AMG Review of Seven

Stephen Thomas Erlewine
All Music Guide

Night Ranger, like many bands on CMC International, were simply playing for the fans in the '90s. They knew that they would never have a hit like "Sister Christian" ever again, but they wanted to continue making music, and there were enough fans out there to go to their concerts. Records or new songs, as it turned out, were a necessary byproduct of these concerts, and like the shows themselves, they were exercises in nostalgia since no one, outside of CMC artists, makes album-oriented rock like this anymore. Night Ranger's first two stabs at comeback records -- Feeding off the Mojo and Neverland -- were pretty much devoid of memorable material, but the third, Seven, wasn't bad at all. It doesn't rank with their best work, but there are a number of well-crafted power ballads and big, crunching hard rockers. There are also a handful of mediocre cuts, but Seven is the first record they have released in the '90s that comes close to capturing their past glories.