Track listing
Show track credits
- 1 ...Into the Light 1:16
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guitar, shaker
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backing vocals
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drums
-
guitar
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bass
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Derek Hillandkeyboards
-
Jasper Coverdaleshaker
-
- 2 River Song 7:19
-
shaker
-
backing vocals
-
drums
-
guitar
-
bass, backing vocals
-
organ
-
Jasper Coverdaleshaker
-
- 3 She Give Me... 4:12
-
backing vocals
-
drums
-
guitar
-
guitar
-
guitar, bass
-
bass
-
keyboards, percussion
-
- 4 Don't You Cry 5:47
-
backing vocals
-
drums
-
guitar
-
guitar
-
backing vocals
-
bass
-
organ
-
keyboards, vocals
-
tambourine
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- 5 Love Is Blind 5:44
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string arrangements, shaker
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drums
-
guitar, writer
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bass
-
organ
-
strings
-
string arrangements
-
Jasper Coverdaleshaker
-
- 6 Slave 5:41
-
backing vocals
-
drums
-
guitar, writer
-
bass, backing vocals
-
- 7 Cry for Love 4:52
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guitar, shaker
-
backing vocals, writer
-
drums
-
guitar, writer
-
bass, backing vocals
-
piano
-
harmonica
-
Jasper Coverdaleshaker
-
- 8 Living on Love 6:31
-
backing vocals, writer
-
drums
-
guitar, writer
-
bass, backing vocals
-
organ
-
Derek Hillandkeyboards
-
- 9 Midnight Blue 4:58
-
backing vocals
-
drums
-
guitar, writer
-
bass, backing vocals
-
organ, piano
-
- 10 Too Many Tears 5:59
-
backing vocals
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drums
-
guitar
-
bass, backing vocals
-
organ
-
keyboards
-
writer
-
- 11 Don't Lie to Me 4:43
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backing vocals
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drums
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guitar, writer
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bass, backing vocals
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keyboards, vocals
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- 12 Wherever You May Go 3:59
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Spanish guitar
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keyboards
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vocals
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sound effects
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- Total length: 61:01
Rate/Catalog
Catalog
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Review
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5 Reviews
The turn of the Millennium must have been a sort of weird limbo-period for David Coverdale. Whitesnake, the band he had led to enormous commercial success had morphed from brawny blues rockers, to poodle haired MTV-endorsed metallers, but aside from a curiously strong selling Greatest Hits collection, which ironically covered the least interesting phase of their career, the band had been out of step with music fashions for about a decade. Coverdale seemed to be painfully aware of this, hence 1997's Restless Heart, an album that Coverdale recorded with the intention of it being his first solo album since Northwinds almost two decades previously, before his record label decided that it should be co-creditedto Whitesnake for contractual reasons, and that it made it more marketable. It didn't. Notably, Restless Heart bombed in the USA, the very market that Whitesnake abandoned everything that had made them interesting to conquer.
Okay, so Whitesnake weren't shifting units. Would David Coverdale the solo star enjoy better luck?
On the strength of 2000's Into the Light. No. If anything it did a bit worse in terms of sales.
To his credit you can hear that Coverdale is really trying. There seems to be an effort to move away from heavy rock and return to a more blues rock sound, which is where his strengths had always laid. Trouble is, Into the Light is produced like a hard rock album. Granted, many of its songs have a slower tempo, but it's still sonically identifiable as a Whitesnake album. And that's not the album's only problem either. I can't escape the feeling that the whole album would have worked better as a semi-acoustic offering, with the big hard rock solos abandoned in favour of a simpler and more sparse arrangements. That would have also helped with the second point. (And say it along with me now...) Most of the songs are just to damn long. Into the Light has a dozen tracks. The version of the album I own clocks in at a sliver over an hour. That's an average run time of five minutes per track, and I genuinely don't think any of them benefit from that. Record the same material as semi-acoustic blues rock numbers sans-rock guitar solos, and it puts more emphasis on Coverdale's vocals, makes it notably different from a Whitesnake sound which hadn't been in fashion for a decade, and suddenly Into the Light becomes a much more interesting proposition. Album closer "Wherever You May Go" is recorded in exactly that way, and it works. It's easily the best track on the whole album.
