Back in the late 80s/early 90s, White Lion released four enjoyable but hit and miss albums. Their 1991 swansong ‘Mane Attraction’, in particular, captured the band in top form, with the epic ‘Lights & Thunder’ and the rocky ‘Leave Me Alone’ showing off the Mike Tramp and Vito Bratta musical partnership at its finest and arguably most intricate.
Following the band’s split, guitarist Vito was hardly seen again, but vocalist Mike Tramp trucked on, firstly with the heavier Freak of Nature, and then with an on/off solo career, which gave the world the enjoyable ‘Capricorn’ album in 1998. Much less enjoyable have been Tramp’s attempts at reviving the White Lion moniker for the woeful ‘Return of The Pride’ in 2005, and worse still, for his collection of solo recordings ‘Songs of White Lion’ in 2023. Although that album featured some classic, well loved tracks, Tramp and his hired hands summoned none of the real power of the old band, and as a result, tunes like ‘Wait’ and ‘Little Fighter’ came across as little more than a flat cash in.
2024’s ‘Songs of White Lion II’ is actually worse. It isn’t worse, musically speaking; the tunes are still handled with a workmanlike professionalism (although arguably, they deserved more than that). The bigger problem stems from Tramp having already plundered the back catalogue for a lot of the best tracks for the first volume of re-recordings. This instantly makes this second division product feel even more like an also ran.
The indifferent nature of the re-recordings is genuinely evident on ‘All You Need Is Rock ‘n’ Roll’. At the outset, the meaty guitar riff sounds fine, but as things progress, there’s no obvious enthusiasm. Tramp is joined by a flat drum sound, and when the chorus hits, he fails to hit any of the notes of his younger years. Instead, he sort of sing-speaks the main hook in a low tone. There’s no real power on his part, and it’s left to the bass to pick up the slack with a couple of solid fills. The end of the number introduces a better drum sound, but this has the effect of making Mike’s voice sound worse. ‘Lonely Nights’ is a little better, thanks to a hefty guitar tone driving a chunky groove that works well, but Tramp’s voice is fairly awful, crooning and wobbling through the familiar melody. It’s retained that unmistakable accented delivery, but has none of its previous sheen or enthusiasm. Between the guitar work – which actually includes a decent stab at Vito’s old solo – and core melody, this would certainly just about pass muster as original work, despite the lacklustre voice. As a re-recording, it serves no real purpose other than to earn Tramp a few royalties. Somewhere around the second chorus, you’ll wonder why you aren’t just listening to ‘Pride’ instead.
Unfortunately, the bulk of this set displays no real spark. The epic ‘Lights And Thunder’ sounds rather leaden when helmed by a lower vocal, and the band really aren’t up to the job when reproducing the huge swagger of the original cut; ‘Till Death Do Us Part’ is little more than a workmanlike re-hash with Tramp settling for a middling performance, and ‘Farewell To You’ doesn’t ever stretch beyond a phoned in vocal and the sound of a White Lion covers band hoping to receive a cheque. It might even be better if these performances were genuinely bad – at least they’d have left a lasting impression.
Among the average interpretations, there are a couple of passable re-imaginings. ‘Out With The Boys’ comes with plenty of punch courtesy of Tramp’s current band, and even a lower register in the vocal doesn’t kill a solid rock groove. It could be argued the chorus doesn’t quite achieve the desired uplift when the hook is delivered in a more sedate fashion, but between a solid drum sound, a spirited lead guitar break and Tramp steering the verse with a relative panache, it holds up fine. Never more than that, but it’s an improvement on the bulk of this disc. The same applies to ‘Don’t Give Up’, which sounds like a solid melodic rocker in 2024, despite not having the most elaborate production values. Best of all, the ballad ‘The Road To Valhalla’ actually benefits from Tramp’s more mature vocal. Drawing the old melody away from his previous tones, the track now sounds a little more like a deep cut from a southern rock band’s album, without actually being completely transformed. There are melodic rock and AOR strains through its centre – as you’ll expect – but a more stately tone really sells the semi-mournful tune.
‘Songs of White Lion II’ only features three good tracks, so can’t really be recommended. Tramp’s voice isn’t what it was, and the backing band are fine, but there’s nothing here that has the fire of the ‘Pride’ and ‘Mane Attraction’ recordings. You could argue that the production values are sometimes a little warmer than ‘Pride’ or the Lion’s enthusiastically recorded ‘Fight To Survive’, but that’s hardly a selling point. At best, this is a stop gap; at worst, a soulless cash in on a past legacy – a man flogging a dead lion, even. Stick with the original recordings – a few tracks into this set, you’ll wonder why you aren’t spending time with those old and much loved White Lion albums anyway. In terms of classic rock from a legacy artist, this mostly misses the mark. Unless you’re a die-hard Tramp fan, there’s very little to get excited about here – and even then, you’d be unlikely to consider this disc any more than a shelf-filler.
June 2024