But for some significant facts concerning the band, this could just have been the follow up album to 2009 “Rising”. But things aren’t so easy here. In 2010 & 2011 Great White hit the road… but since Jack Russel (vocals) had been facing some health issues, Jane Lane (R.I.P.), Terry Ilous & Paul Shortino were asked to fill his shoes for the band’s upcoming live shows. Jack fully recovered after some time but the other guys, the original member Mark Kendall (guitar), Audie Desbrow (drums), Michael Lardie (guitar, keys) & Scott Snyder (bass) had already taken their decision to move on with Terry Ilous on vocals. That caused a severe break in Jack & Mark’s relation… later, Jack formed Jack Russell's Great White. It’s sad to see musicians who have been a team for almost a whole life and accomplished so much together… become utterly stubborn and narrow minded… without caring for anyone or anything. I think they should have talked & found a way out…
Anyhow, going back to the music part of the album… if we can easily do such a thing… “Elation” is moving in the same hard rockin’ bluesy style of the band. Terry sounds like having been part of the band for years… and generally this album is OK and possibly slightly stronger than the previous one. There are some nice tunes here like: “Love Train”, “Hard to Say Goodbye”, “Shotgun Willie’s”, “Just for the Night” & “Love Solution”… while the rest are pretty average. But that’s not what I was expecting, and I’m not the only one, from Great White. I was looking for an album full of hard bluesy rockin’ songs with strong refrains and great guitars & vocals. The only thing missing here is the actually catchy & mind-blowing songs… everything else is great. The production is very rockin’ as well.
“Elation” may not be among the best works of Great White… but that doesn’t mean that it is an awful album… I would call it more of an average one with some fine tunes in the end. It’s hard for a band like Great White to release something bad… that’s a fact… but I’m still waiting them to deliver a crackin’ album… so I guess that I just have to wait a little more. Hope they fix the name issue in the future once and for all…
Anyhow, going back to the music part of the album… if we can easily do such a thing… “Elation” is moving in the same hard rockin’ bluesy style of the band. Terry sounds like having been part of the band for years… and generally this album is OK and possibly slightly stronger than the previous one. There are some nice tunes here like: “Love Train”, “Hard to Say Goodbye”, “Shotgun Willie’s”, “Just for the Night” & “Love Solution”… while the rest are pretty average. But that’s not what I was expecting, and I’m not the only one, from Great White. I was looking for an album full of hard bluesy rockin’ songs with strong refrains and great guitars & vocals. The only thing missing here is the actually catchy & mind-blowing songs… everything else is great. The production is very rockin’ as well.
“Elation” may not be among the best works of Great White… but that doesn’t mean that it is an awful album… I would call it more of an average one with some fine tunes in the end. It’s hard for a band like Great White to release something bad… that’s a fact… but I’m still waiting them to deliver a crackin’ album… so I guess that I just have to wait a little more. Hope they fix the name issue in the future once and for all…
