Dokken – Lightning Strikes Again

DOKKEN
LIGHTNING STRIKES AGAIN
Chart Position #133

Track List:
01. Standing On The Outside
02. Give Me A Reason
03. Heart To Stone
04. Disease
05. How I Miss Your Smile
06. Oasis
07. Point Of No Return
08. I Remember
09. Judgement Day
10. It Means
11. Release Me
12. This Fire
European Bonus Track:
13. Sunset Superstar
Japanese Bonus Track:
13. Leave Me Alone

Band Members:
Don Dokken – lead vocals
Jon Levin – guitar
Barry Sparks – bass
Mick Brown – drums and vocals

Additional Musicians:
Wyn Davis – keyboards (5)

Production:
Produced by Don Dokken
Co-produced by Tim David Kelly

Review:
I was looking forward to reviewing this CD because I am a big Dokken fan and I knew that if Lightning Strikes Again sounded similar to Dokken‘s previous efforts it would be a good listen.

This is evident on the opening track “Standing On The Outside”, because the echoing guitar intro is reminiscent of “It’s Not Love” (off of Dokken‘s brilliant 1985 album Under Lock And Key), and the guitar riff at the beginning of “It Means” sounds like a carbon copy of “Unchain The Night” (off the same album). Just like other Dokken albums, Lightning Strikes Again is full of balladry in songs such as “How I Miss Your Smile” and “I Remember”. Guitarist Jon Levin has a strong presence on this album, holding down solid notes, playing impressive solos and doing a great George Lynch impression while Don Dokken himself, who produced the album, sings well with his signature vibrato.

Lightning Strikes Again is definitely a good Dokken album, but nevertheless it has too much of a modern approach, partly because it is overproduced (even for Dokken), which makes it sound too clean and polished for a hard rock band. Don Dokken is undeniably a great lead vocalist, but he just can’t hit high notes and screams like he used to, so he uses little production tricks to compensate (such as the thinning of his voice in “Disease”), which happens a lot in modern music and in doing so takes out the soul and feeling from this CD — making it sound too ‘plastic’.

www.dokken.net – www.myspace.com/dokken

Reviewed by Dan for Sleaze Roxx, September 2010

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