Search - Flash & The Pan :: Lights in the Night

I wish you could have heard it back in 1978...

Deven Gadula | san francisco, ca, united states | 10/14/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The year was 1978, a very good year for music. Flash And The Pan released Lights In The Nights and basically took over (at least parts of)Europe within weeks. I don't know if they became popular in Australia prior to winning our hearts, but we, the rock music lovers in Europe completely cave in to this album. We thought 'what a ambitious brother those crazy cool ACDC Young boys have, good for them'. Once again, it was back in 1978 and you have (although that is very hard to do) to listen to it in such context. Many of the moments here, like the beginning of the 'Welcome To The Universe' were such a novelty back then. This album has definately lost some of it's power right now because the sounds and samples do not appear so extraorinary any more. Those ambient parts mixed within such rock music back then were true novelty to us. If you are looking for another great solid album from the 1970ies, rock's golden era please try Lights In The Night. My favorite songs here are; Headhunter, Restless and Lights In The Night.

"

Finally!

Barrett Benton | New York | 02/26/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I do have to say that there are gaping holes in the world of legit (i.e. legal) downloadable music that baffle me. The absence of Flash and the Pan's catalog, until now, was just plain weird: the songwriting is deft, the musicianship tight and rocking, and the albums have damned little filler. Was there perhaps the typical legal wrangling tying up a digital release? A tug-of-war between the artists and label? Someone with an axe to grind about the world of MP-3s, iPods and the whole shebang?



For now, it doesn't matter: the FITP catalog is finally (mostly) here, and, IMO, obviously worth checking out. "Lights in the Night" is the follow-up to their successful, eponymously named first album, charting somewhat familiar thematic waters with perhaps even more-muscular elán. The highlights here are the hang-the-news-anchor slant of "Media Man" (yes, predating Don Henley's "Dirty Laundry" *and* REM's "What's The Frequency, Kenneth?" by a sizable margin), the tail-end-of-the-Cold-War "Welcome to the Universe" (imagine a dystopian prequel to "It's the End Of the World As We Know It [and I Feel Fine]", while we're on the subject of REM), and "Midnight Man," which practically dares you not to jump up and shake it.



In this digital release, they've thrown a few other bits in the mix that weren't on the original album, including what sounds like an alternate take of "Early Morning Wake-Up Call", the original of which can be found on the album of the same name (also worth seeking out), and "Midnight Man", also off the same album, but the identical take. My only quibble with this release is that the song sequence is all over the place compared to the original (vinyl) release, but that's easy enough to remedy if you care. Let's just be happy that someone kicked out the logjams and got this album out of the download down-low."