REVIEW: VANDENBERG – 2020 (2020)

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It probably seemed like a good idea at the time, to name the first Vandenberg album for 25 years after the year it was released.

2020, after all, seemed like the future. It always did when I was growing up. The stuff of sci-fi. That was 2020. For Vandenburg, it must’ve felt like a statement. “Hey, its 2020, here we are, lets go!” That sort of thing.

Well 2020 sucks, doesn’t it? It’s the worst year for a generation. Simple as that. I mean, I’ve just listened to the news on the radio before preparing to write this, and between the pandemics, the riots, the uncertainty, the political machinations, its hard not to feel worried, right?

But, well, help is at hand. Because this “2020”? Well, this one doesn’t care about any of that. It merely wants to rock. To entertain and to have fun.

Step right up.

This was the band Adrian Vandenburg was in before that other one that he helped become one of the biggest rock bands of the 80s, they had some hits, did Whitesnake, crikey. For this go around, he’s got a cast. Goodness me. Ronny Romero was the man Richie Blackmore turned to when he revived Rainbow and Deep Purple. I saw them twice and Romero was top quality), Koen Herfst drums for Toto and Randy van der Elsen is in Tank (and Brian Tichy and Rudy Sarzo turn up too – they are genuine royalty). He’s even got a proper big name producer too. Bob Marlette has done things for Sabbath and Alice Cooper amongst many others (as an aside I was a huge fan of the “Reunion album he helmed for Black Stone Cherry).

But none of that really matters. Because all that really counts is not “how” but “how good” and in this case the answer is simple: Very.

The opener “Shadows Of The Night” is a fabulous slice of Deep Purple-ish hard rock, and Romero unearths some kind of Coverdale/Hughes mash up, and Vandenburg, he just casually tosses out some riffs like he was born to do it. It is more than a cracker of a kick off, though. It’s a taster of the album. It’s quite simple really. If you don’t like that one, you won’t like the rest.

“Freight Train” manages to sound exactly like you imagine a track (sorry!) called that would in these hands, and if “Hell Or Highwater” has a bit more of a swagger than the others, then its only so it can sound more like Led Zeppelin.

Adrian Vandenburg is a superb guitar player, though. “Let It Rain” adds some darkness, even if it does suck you in into thinking it’s going to be a ballad. Rather it is something that you might think Axel Rudi Pell might get on one of his albums.

He’s proved with the couple of Vandenburg’s Moonking’s albums he did that he’s got the fire back for playing too, and there is a modernity about the likes of “Ride Like The Wind” say, that is inescapable. “Shout” is perhaps the most “Whitesnake”, if you will, but it’s the good kind, not the MTV balladry. The kind that gets fists up and is still damn good fun.

“Shitstorm” – maybe an apt thing for 2020 after all? – builds skilfully, and there is a real feeling of enjoyment on “Light Up The Sky”. It just seems that everyone is relaxed, and it is clear too that Vandenburg wrote these songs for Romero. They sound markedly different from Moonkings for example – the solo on this one for one thing is a thing of sleazy beauty.

The acoustics come out for a “Burning Heart”, and if you were looking for a power ballad, then this is it. A good one, though, so that’s ok. They are allowed one, especially when “Skyfall” follows, because when that one gets going, it has a real crunch.

“2020” is the sort of album that you can call AOR without insulting it. Adult Orientated Rock is exactly what this is. It is difficult to imagine much crossover potential, or “youth market penetration”, but as a hard rock record made by grown-ups, for grown-ups, then there won’t be many better, or classier, in …well, 2020.

Rating 8.5/10

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