Review MIKE TRAMP ‘Songs of White Lion’

White Lion belonged to the top acts in the second half of the eighties. The band started in 1983 and was driven by guitarist Vito Bratta and singer Mike Tramp. The latter also has and had some interesting solo releases and not to forget the rather interesting Freak Of Nature longplayers. Especially the hard rocking debut shows the vocal capabilities of the Dane.

An album from Mike Tramp is always a bit of a surprise package. Was it the previous album that contained songs in his mother tongue Danish, so is it this time, that Tramp steps into the time machine and goes back to the White Lion days.

‘Songs of White Lion’ is the newest record from the passionate frontman and features redone version of songs that were genre defining in the second half of the 80’s. It isn’t the first time that the singer goes back to the early days of success and the one or the other might remember the ‘Remembering White Lion’-album from 1999.

Nowadays we are more than 20 years further down the road and Tramp created a new offer of well-known hits. Its starts with ‘Lady of the Valley’, which was originally on the mega-seller album ‘Pride’. What becomes obvious right away is, that Tramp stays very much in line with the original version. The only difference is that the interpretation of the timeless classics sound more mature which also is valid for Tramp’s voice. He sounds good on ‘Songs of White Lion’ and at the same time he sounds a bit rougher when singing; something that adds a slightly different touch to the classics.

In general, the songs, covering the winning streak of all four albums of the band, get out of the speakers more rocking and more down-to-earth compared with the original recording.

Regardless of what the motivation for such an album was and is; tunes like ‘Little Fighter’, ‘Wait’ and the top 10 hit ‘When the Children Cry’ are timeless highlights in the history of rock and metal. Having said this, ‘Songs of White Lion’ is a journey back in time, revisiting one’s own youth. A compilation if these songs means, enjoying ear-candy while walking down the memory lane.