Typical Thunder - no surprise!
L. B. Ivarsson | Rock City | 04/30/2003
(3 out of 5 stars)
"Thunder started out as a very promising hard rock band carrying on the British approach similar to Bad Company and Whitesnake. Their debut titled "Back street symphony" from 1990 was indeed very good. Thunder kept on recording albums in the same musical vein throughout the 1990's but decided to break up due to lack of success (lousy backup from the record company?) after the release of "Giving the game away" (1999). After a couple of solo projects (Luke Morley's "El gringo retro" 2001 and Bowes & Morley "Moving swiftly along" 2002) the guys decided to reform Thunder again.The musical core in Thunder has always been lead guitarist Luke Morley who write 99% of the material, and even 'tho Thunder have a very gifted singer by the name of Danny Bowes and a good song writer in Morley, I would prefer if the band had more variation in their music. On "Shooting at the sun", the musical direction is as it always have been, but in a way I believe that this album is not quite as good as "Back street symphony" or "Behind closed doors" from 1995 (their finest?). The songs are rather similar to one another and Bowes' voice sounds a bit strained more than occasionally. Don't get me wrong, this is a fine effort and songs like "Loser", "Everybody's laughing" and "Out of my head" are all very good but in the long run it all melts together in a slightly boring way. Thunder have always had a thing for (acoustic) ballads and a song like "A lover not a friend" is about as good as any other ballad by the band. My advise is that Morley get hold of a co-writer in order to create some variation between the songs, and that someone tell Bowes that he doesn't need to go at 125 mph all the time - sometimes less is more. In my opinion, this is clearly a very strong 3 star album worth having, but I can't agree that it is a masterpiece in any way."
THEY'RE BACK!!
S. McCall | High Point, NC United States | 03/20/2003
(5 out of 5 stars)
"The world's most criminally underrated rock band has reformed & recorded another masterpiece for those of us in the know to appreciate. What is readily apparent the minute you pop this disc in is the sonic purity of the affair. It sounds MASSIVE!! State-of-the-art sound, excellent songwriting and playing, along with the wonderful voice of Mr. Danny Bowes make this a disc not to miss! If you're a fan of Bad Company with a slightly harder edge, PLEASE take a chance & buy this! It is worth every penny, I assure you!! They've given us a second chance; let's make the most of it & show these guys the appreciation they're due. They've made a number of consistently five-star cds in the 90s & beyond. A modern miracle, a welcome return, & an early candidate for album of the year!!"
Track Listings (11) - Disc #1