America’s favourite twins, Gunnar & Matt Nelson are threatening to close the door on the band Nelson after this release. If so, they will leave us with another dose of high-energy, high-spirits singalong melodic rock goodness.
Peace Out is well and truly Gunnar Nelson’s record – he delivers much of the guitar work, most of the lead vocals, was the sole writer on all but 3 of the tracks and is in charge of production and mix.
The only downside here is part of that production – in particular the drum sound, which sounds programmed (but not specified either way in the credits) and the muddiness of the sound overall, which is dragged down by the drum sound. The vocals and guitars sound pretty clear.
Production values aside, the songs on Peace Out have my full attention, being some of the strongest and most consistent of the band’s career!
The opening track Hello, Everybody is pure melodic rock and sounds more like Cheap Trick than Nelson; Back In The Day, Invincible and Let It Ride are more guitar driven than recent times and are smothered in harmonies and instantly memorable chorus hooks.
I Wanna Stay Home is melodic rock bliss; Rock Star and Bad For You is one of the album’s heavier, but equally melodic tracks; Autograph is almost punky in feel – a real garage rocker; What’s Not To Love is pure power pop.
There’s a couple of quality ballads in there and the only track that doesn’t really work for me is the grating You And Me.
Peace Out doesn’t match the sonics of past Nelson albums, but the songwriting makes up most of the ground. As an overall collection of songs, this rates as some of the catchiest and most consistent since the wonderful Life album.
Absolutely essential for Nelson fans, others will have to judge but there’s no denying the likability of these songs.
