A wonderful year for music. One of the best. Pretty easy to pick my favourites and even though I haven’t had time to review a good many of these, they have all been in high rotation over the last 12 months. And yes, I will still run through some Reviews In Brief and add as many of these titles to the site. Past my Top 10, the rest were all very hard to put in order – some outstanding titles here, with quality music for all tastes released in 2017.
If you haven’t heard some of these titles, don’t waste another minute, check them out!
01. Harem Scarem – United
02. Eclipse – Monumentum
03. One Desire – One Desire
04. H.E.A.T – Into The Great Unknown
05. Threshold – Legend Of The Shires
06. Night Ranger – Don’t Let Up
07. Heaven & Earth – Hard To Kill
08. Degreed – Degreed
09. [TIE] Mr. Big – Defying Gravity
Tokyo Motor Fist - Tokyo Motor Fist
Kryptonite - Kryptonite
10. Sons Of Apollo – Psychotic Symphony
11. Wayward Sons – Ghosts Of Yet To Come
12. Black Country Communion – BCCIV
13. Night Flight Orchestra – Amber Galactic
14. Brother Firetribe – Sunbound
15. Jorn – Life On Death Road
16. All 4 1 – All 4 1
17. Art Nation – Liberation
18. Code Red – Incendiary
19. Houston – III
20. Riverdogs – California
21. Styx – The Mission
22. Inglorious – II
23. Wildness – Wildness
24. Lionville – World Of Fools
25. [TIE] Newman – Arial
Pick Cream 69 - Headstrong
26. Jeff Scott Soto – Retribution
27. Pride Of Lions – Fearless
28. Ten – Gothica
29. Revolution Saints – Light In The Dark
30. Tony Mills – Streets Of Chance
31. ColdSpell – A New World Arise
32. Midnite City – Midnite City
33. Cheap Trick – We’re All Alright
34. Crazy Lixx – Ruff Justice
35. The Radio Sun – Unstoppable
36. Santa Cruz – Bad Blood Rising
37. Dirty White Boy – Down And Dirty
38. Deep Purple – Infinite
39. Steve Walsh – Black Butterfly
40. Thunder – Rip It Up
41. Kee Of Hearts – Kee Of Hearts
42. Unruly Child – Can’t Go Home
43. Eden’s Curse – Eden’s Curse Revisited
44. Tales From The Porn – H.M.M.V
45. Jim Jidhed – Push On Through
46. Raintimes – Raintimes
47. Age Of Reflection – In The Heat Of The Night
48. Phantom 5 – Play To Win
49. Martina Edoff – We Will Align
50. Bonfire – Byte The Bullet
Song Of The Year
Threshold – Small Dark Lines
Harem Scarem – Here Today Gone Tomorrow
One Desire – Turn Back Time
H.E.A.T – Redefined
Revolution Saints – I Wouldn’t Change A Thing
Harem Scarem – Heaven And Earth
Eclipse – Vertigo
Eclipse – Never Look Back
H.E.A.T – Into The Great Unknown
Threshold – Stars & Satellites
Heaven & Earth – Hard To Kill
Heaven & Earth – The Game Has Changed
One Desire – Hurt
Sons Of Apollo – Coming Home
Sons Of Apollo – Signs Of The Times
Night Ranger – Somehow Someway
Night Ranger – Say What You Want
Mr. Big – Mean To Me
Mr. Big – Defying Gravity
Night Flight Orchestra – Jennie
Night Flight Orchestra – Something Mysterious
Unruly Child – The Only One
Pride Of Lions – All I See Is You
Riverdogs - The Revolution Starts Tonight
MelodicRock Records 2017 Releases
A special mention for the MRR releases of 2017. I would personally rank them all in the Top 50, but in an attempt to remain unbiased, I’ve left them out. But I am really proud of what the label has managed to achieve this year, it’s been MRR’s biggest year for number of releases, plus for sales in total and for individual titles setting sales records.
So what this means – I’ll have to make 2018 even bigger and better and so far it’s looking just that way! Stay tuned for news soon!
A huge HUGE thanks to the artists for believing in MRR and making this small label your home.
Another big thanks to all the journos, media outlets and magazines that featured MRR releases during the year.
And finally a big BIG thank you to all the stores and distribution outlets that also supported MRR and did such a great job getting these out there to fans.
To every single person that bought one or all of the releases this year – you guys ROCK!
Johnny Lima – Johnny Lima / Made In California (Reissues w/Bonus Tracks)
Shotgun Symphony – The Last Symphony (Reissues w/Unreleased)
Don Barnes – Ride The Storm (Previously Unreleased)
Arti Tisi Trilogy – New York City, Back Again & The Reeperbahn (All Previously Unreleased)
Jimmy Davis & Junction – Kick The Wall (Deluxe Edition)(Reissue w/Bonus Live Disc)
Jimmy Davis & Junction – Going The Distance (Previously Unreleased)
Rian – Out Of The Darkness (Debut Album)
Jan Akesson's Shadow Rain – Ascension (Debut Solo Album)
Scherer / Batten – Battlezone (Featuring Songs by Jim Peterik)
