OUTLAND – Long Way Home

To compose good AOR Melodic Rock music is not easy, and Outland seems to have problems in finding the right balance. It is like they decided to go way over the edge with their second album, entitled Long Way Home. Indeed they do have a long way to go.

Both members are veterans on the rock scene in America — Jeff Prentice, vocalist and guitarist from Predator and Rob Nishida, multi- instrumentalist from Weeds. Their contributions throughout this release include no big highlights, but still this is an ok album. The songs are good but have no surprises. In other words, it is not a memorable CD, instead it is one of those albums that soon will be forgotten. They sound somewhat connected to Night Ranger and Survivor, and their is too much late 70/s and 80/s influences over their music. This is an album that should have been released 20 years ago, but instead was released in Europe in February 2005.

There is something strange about this album. The music sounds good while you spin the CD, and it is almost enjoyable. But as soon as the album is finished, there is nothing that creates the urgent “gotta give it one more spin” feeling. Still, these guys prove that they are good musicians, and they give the listeners some good songs. The 80s-sounding keyboards are pretty good, but the voice of Prentice is a bit monotonous, and it lacks variety and passion.

This is an album especially for those who are totally into the AOR bands from the 80/s, with lots of hooks and nice choruses. Long Way Home is a CD with lyrics full of cliches, and when the band tries to kick out the jams in their songs, it gives a feeling that they are singing love songs to big-haired teenage girls, with little room for any other audience.

To complete this “trip back to the 80s- package,” they got help from Pat Torpey on drums. He is better known from the band Mr. Big, and he is doing a good job through the album’s 11 tracks. The last track is a cover of Thin Lizzy/s “Hollywood.” Outland’s version doesn/t match the original at all, which could be a good thing or bad thing, depending on what you expect out of cover songs. Nishida and Prentice produced Long Way Home themselves, but the production is a bit dry.

The conclusion is that this is a good album, but not outstanding on any front. Hopefully they will show some more guts on their next album. They need some of the good old American rock /n/ roll bad boy attitude. This second album by Outland is distributed through Avalon / Marquee in Japan.

Lineup

Jeff Prentice – Lead and rhythm guitars, lead vocals, and keyboards
Rob Nishida – Lead and rhythm guitars, bass, keyboards, and background vocals
Pat Torpey – drums