Stephen
‘Pit Stop’ is a massive comeback from Swedish oldschool melodic rock act, DALTON. I love their previous output, ‘Injection’, and even though this album is exactly 25 years apart, it feels like yesterday because the sound and vibe is very 80s yet they’re able to sound so fresh.
The variety of songs here is excellent. The first two songs make an excellent opener. ‘Ready or Not’ is slightly better than ‘Hey You’ but both songs managed to build the momentum before ‘Don’t Tell Me Lies’ slam tight with its perfect arrangement wrapped in a beautiful mid-paced tempo. ‘Follow Your Dreams’ is an awesome ballad and definitely radio material. If this was played in a concert, you can see ocean of lighters in the audience.
‘Up & Down’ has patchy verse but saved with a good chorus. The rocky second half was fixed with a monstrous track, ‘One Voice’. This is the harder side of DALTON, along with ‘Something For The Pain’ which I think the best tune here. Although I can live without ‘50/50’, the last song, ‘TGIF’ is incredibly good, especially the bridge part.
Fans of 80s hard rock and melodic rock should embrace this album because with only couple of not-so-great tracks, ‘Pit Stop’ is beyond satisfying and DALTON should be proud with this creation. If you can get your hands on the Japanese version, the two bonus tracks also worth every penny. Let’s hope this reunion will be permanent and there’ll be fourth album and so because I think they’re too talented to fade away too quickly.