Customer Reviews

Gemini

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Good

Lane's presentation of Creams' "White Room" and The Moody Blues' "Nights in White Satin" are not quite as dark and dreary as the originals. With her serene and melodic vocals, the songs become a bit more romantic and uplifting. "Long Way From Home" (Foreigner) is a great AOR number with smooth, fuzzy guitars leading the charge. For her second Foreigner track Lane goes for the beautiful balladry of "Starrider." "Pink Moon Suite" combines Heart's "Johnny Moon" with almost the entire first side of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon. The marriage of the two makes it seem the songs were cut from the same mold. As with most of the album, Lane is the star of the Heart track, but it's the backing band, and most notably keyboardist Erik Norlander's chance to shine on the Floyd tracks. If you are familiar with Lana Lane, then it's no surprise that she covers yet another Heart classic, "Dream of the Archer." Lana cites Nancy Wilson as a major influence.

The Bad

Not particularly an era of music I am all too familiar with or fond of.

The Verdict

I have been a fan of Lana Lane since the first time I heard her angelic voice. Although most Lana Lane albums are a little harder in the music department, all of Lana's beautiful melodies have followed her to this colorful venture. Sit back, put your feet up, and breathe in the serenity.

The Good

Lane's presentation of Creams' "White Room" and The Moody Blues' "Nights in White Satin" are not quite as dark and dreary as the originals. With her serene and melodic vocals, the songs become a bit more romantic and uplifting. "Long Way From Home" (Foreigner) is a great AOR number with smooth, fuzzy guitars leading the charge. For her second Foreigner track Lane goes for the beautiful balladry of "Starrider." "Pink Moon Suite" combines Heart's "Johnny Moon" with almost the entire first side of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon. The marriage of the two makes it seem the songs were cut from the same mold. As with most of the album, Lane is the star of the Heart track, but it's the backing band, and most notably keyboardist Erik Norlander's chance to shine on the Floyd tracks. If you are familiar with Lana Lane, then it's no surprise that she covers yet another Heart classic, "Dream of the Archer." Lana cites Nancy Wilson as a major influence.

The Bad

Not particularly an era of music I am all too familiar with or fond of.

The Verdict

I have been a fan of Lana Lane since the first time I heard her angelic voice. Although most Lana Lane albums are a little harder in the music department, all of Lana's beautiful melodies have followed her to this colorful venture. Sit back, put your feet up, and breathe in the serenity.

This wonderful cover collection of mostly classic rock staples shines a bright spotlight on the melodic, subtly powerful vocal stylings of prog diva Lana Lane. With a host of talented players including Vinny Appice, George Lynch, Tony Franklin and of course Erik Norlander, interesting twists enhance songs like "White Room," "White Rabbit" and "Starrider." Often vocally compared to Ann Wilson, Lana's take on Heart's "Dream of the Archer" will touch your soul. Including a melange of songs from Pink Floyd's "Dark Side Of the Moon." fans of Lana's more intricate, progressive music will greatly enjoy her versions of more commercial music.

As I already opined before, latest Lana's albums suffer from lack of melodic diversity. There is no problem like this when you issue a covers collection (her first, entitled just that - "Covers Collection", was a great album), and therefore you get something better (but perhaps less personal). Some of the songs are done very nicely and only profit from Lana's arrangement: "Breathe" suite is terrific, "White Rabbit" and both Cream tracks are performed very close to the original so it's kinda hard to say anything but good words about them. A couple of them I could easily live without... they are of course among the Heart and Foreigner tracks. If anybody asked me (nobody will, of course) I would say that Lana needs to take a long hard look at the state of her career and do something new and fresh... but then again, nobody is asking me and she probably will simply issue another lackluster studio album and a double-disc Best Of collection (which would be nice but won't solve the problem).