{"id":46537,"date":"2014-10-30T07:25:26","date_gmt":"2014-10-30T12:25:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/?p=46537"},"modified":"2014-10-30T07:25:26","modified_gmt":"2014-10-30T12:25:26","slug":"dalton-pit-stop-cd-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/2014\/dalton-pit-stop-cd-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Dalton | Pit Stop<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Alexandra Mrozowska<\/span>
\n– Senior Columnist —<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"dalton-pit-stop-front-cover\"\u201cYou\u2019re not my lover, is it wrong or right\u2026? You\u2019re not my lover, but you were last night\u2026\u201d<\/em> Do you remember this tune? Maybe not as much an exact #1 chart favorite as a cult classic in Scandi melodic rock-oriented circles, the Child-Bon-Jovi-Sambora-penned song of Dalton\u2019s 1987 debut album The Race Is On<\/em> remains perhaps their best-known endeavor up to date. In their late \u201880s heyday, these Swedes surely knew how to rock and apparently, they didn\u2019t forget their craft even though it\u2019s been exactly 25 years since their last release Injection<\/em> (1989). 2014 saw them making a triumphant return under the wing of the hegemonic Frontiers Records and under a guidance of the brilliant Erik M\u00e5rtensson (W.E.T., Eclipse). The result of this collaboration is their new album Pit Stop that sounds as if the band had recorded it straight after Injection<\/em> \u2013 even though it\u2019s been a quarter of the century that\u2019s passed.<\/p>\n

In the opening track \u201cReady Or Not,\u201d the key ingredients that made us melodic rockers enjoy The Race Is On so much are all in place \u2013 from Bo Lindmark\u2019s raspy vocals to the hooky choruses, catchy to the point of an absolute intoxication. Shiny keyboard-laden melody and a wonderfully clich\u00e9d group chant of \u201cHey You\u201d make you seriously question if it\u2019s still 2014 on the clock, and wonder how come the band didn\u2019t age at all throughout the last 25 years? The synth-driven mid-tempo \u201cDon\u2019t Tell Me Lies\u201d is another fine piece of Scandi AOR and yet another proof that the \u201880s may be gone, but for some of us, they\u2019re never over. <\/p>\n

\u201cFollow Your Dreams\u201d is a sugary acoustic-based ballad that may remind you of the style utilized by bands such as Trixter at the turn of the \u201880s and \u201890s. \u201cUp & Down\u201d is all big chorus, powerful group chant and a thick wall of synthesizer-driven sound blended into a huge rock anthem that\u2019s not only catchy but simply contagious. \u201cBad Love\u201d brings some nifty guitar playing into the keyboard-dominated picture, the band\u2019s fretman Leif Westfahl gravitating this time towards slightly rawer sound. \u201cOne Voice\u201d is another AOR gem with its uplifting message and hook-laden structure, keyboards so tinkly that they bring to mind the melodies played by the music boxes. An instant classic, you\u2019d say! \u201cHere We Are\u201d is perhaps a bit weaker, but nevertheless a good track with some huge background vocals, while slightly more updated sound-wise, but still \u201880s-infused \u201cSomething For The Pain\u201d gravitates towards the contemporary melodic rock style and musical territories occupied by bands such as W.E.T., Sunstorm or Wig Wam. <\/p>\n

The next-to-last track on Pit Stop is \u201c50\/50\u201d that again regains the supposedly \u201cvintage\u201d quality of its predecessors music-wise, again sounding as if it had been a lost gem found in the midst of the forgotten mid-\u201880s recordings. A blistering \u201cTGIF\u201d turns out to be a grand finale, its enigmatic title being actually an acronym for \u201cThank God it\u2019s Friday\u201d\u2026 it\u2019s never enough of rock ‘n’ roll songs about the joys of having a weekend off, isn\u2019t it? With a big, classic, brass-band-a-like sound with some clear-cut Aerosmith-esque echoes and Bo Lindmark doing his best Steven Tyler-ish impression, the song\u2019s finishing the album on a definitely high note. <\/p>\n

The rules of the music industry are clear but merciless; making a return after a few years can be risky and the results of it are often disappointing for the listeners of the particular act as there\u2019s usually too many of too drastic changes involved in the process. How about coming back after a quarter of the century and sounding as if the band had never really left the recording studio after making the previous album? Of course, some songs on Pit Stop were developed from the unreleased demos for what had to follow 1989\u2019s Injection<\/em> immediately so that their \u201880s origin is somewhat explainable, but still \u2013 the secret of maintaining the unmistakably \u201880s spirit and youthful enthusiasm remains perhaps the best-kept one in Dalton\u2019s camp. If they had ever revealed it and shared it with their counterparts, AOR fans would have been faced with a hard choice of what to go for. But as long as it\u2019s safely kept inside The Swedes\u2019 headquarters, the aficionados of the genre can make a space on their CD shelf for Pit Stop only and it\u2019s guaranteed they will get their money\u2019s worth. <\/p>\n

Genre: Melodic Hard Rock<\/p>\n

Band:
\nBo Lindmark – lead vocals
\nMats Dahlberg – drums, backing vocals
\nAnders Lindmark – bass, backing vocals
\nLeif Westfahl – lead guitar, backing vocals
\nOla Lindstrom – keyboards, backing vocals<\/p>\n

Track List:
\n1.\tReady Or Not
\n2.\tHey You
\n3.\tDon\u2019t Tell Me Lies
\n4.\tFollow Your Dreams
\n5.\tUp & Down
\n6.\tBad Love
\n7.\tOne Voice
\n8.\tHere We Are
\n9.\tSomething For The Pain
\n10.\t50\/50
\n11.\tTGIF<\/p>\n

Label: Frontiers Records<\/p>\n

Website: https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/DaltonSweden<\/a><\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven rating: 9\/10<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Alexandra Mrozowska – Senior Columnist — \u201cYou\u2019re not my lover, is it wrong or right\u2026? You\u2019re not my lover, but you were last night\u2026\u201d Do you remember this tune? Maybe not as much an […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":46538,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10848],"tags":[2317,10188,374,2847,10189],"class_list":{"0":"post-46537","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arcrvws2014","8":"tag-cd-review","9":"tag-dalton","10":"tag-frontiers-records","11":"tag-melodic-hard-rock","12":"tag-pit-stop"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46537\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}