Great White - Elation

I was surprised as hell to see a new Great White album and then I was completely excited when I found out Terry Ilous from XYZ was replacing Jack Russell who's not delivered a song to my ears that excited me in too many years to care. The album kicks off with the very Angel City "(I've Got) Something For You" which to be honest I'm not sure it isn't one of their songs. The rocking and rolling is energetic and aggressive which is not expected considering how bland and slow the bands stuff has been the last ten years.

This is a sign of things to come and that is a great thing because I always want to love a Great White album and they have made it very hard to do so many times. As Elation plays out the beautiful gritty and heart pouring "Hard To Say Goodbye" is one of the bands best tracks and stands up as one of the greatest slow songs for sure. Terry doesn't make me miss Jack's excellent soulful vocals at all because he's a great singer and his voice works well in the confines of Great White's bluesy hard rock style. I would have loved to hear them cover "Face Down In The Gutter" but all this new music is on par with Once Bitten, Twice Shy, Hooked and Psycho City and probably better than a couple of those albums Hooked not being one of them as that album is a masterpiece and the definitive blues inspired hard rock record.

The bands new found inspiration and songwriting abilities shown on songs such as "Resolution" and "Shotgun Willie's" could not have been predicted. This doesn't sound like a band eighteen or so albums into a career. All I can say is if you only listen to two songs on the album to decide if you are going to buy it make them those two because you get a fair representation of the rest of the record. Michael Lardie's greatness once again comes to the forefront with the clear and present production. He's really underrated as a producer and arranger and musician and so on. He's everywhere on this record with all the different instruments and his keyboards that always bring the sound together. The obvious excellence of Mark Kendall and his scorching guitar playing is never second rate or unimpressive. The crunchy Scorpions groove of "Lowdown" shows he can really do it all from heavy groove to sexy melodic to kick ass rock n' roll. The song is not one of the standout tracks but it does have a nice riff.

The three pack that closes down Elation are all seriously good Great White compositions that don't sound out of place in their catalog. The band almost save the best for last with the groovy honky tonk rock n' roll of "Complicated" that is absolutely going to be added to my I-Pod for lots of listening time. This song satisfies my soul and put this album over the top for me. Great White is back and with a great big HELL YEAH! I say go buy this now!