sponsorship to new highs. He has used his association with an energy drink manufacturer to name 'Rockstar' in their honour. It's not the most subtle bit of advertising ever, but at least he avoided the total sell-out route of featuring a fizzy-can-opening sound effect within the track.
Best moments on the album include the boisterous title track, the riotously sleazy 'Love So Bad', and the annoyingly okay 'Rockstar'. The near-ballad 'B4 It's 2 Late' trumps them all though. Apart from them - interestingly the first 4 songs on the album - the remaining tracks are an enjoyable listen...but they simply don't make you say "wow!" like the ones on the first release often did.
Overall, Only Comes Out At Night is good, and as a standalone release it has plenty to recommend it. When you compare it to Chris Laney's first solo effort - and when you put it up against some of the album's he's worked on recently like the superb Crazy Lixx release - it looks weaker. Shame.
Check out... The first 4 tracks.
Track List:
01. Only Comes Out At Night
02. Love So Bad
03. Rockstar
04. B4 It's 2 Late
05. Eyes Out Poppin'
06. One Kiss Tonight
07. Gotta Run
08. Playing With Fire
09. Crush
10. I Had Enuff
11. Daydream
Label: Metal Heaven
Artist's website(s): Chris Laney , MySpace