The hard truth is, almost no rock acts of a similar vintage to Coverdale were doing particularly well at the turn of the Millennium. Most either sounded hopelessly out of date or had simply called it a day. The only 70s rockers still doing well at this point were Aerosmith, a band whose popularity was about to sharply dip after a strong come back over the past decade and a half and, ironically, the man who Coverdale was often accused of trying to emulate, Robert Plant. Plant had recently walked away from a money-spinning reunion with former bandmate and Coverdale collaborator Jimmy Page, to explore folk rock. Maybe there was scope for Coverdale to reunite for another album with Page, but their 1993 collaboration hadn't exactly dated that well, so maybe there was little enthusiasm to explore that possibility.
So what was Coverdale to do? He was a classic rock vocalist at a time when classic rock wasn't exactly fashionable, and so he could either flounder about trying to find something that would capture the public;'s imagination, or he could just reform Whitesnake in a couple of years time and wait for the hard rock nostalgia tour circuit to start to form, so he and his bandmates could tour with other out of time hard rock acts.
In the words of the man himself, "Here I go again".
Okay, so Whitesnake weren't shifting units. Would David Coverdale the solo star enjoy better luck?
On the strength of 2000's Into the Light. No. If anything it did a bit worse in terms of sales.
To his credit you can hear that Coverdale is really trying. There seems to be an effort to move away from heavy rock and return to a more blues rock sound, which is where his strengths had always laid. Trouble is, Into the Light is produced like a hard rock album. Granted, many of its songs have a slower tempo, but it's still sonically identifiable as a Whitesnake album. And that's not the album's only problem either. I can't escape the feeling that the whole album would have worked better as a semi-acoustic offering, with the big hard rock solos abandoned in favour of a simpler and more sparse arrangements. That would have also helped with the second point. (And say it along with me now...) Most of the songs are just to damn long. Into the Light has a dozen tracks. The version of the album I own clocks in at a sliver over an hour. That's an average run time of five minutes per track, and I genuinely don't think any of them benefit from that. Record the same material as semi-acoustic blues rock numbers sans-rock guitar solos, and it puts more emphasis on Coverdale's vocals, makes it notably different from a Whitesnake sound which hadn't been in fashion for a decade, and suddenly Into the Light becomes a much more interesting proposition. Album closer "Wherever You May Go" is recorded in exactly that way, and it works. It's easily the best track on the whole album.
The hard truth is, almost no rock acts of a similar vintage to Coverdale were doing particularly well at the turn of the Millennium. Most either sounded hopelessly out of date or had simply called it a day. The only 70s rockers still doing well at this point were Aerosmith, a band whose popularity was about to sharply dip after a strong come back over the past decade and a half and, ironically, the man who Coverdale was often accused of trying to emulate, Robert Plant. Plant had recently walked away from a money-spinning reunion with former bandmate and Coverdale collaborator Jimmy Page, to explore folk rock. Maybe there was scope for Coverdale to reunite for another album with Page, but their 1993 collaboration hadn't exactly dated that well, so maybe there was little enthusiasm to explore that possibility.
So what was Coverdale to do? He was a classic rock vocalist at a time when classic rock wasn't exactly fashionable, and so he could either flounder about trying to find something that would capture the public;'s imagination, or he could just reform Whitesnake in a couple of years time and wait for the hard rock nostalgia tour circuit to start to form, so he and his bandmates could tour with other out of time hard rock acts.
In the words of the man himself, "Here I go again".
Published
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One of the greatest voices ever, in a pretty average cd. "River Song", "She Give me" and "dont lie to me" are the highlights.
Published
Separating David Coverdale from Whitesnake has proven to be an incredibly difficult task. Coverdale's vocal strength is his incredibly soulful hard rock voice; and it makes little sense to move him out of this comfort zone.
When Whitesnake went technicolor in the mid-'80's, a lot of style crowded out the substance. While I found a lot to enjoy in the Adrian Vandenberg and Doug Aldrich eras of Whitesnake; I also sensed a deep artifice. Coverdale and co. became an early '90's caricature of Led Zeppelin, full "golden god" attitude without irony or levity. Like Rod Stewart and Robert Plant, Coverdale began putting on a "sexy grandpa" persona that was equal parts empowering and disturbing. Empowering because Coverdale was likely considered "old" by the industry in the late '80's but still attracted young ladies (including Ms. Kitaen); disturbing because his seriousness made his calls for a girl rather than someone around his own age and experience a bit creepy and lecherous.
