In these crazy, dark, fucked up times, many, if not all, music fans know that one thing is our saving grace in all of this: music. Now more than ever, music is my companion, my escape, and my solace. Listening to music and letting it take me someplace reminds me of how strong a tool music was in my younger years. The melodic, uplifting, goosebump-inducing sounds of great hard rock songs with an incredible singer was the music of my choice, and it was that music that gave me some sunshine in those dark times. On this particular day, that artist is Jorn Lande, and the album is Heavy Rock Radio II.
On his Heavy Rock Radio I album, Jorn took on songs such as Kate Bush’s “Running Up that Hill,” Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing,” and Foreigner’s “Rev on the Red Line.” Jorn’s take on all of these songs was outstanding, and this time around with Heavy Rock Radio II, he kicks it up a notch.
Heavy Rock Radio II is like a jukebox of good times and memories put to melodic hard rock music that makes me wish that a lot of these songs would have sounded like this in the first place. Kicking things off with “Lonely Nights” by Bryan Adams was outstanding. This song is so fucking good that it made me go back and listen to the original. While I didn’t love it, I loved Jorns take on it so much more. “New York Minute” by Don Henley actually rocked the fuck out, which is something Henley himself was never capable of doing, and the classic oldie “Needles and Pins” was so much fun that it got a repeat listen from me.
Jorn sure does love him some for Foreigner because, on Heavy Rock Radio II, he revisits the track “Night Life” and kills it. The highlight of the album for me was his cover of Bob Dylan’s “Quinn the Eskimo.” Good fucking god, I was both laughing and loving it at the same time. It is so fucking over the top, and I love it. I would love to hear what Dylan’s take on this classic would be. Dylan is such an odd, eccentric artist that something tells me that the only thing he would not like about it is the fact that he didn’t play on it.
Jorn once again has taken a handful of songs and turned them into his own songs. Jorn sings every one of these songs with so much passion and emotion one would swear he wrote these songs. I am not a Foreigner fan, and I sure as fuck am not a fan of Don Henley, but Jorn managed to take these songs and manipulate them into something that struck a chord with me. I couldn’t stop smiling while listening to this collection, and it was just what I needed to shake away the blues and anxiety of the world outside. Heavy Rock Radio II is the good time album we need right now, and that’s all I have to say about that.
Lonely Nights (Bryan Adams cover)
Winning (Russ Ballard cover)
New York Minute (Don Henley cover)
Needles and Pins (The Searchers cover)
Love (Santana cover)
I Do Believe in You (Pages cover)
Nightlife (Foreigner cover)
Bad Attitude (Deep Purple cover)
Quinn the Eskimo (The Mighty Quinn) (Manfred Mann’s Earth Band cover)
Mystery (Dio cover)
The Rhythm of the Heat (Peter Gabriel cover)
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