LANA LANE

Erik Norlander and Lana Lane do most of the songwriting. The songs aren't terribly complex, but there are glimpses of various prog sub-genres. They're at times atmospheric, at times hard, and always enjoyable.

AOR-style rock with some prog influences. It's not something I'd listen to when I'm in the mood for complexity, but despite that it's very enjoyable, and deserving of 4 stars.

The highlight of the album is The Beast Within You, which is more dynamic and progressive than the rest of the album. My version of the album has a bonus track, John Wetton's I Believe in You. The liner notes say that John Wetton wrote this song for this album; two years later he released his own version on his Rock of Faith album. The last three tracks-- a weak Italian language cover, a fun proggy instrumental written by Norlander, and the Wetton bonus track--seem a bit disjointed from the rest of the album. The Italian song should have been left off, as it really feels out of place.

Overall, a nice listen. If you're new to Lana Lane, start with one of her higher-rated albums instead. Still, recommended for fans of Lana Lane and this style of light prog/AOR-style music.

I have always felt that Lana is one of the strongest singers in the prog scene, and here she is provided with material which really lets her express herself with long-held notes, and music behind her which is sometimes, simple, at other times complex, but always middle of the road AOR influenced prog. The best song is opener "Remember Me", where Erik kicks it off with some traditional organ before it turns into a belter. By the time we got to the chorus I was in heaven as there are strong hints here of "Operation Roswell" which will probably always be my favourite of hers. The album does calm it down somewhat after that which is a real shame, as if they had all belted like this then we would have an absolute classic on our hands. As it is, this is still an incredibly powerful release, showing that although she has been away for ten years, she has never lost her drive. With three Rocket Scientists by her side, she yet again shows why she has such a great reputation. For anyone who has not heard any of her other material this is a great starting point, and one I have really enjoyed playing. Let's hope that it is not ten years until the next one!

Lana is the owner of a strong good voice remaining intact over the passing years, Erik comes with some neat symphonic organ passages, like the intro of the opener, the compositions are OK, so, the real question is: is there some element here preventing this album from sounding absolutely like Asia-like AOR? And the answer is no, there are the usual guitar breaks & solos coming over in their expected place & order, the more or less pyrotechnical drums fills, and a band as tight as this kind of music requires. That's not bad, whenever you are the kind of person who feels comfortable with music featuring a certain rocking edge, but no complexity beyond well-known time signatures & conventional harmony.

The more distinctive moments of the album are probably to be found in the track 4 Come Lift Me Up, with its refreshing acoustic strumming setting the mood and pace on a different vibe, and the closer, which brings out the most of a sensible balladist that Lana has to offer, and features a great guitar solo over choral background towards the end.

The only problem with the 10th anniversary Concert if the fact that they tried, as much as possible, to avoid playing the same songs they performed on Storyteller. And since that included most of their classics, the set list here suffers, even if the quality of the delivering is way better than before. Her most famous song Symphony of Angels gets a the stunning visual it deserved, but many other live favourites do not. Great stuff like Through The Rain, Night Falls, Frankenstein Unbound or Escher´s Staircase, just to name but a few, which did not get the right visual or the best performance on Storyteller, are missing. Not that the actual repertoire is bad, far from it, but I guess the title implies a compilation of sorts and most we get are album tracks and more recent material.

Still, I must say I like this DVD a lot: after all, is a whole concert, the quality of the the sound is top notch (as anything with Norlander´s stamp on it) , Lane is a great singer and is in top form here. The band is tight and the songs, if not the ones we would love to see and hear, are very good: I specially like how Lane gives room to the musicians to shine and deliver great instrumental passages, making it sound like a band effort rather than a solo performance backed by excellent bunch. It seems that we´ll have to wait some more time until we get a good live recording of a show that may include her classics together with the newer stuff. But for now this 10th Anniversary Concert will do.

Rating: somewhere between 3,5 and 4 stars, that I´ll round up to four because of it´s a great show regardless of the missing classics.

The quality of the music is absolutely spotless, as you can expect from a Norlander production, even if the word overdub screams in several occasions. Still, the music is great most of the time. On the other hand the visual quality of the tracks varies a lot: the most recent footage, on the 2002 and 2003 torus are the best and the only ones to feature multi camera shots. They are the best ones visually, but not great for today's (or even then) standards. The early ones, which unfortunately contains the top classics, are little more than amateurish affairs. Such bombastic and symphonic epics like Symphony Of Angels deserved better visual to match its stunning musical performance here. Another ironic and odd point is the fact that the low quality video songs are the ones with the classic line up that included guitarists Neil citron and Mark McCrite. On the 2003 tour there is only one axeman, the aforementioned Verschuren, and although he is very good, you'll end up missing the trademark guitar harmonies of Citron and McCrite. The latter also proved to have a better voice to harmonise with Lane than Kelly Keeling (who toured on 2002 and 2003).

