The best place to start-
LARA LANE:Love Is An Illusion (1998 Version) CD
Now this was my review for the original issue for our prog-rock catalogue: "It's not prog and it's a dead ringer for classic Heart complete with similar vocal stylings, excellent songs and astoundingly good selection of well-produced commercial hard rock." At the end of '98, the album was completely remixed, along with new musical sections inserted into the old songs, plus three brand new songs on the album as bonus tracks. What's it like now? Well, you're about to find out:
"The debut album has undergone what can only be said to be a radical facelift, with the whole album now sounding so vibrant, it's like someone's taken several layers of musical mud off the original and injected it with the same magic potion that was used in the subsequent albums. Here, you will find a solid, polished, passionate set of songs with the instrumental work as clear as a bell, the production and arrangements at top notch, delivery on fire, and the songs as consistent and varied as they come with a notable psychedelic Beatles influence on track three, touches of vintage Heart elsewhere, and just one astoundingly good set of tracks that roar and fly through your head, now without a poor moment on the entire album."
LANA LANE:Curious Goods CD
Curious album as well. This suffers from an identity crisis in that I'm not sure what it wants to be as the styles range from grand keyboard-dominated instrumental interludes, through the central framework of songs that are effectively a souped-up AOR version of Heart with better vocals, more thought to the lyrics and compositional structure, plus vast solid arrangements with great dynamics and guitar work from adrenaline-fuelled riffing to sensitive electric soloing. Add to this more variation in musical styles along the way, showing that while this is AOR in essence, it's also prog, almost metal and a bit singer-songwriter at the same time. Along the way you get the impression of a slightly watered-down Dio-era Rainbow type of sound and arrangements only with a female vocalist who really should let it rip but largely keeps thing fairly polite. Still, it's strong stuff and I dare say a lot of you with less of a leaning than myself to heavier things, will really get off on this album, with its twists on prog and AOR as it goes, ensuring fans from both sides of the fence.
LANA LANE: Garden Of The Moon CD
This American artist is apparently enormously popular in Japan but means diddley-squat over here. Previous albums have promised nuch but failed to deliver, with either the vocals sounding too raw or the music sounding under-produced or any combination of the two, the actual tunes and songs not really being particularly memorable or inviting you to play the album again after the first play. Well, things have change in a big way for this album, because it is nothing short of absolutely sensational from start to finish. Everything about it is absolutely spot on. From the powerful superbly sung vocals through the riffing and soloing electric guitar, the rich and contrasting lead and textural synths/keys work, the muscular and propulsive rhythm section, the practically perfect production and the sheer quality of the songwriting - everything is in place to make this one of the most powerful and dynamic quality rock albums of the decade. The expressive feel to the awesome guitar riffing, the flow of the luxurious synth work and the sheer range of moods, along with the emotional compositions superbly delivered, makes this the album that Heart should have made after "Bad Animals". In the right place, at the right time with the right push on any one of several obvious singles on this amazing album, both the artist and the album would be enormously successful without a shadow of a doubt. It seems almost criminal that this album shouldn't be absolutely massive in terms of sales and popularity throughout the world. Prepared to be thrilled and excited by one of the best female rock vocalists around on as good a melodic rock album, that is positively thunderous in its execution, as it gets. 10 out of 10 in anyone's language.
LANA LANE: Live In Japan CD
Recorded in April '98, just after the immaculate "Garden Of The Moon" on their tour of Japan, and released in the summer of the same year, this album is nothing short of jaw-dropping delight from start to finish. Now, if you know the previous studio albums, it would be fair to think that, despite the technological advances of the day, there's no way that this band and this vocalist are going to be able to re-create the rich tapestries of instrumentation, the solid arrangements and the pure depth of production inconcert, that they had achieved on studio albums.
Well, you'd be wrong - incredibly, unutterably and most definitely wrong!!
