by Night Ranger
~ The forgotten followup ~
It’s amazing how many people considered Night Ranger to be a one-hit wonder on the strength of “Sister Christian”. They completely forget tunes like “When You Close Your Eyes” or “Don’t Tell Me You Love Me” or “Goodbye” that all hit the charts.
But after their massive tour in support of Midnight Madness and “Sister Christian,” they recorded an ambitious follow-up that was arguably a much better album, both musically & lyrically. Unfortunately, it got released in 1985 when hard rock was on the run from a combination of hairspray fatigue and the PMRC. Hip hop was starting to invade MTV, and the follow-up albums from people like Mötley Crüe and Def Leppard hadn’t dropped just yet.
Into that hard rock wasteland, 7 Wishes appeared and the world yawned. It’s unfortunate too, because there are some great moments of hard rock radio quality tunes all over this album:
I got holes in my conscience / shot with a vengeance
Just make you wonder what was happening at 4 in the morning.
Oh, and the video is goofy as hell too