Great White - 'Rising'

Great White returns for a non-committal, back-to-basics rock album dosed with splashes of the seventies. While it doesn’t wholly thrive, Rising is unperturbed by its reason for being, which is simply an outlet for Great White to cleanse themselves of the past.

Melancholy still hovers over this band as Rising reflects much of the unfortunate stigma pinned to Great White’s backs since they made their fated trip to Rhode Island years ago. That being said, Rising succeeds better as a retro seventies rock and blues piece instead of when they try to recapture the eighties hairball party that was once their bread and butter.

Rearranging bits of “Lady Red Light” from their Once Bitten album, Great White takes a Foreigner-esque approach (complete with blue light keys) on “Loveless.” There’s a sappy Loverboy-meets-Aerosmith approach to “Down On the Level” which doesn’t quite work, while the darkly confessional “Situation” nonetheless attempts to recapture some of the poppy spark of Twice Shy and Hooked.

Though Cinderella capitalized far better with their country courting, Great White does manage the hummable tune or three with blues and country faire such as the breezy “Is it Enough” and the lone wolf slides of “Last Chance” and “My Sanctuary,” the latter being one of Great White’s most romantic tunes.

Despite a very good guitar solo from Mark Kendall, the self-flogging “Danger Zone” just has too much strained rawk about it to the point the hammy choruses drown whatever forgiveness-seeking sentiment Jack Russell attempts to breathe into the cut.

Even a song of presumed hopefulness such as “Shine” still harbors smidges of moroseness, which is about what you’d expect of a band climbing through adversity. As much as Rising seeks to purge some of the negativity Great White has had to work through the past few years, the album bears a conflict between noticeably glum undercurrents and an overt happiness in simply having four-fifths of their lineup intact.

Better than you’re expecting, but Rising is a restrained effort with random moments of professional likeability.