THUNDER – Shooting At The Sun

“I’m just a loser in a band.” Not too many guys would want to sing this line with conviction, but Thunder’s vocalist Danny Bowes pulls it off with aplomb. The song is “Loser,” on the album Shooting at the Sun, and this is one of the best hard rock songs to come out in ages. You can pick this album up Aug. 25th, and that’s an order.

Thunder is a bluesy rock band, in the same vein as Bad Company, with a singer who could easily go toe to toe with the legendary Paul Rodgers. Formed in 1989, Thunder saw much success in the U.K., and had a big hit in America with “Dirty Love.” Now, they are back with the formidable release Shooting at the Sun, and they deserve to win.

The CD starts with the aforementioned “Loser,” just a brilliant song melody wise, vocally and lyrically. “Darling, don’t deny, cuz you’re a beauty, to anybody’s eyes. I’m in the gutter, you’re in the sky, shining like a star.” Self-effacing isn’t the proper term here; brutally honest fits much better. With a chorus that goes, “Look at any other man and you’ll see, that I was born to lose … I ain’t even fit to shine your shoes. I’m just a loser with the blues,” this makes it an instant sing-along. These guys know how to write.

“Everybody’s Laughing” is kind of a cheesy, fun groovy song. Basically, it’s about going to a party where “everyone was totally gone,” and “everybody’s laughing, everybody’s high, everybody’s laughing, but I don’t know why.” If you are not in to funny songs, then you’ll hate this one. It has an almost Clapton-like vibe, and it’s just another one of the impressive songs on the CD.

Besides the upbeat rock songs, Thunder can slow it down and get serious. On the track “If I Can’t Feel Love,” a ballad, you will hear heartfelt emotion and lyrics that are more mature than your average rock band. This isn’t your empty “I love you song” by any means. You’ll find it a pleasure hearing a song that actually has something to say.

The title track is a bass-driven rocker, a good tune but not at the same level as the aforementioned songs. This is the one song where they may have run out of good ideas, but the line, “I’d rather waste my time shooting at the sun,” helps the cause.

Luckily, they make up for this small bump in the road with the songs “A Lover, Not A Friend” and the blunt “The Pimp And The Whore.” These songs have a common theme, basically “relationship” songs, and again, lyrically, they are heads above most bands in their genre. But the whole, “I lost a lover, not a friend,” line shows you what kind of “relationship” they are talking about.

Try as you might, you won’t be able to find a bad song on Shooting at the Sun. You will be able to put this in, hit play, hit random, hit repeat, whatever, and you’ll listen to it again and again. CDs like this could bring radio back to the ‘80s, when you could turn on the radio and not projectile vomit from the computer beats and moronic rhymes leaking from your speakers. It’d be poetic justice if an unassuming rock band like Thunder, who doesn’t need an image but can actually stand on their skills, leads what Def Leppard dubbed “The Rock Brigade.” If not, even if they are a bunch of losers in a band, they have made a CD that is an instant winner.