If you’ve not heard of John Diva and the Rockets of Love and you love melodic 80’s flavoured Hard Rock then you really do need to get on board. If you are already a fan then news of the release of a third album should put a huge smile on your face.
So where do you go after having debut ‘Moma Said Rock is Dead’ dubbed the “summer coastal driving album for 2019!” and follow up ‘American Amadeus’ toted as ‘another slab of 80’s hard rock brilliance with no shame! The answer is ‘to the pool for a few cocktails!’
Opener ‘California Rhapsody’ may just act as an easy listening interlude to open the curtains on album number three but real opener ‘The Big Easy’ rides a Van Valen-like riff that could and probably was adopted by every Sunset Strip band of the late 80’s, It’s a great swaggering mid-tempo rocker that is just made to play loud and proud and has all the musical accompaniments that allow you to tick all the boxes from melodic middle-eight to suitably searing guitar solo. Any apprehension that Diva has strayed is immediately put to rest. It’s like the ‘Skyscraper’ on the horizon after the feast of ‘Eat ‘Em and Smile’.
The foot is off the pedal a little for ‘God Made Radio’ but it’s another melodic stunner with a wonderful chorus that Diva seems to pluck out of the balmy summer air at will, and there’s a wonderful almost spoken word segment where a number of 80’s influences are name-checked.
If I could sum up this third outing then it’s still ‘Party’ but whilst the first record was a late 80’s house party and the second more of a nightclub, this third is most definitely a ‘Pool party’ and whilst we might stray from the template only occasionally and melody is always the key: coming of age ditties like ‘Runaway Train’ have eternal themes that anyone can relate to. It’s the hooks though that are even more relentless this third time around.
And it just keeps coming: ‘Thunder’ ticks the Def Leppard/Billy Squier grove box and makes you wonder why that first band can’t write ones like this anymore. ‘Believe’ has more Pop-Punk chug and a wonderfully uplifting soaring feel-good chorus; and the sheen ‘Back in the Days’ is pure summer skies! In short it’s all gold. This is definitely an album you won’t be skipping tracks.
‘Hit and Run’ opens a little moodier, a little slower and a wonderfully emotive ballad ensues before ‘Boys Don’t Play With Dolls’ adds some great horns to open and shimmies and swaggers poolside. It’s irresistible, and ‘The Limit is the Sky’ is another made to raise a glass and sing along too! The summer’s here!
That just leaves us with two. ‘Capri Style’ is just as bright and breezy and catchy as anything here and that’s the trick – if you make an album with no weak links how can you not take over the world? Were this 1987 I’m sure that we wouldn’t even be debating that. This is huge!
Closer ‘Wild At Heart’ is an interesting one to finish the album, Slower, moodier, more expansive and with touches of Bush and U2 somewhere in there, it’s almost definitely more modern in outlook and one that you can imagine connecting with more contemporary Rock fans. I’ll be honest it does rather stand out amongst the company here. But equally it does what any final song should: open the door to even more possibility for a band you already know are solid gold and offer a possible glimpse into the future.
8.5 / 10