Perhaps that's why I find myself gravitating towards INTO THE LIGHT rather than any of the fair to decent Whitesnake albums. I feel there's an artistic honesty to this record in that it was made for purposes of creativity rather than commerce.
Whitesnake fans will find much to like here such as rockers "She Give Me", "Slave", "Don't Lie to Me", and ballads "Midnight Blue" and "Too Many Tears". Though this disc may require a few clicks of your skip button to be fully appreciated. Not surprisingly, I favored the two cuts that sound the least like Whitesnake. "Cry for Love" is a mid-tempo blues-based rock song that more likely conjures up images of The Black Crowes or even The Rolling Stones until the vocal enters. However, my favorite song is the fragile ballad "Wherever You May Go" that closes the album. The song is just a very nice synergy of sound, lyric, and performance going far beyond the sum of its parts. Cynical people may find the lyrical sentiments a little naive and the music a bit overly dramatic, but I appreciate the vulnerability apparent in a song like this.
While it appears that Whitesnake is back into the bright lights for a while longer, given their recent touring schedule; this album suggests that Coverdale learned a lot in his time with the band. While accruing a little creative debt along the way, Coverdale could have made his way artistically. Hopefully, Coverdale might bring some of this "honesty" to future recordings with Whitesnake.
When Whitesnake went technicolor in the mid-'80's, a lot of style crowded out the substance. While I found a lot to enjoy in the Adrian Vandenberg and Doug Aldrich eras of Whitesnake; I also sensed a deep artifice. Coverdale and co. became an early '90's caricature of Led Zeppelin, full "golden god" attitude without irony or levity. Like Rod Stewart and Robert Plant, Coverdale began putting on a "sexy grandpa" persona that was equal parts empowering and disturbing. Empowering because Coverdale was likely considered "old" by the industry in the late '80's but still attracted young ladies (including Ms. Kitaen); disturbing because his seriousness made his calls for a girl rather than someone around his own age and experience a bit creepy and lecherous.
Perhaps that's why I find myself gravitating towards INTO THE LIGHT rather than any of the fair to decent Whitesnake albums. I feel there's an artistic honesty to this record in that it was made for purposes of creativity rather than commerce.
Whitesnake fans will find much to like here such as rockers "She Give Me", "Slave", "Don't Lie to Me", and ballads "Midnight Blue" and "Too Many Tears". Though this disc may require a few clicks of your skip button to be fully appreciated. Not surprisingly, I favored the two cuts that sound the least like Whitesnake. "Cry for Love" is a mid-tempo blues-based rock song that more likely conjures up images of The Black Crowes or even The Rolling Stones until the vocal enters. However, my favorite song is the fragile ballad "Wherever You May Go" that closes the album. The song is just a very nice synergy of sound, lyric, and performance going far beyond the sum of its parts. Cynical people may find the lyrical sentiments a little naive and the music a bit overly dramatic, but I appreciate the vulnerability apparent in a song like this.
While it appears that Whitesnake is back into the bright lights for a while longer, given their recent touring schedule; this album suggests that Coverdale learned a lot in his time with the band. While accruing a little creative debt along the way, Coverdale could have made his way artistically. Hopefully, Coverdale might bring some of this "honesty" to future recordings with Whitesnake.
Published
Love the voice, hate most of the songs.
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Catalog
18 Oct 2023
7 May 2023
27 Apr 2023
2 Apr 2023
6 Mar 2023
9 Dec 2022
26 Nov 2022
18 Nov 2022
8 Nov 2022
22 Oct 2022
25 Jul 2022
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1 ...Into the Light
-
2
River Song
-
3
She Give Me...
-
4
Don't You Cry
-
5
Love Is Blind
-
6
Slave
-
7
Cry for Love
-
8
Living on Love
-
9
Midnight Blue
-
10
Too Many Tears
-
11
Don't Lie to Me
-
12
Wherever You May Go
20 May 2022
4 May 2022
22 Apr 2022
12 Apr 2022