Because this album has to be on of THE best recorded, produced, sounding, arranged and played live rock-rpog albums of the '90's. With all the synths, guitars, bass and drums cooking and scorching, soaring and flying, this more than anything shows that this lady can really sing, as her vocals sound as fabulous in a live setting as they do in the studio. Not only that, but there's an added sense of urgency and energy that you get on this live album which is absent from the more polished studio offerings, as you'd expect with any hot live act who can turn in one corker of a live show and subsequent album to boot. Every member of the band plays their heart out, including the presence of Rocket Scientists' main man Mark McCrite on rhythm guitar and backing vocals, with lead guitarist Neil Citron and synths wizard Erik Norlander putting in ensemble work, duels and smokin' leads over the rock solid, both tight and fluid rhythm section work from Tommy Amato and Don Schiff. Overall, more than an hour of guaranteed live excitement and you can't say fairer than that.
LANA LANE: The Ballad Collection CD
OK - I know what you're thinking - prog-rock energy subsiding into the depths of wimpy songs, all very pretty and drippy but lacking any real substance.
Wrong again.
This is a superlative collection of songs, way more varied than you'd credit, with arrangements from acoustic, electro-acoustic and electric, a richness of tone and subtlety throughout that will have you sitting there eyes wide open and an aching in your heart , as a collection of passionately felt and delivered songs unfolds to all its breathtakingly beautiful extent. There are new songs recorded in late '98, radically reworked songs from the "Curious Goods" album with every track on the album either a remix or completely new recording. The vocal delivery is just superb while the band positively sizzle, with some of the most impassioned playing amid huge, huge production and arrangements that stretch far beyond the horizons. A dream album for anyone into AOR, full-feeling prog and strong songs delivered with all the feeling and love in the world.
LANA LANE: Queen Of The Ocean CD
Now this is seriously amazing....we're talking hot stuff. Many of you will remember Heart from their extraordinary run in the mid-'80's when hit singles flowed like wine and two fantastic albums emerged in the shape of "Heart" and "Bad Animals". When they rocked, it was hot, and even the ballads were great, but there was still that bit of commercialism, overly polished production, etc. Then they completely lost it and that was the end of that.
Meanwhile, in the '90's, Lana Lane has been steadily working from relatively faceless roots through ever more assured live and studio work, immensely poular in Japan, much less so elsewhere in the world. Last year's album "Garden Of The Moon" was a piece of excellence, but this new one hits the word 'perfection' straight in the eye and no messing. This is AOR, rock, prog-rock and sheer unadulterated quality songs in one magnificent, mighty potent brew with an absolutely vast sound, vast production, playing to take your breath away, vocals that make you go weak at the knees and compositions that are just immense. Just witness track three for proof of this, with a power and passion as though Heart were playing "Rainbow Rising" but with a mix of finesse, dynamics, power and emotion that far outshines either of those, and they were classics to start with. No, this is an album of solid, flowing, QUALITY songs, incendiary guitar work, synths that form tower blocks of backdrops, a crisp and rock hard yet fluid rhythm section, tracks that build and develop into high-flying AOR-intensity with choruses to die for and fantastic harmony vocals amid the soaring solo vocal of the voice that IS Lana Lane. All that, and tracks that barnstormers whose strength and feel you just won't believe until you've heard them, makes this one of the very special albums in the rock/AOR/prog crossover fields for a long, long time, but THAT voice must be THE finest female voice in rock for 15 years at least. Essential? - you'd better believe it.
LANA LANE: Echoes From The Ocean Mini-CD
The second Japanese mini-CD, this time featuring one brand new track, 'Rhapsody', which is an absolutely belting rock-prog anthem if ever there was one, one that in the mid-'80's would have been played to death on every radio show across the land and surely have been a top ten hit. The other four tracks are all alternate versions of tracks from the "Queen Of The Ocean" album, all of which paint a quite different picture from the corresponding tracks on the album but all as consistent as you'd expect, with some interesting arrangements from the band, while the playing remains as hot as ever, and - ooooh - those vocals!!! Superb way of spending thirty three minutes.oh yes, as you'd expect from the Japanese, the packaging is nothing short of incredible, too, as you get a neat fold-out, solid bodied digipak.