Overall all the performances are very good and leave little or nothing to their studio counterparts: the sole real deception here is Through The Rain: this powerful tune should be a live show highlight, but Lane and Keeling two part harmony is no match to the three part studio version. Besides, the guitar solo is not as good and, for some unexplained reason, Norlander's stunning Hammond solo is included on this version. A real shame. But, let's face it, this is the only real bad move.

In the end I feel that Storybook has more of a historical value, specially for the Lane and the people involved, but was not what most fans, me included, were waiting for so long. I guess they got the message, for only one year after that Lane and Norlander would release the Tenth Anniversary Concert, a full concert video with a stunning band performance that captures Lane's show in all its glory. But that's another story.

This one has good moments, but is also too uneven visually. You can enjoy it in parts. 3 stars.

The best cuts are the Pink Moon Suite (four tracks from Dark Side Of The Moon put together with Heart´s Johnny Moon), on which they do creditable, respectful and convincing versions that work very well with Lane´s vocals. They alone may be well worth the price of the CD alone. Heart´s Dream Of The Archer is another one, where it is clear that Ann Wilson´s vocal delivering is one of Lane´s greatest influences along with Grace Slick´s (White Rabbit is covered too). Actually the only song that didn´t really work is the Moody Blues Nights In White Satin, that somewhat turned out a bit dull and uninspired. Cream´s White Room and Sunshine Of Your Love are a bit out of place here too, but are saved by the excellent instrumental work, specially of the lead guitarist George Lynch (Dokken, Lynch Mob). Lynch certainly is one of the highlights of Gemini, giving it a hard edge where needed.

While I can´t say that this collection is essential, it is still high above mere good. The versions were very well done and the instrumental accompaniment is absolutely gorgeous. Small surprise considering the caliber of the musicians involved. Needless to say, Lane´s vocals are also superb. Maybe, like the first, they should be a little bolder concerning the choice of material, but what to do? This is clearly an album that was done for fun and they did a fine job. Production and sound engineering were like always in the hands of Lane´s husband, Erik Norlander (who also is presenting us with some of the finest keyboards works around these days). And he produced a very organic and crystalline sound.

In the end you get the impression they,if they wish so, could have made a living being a covers band only. Yes, they are THAT good.

Rating: 3,5 stars at least. A fine album to listen to.

Once I started to listen to the CD it was clear that the AOR tendencies are still around, of course, but with an edge and a much more inspired repertoire. In other words, those wonderful symphonic arrangements are present in force (the 11 minute In Exile being the best exemple, even if it is not exactly the best track). It seems that Lane had gathered the best of both worlds for a real strong and convincing album. It is ok that this is no Queen Of The Ocean, but still a real fine work that grows on you with every spin. There is great variety of styles and no fillers to be found here. As usual the performances are spotless: her voice is terrific but she is also a team player, giving the musicians plenty of room to contribute. The production is, as expected from anything Norlander produces, crystal clear.

It took Lana Lane five years to come up with a follow up to Red Planet Boulevard, against the usual 1 album per year during the mid 90´s to the early 2000s. But it was well worth the wait.

Rating: 4 strong stars.

The results? Well, it all depends with what you expect. But let me start by saying there is nothing like Led Zeppelin here at all. Sure, there´s more hard rock on Red Planet Boulevard than on all Lane´s previous releases, sometimes bordering the metal edge but often falling into the the AOR trap (just listen to a track like Jessica). On the instrumental side there´s little no doubt both Verschuren and Van Ee are excellent musicians and capable of delivering everything needed. In the studio at least. Norlander is competent on the bass guitar, but he is surely much more accomplished on the keys and when he does a solo (like on Capture The Sun) you only wish he could have done more of the same on other tracks.

The tracks in general are good, specially the first three: Into The Fire, The Frozen Sea and Capture The Sun (although the opener, Into The fire, sounds like a sped up version of Into The Ether, from her debut album). The Sheltering Sorrow and Save The World are also very good, maybe because, like the aforementioned three, they are more into the old symphonic rock /classic rock mold that fits so well for her voice. The others are ok, but below par. As usual,. Norlander´s production and engineering are simply perfect.

Conclusion: an interesting experiment. You can´t blame them for not trying to avoid the easiest formulas and risking something different. Still, I really hope those beautiful layers of symphonic keys were used more. Kind of a transitional album, maybe. Good CD..Sometimes very good. But hardly essential. 3 stars.

So we have back Norlander´s vintage symphonic keys along with some blistering guitar riffs and solos. There are also several calmer moments too, plus a very beautiful instrumental (The Vision, one of Norlander´s best). As one can only expect from such gifted musician/engineer/producer, Lane´s husband and partner gives the record a crystal clear sound and balance with all the instruments and vocals appearing loud and clear and at the right moments. There are no real highlights here, except maybe for the aforementioned The Vision. It´s the kind of album you hear from start to finish with no weak moments.

Lady MacBeth may not reach the heights of some of her best works like Queen Of The Ocean, but it is a solid and inspired album. It restore my faith in her talent and good taste. I´m looking forward to hear her two follow ups. Rating: 4 strong stars.