Dalton
The Race Is On

The other day I randomly reached into my stack of CDs and pulled out this album from 1987 by Dalton. I recall that the amount I invested to acquire it wasn’t exactly modest, but the immediate satisfaction, even after the first listen, abundantly repaid me for the expense. This album supports a delightful memory of a youthful summer vacation spent in the early days with a mixed Italian-Swedish crew. The Vikings from their land left me with grand musical memories.

I’ve searched for other opinions online and happily found very positive feedback from both Italian and international enthusiasts. To sum it up quickly, let me tell you that this debut “The Race Is On” is an album strongly recommended for all lovers of melodic hard rock FM oriented. I had already spoken about a Scandinavian band, the female-fronted Perfect Crime, rating them a four for excess. This is a solid four with something extra. If you’re into the genre, don’t let them slip away.

The band. A typical five-piece adult-oriented rock band, Dalton was born from the idea of the two Landmark brothers (vocals and bass), proposing themselves as a continuation in the Northern European music scene. A scene that, rock included, has never wanted to stay behind. Along with them are Dahlberg on drums, Westfahl on guitar, and Lindstrom on keyboards: a very cohesive team. The image is sharply focused without any graininess. The five blond guys have perfectly teased hair, like the Bon Jovi of the second album, and even their clothing resembles them a lot, featuring extravagant jackets and jeans with only the seams remaining.

The album. A series of nine tracks that are only guilty of being so perfect that they suffer from a hint of coldness, which nonetheless reflects Scandinavian composure even in the composition phase. Elegance comes at a price, even when an album reeks of gasoline. The fuel that moves this machine is the most expensive because it's the most refined. Dalton is a gritty and lively group with a guitar that scratches, providing the necessary roughness to the song package but also knows how to calm down during quieter moments. Remarkable is the keyboard support which, as per best AOR tradition, creates the bed over which notes from other instruments lie, and they step into the spotlight with dominance when the stage is clear for them. The backing vocals are meticulous, never excessive or out of place, and they harmonize amiably with the heavy harmonies of the band led by the voice of Bosse Landmark, who carves out a lateral spot but still on par with the best in the genre. Among the myriad Scandinavian bands, it’s the one that stands out the most for my taste.

The opening is entrusted to a track that embodies the characteristics discussed so far: “Caroline”. As 80s as it gets, it starts with the roar of engines, heightens on grand choruses, and closes after a perfect guitar solo. Put this way, it may sound trivial, but this is an album with something more. For example, its handshakes with the style of the Atlantic coast, which really happened in the case of fun tracks like “You’re Not My Lover (But You Were Last Night)” composed by Bon Jovi, Sambora, and Child (and this speaks volumes about the Swedish group’s value and the attention it garnered) or “I Think About You” (composed by the teased Bolton), softer and more architecturally inclined, with a sound that was subsequently revived in 1992 by a band called Planet 3 (I hope to talk about them soon). Going random, because in this album you can pick songs randomly, they all more or less have the sound of the first one, tracks like the closing “Gimme, Gimme” make a great impression, which I particularly like as it brings the proposed genre closer to the dance floor. A flaw is the ballad “Loving You” that adds dispensable and not top-quality sweetness to the whole work. But when “We’re Into Rock” or “I’m On The Run” starts, the concessions to hard rock become truly muscular and robust, reviving the desire to move and sway.

I believe Dalton was the classic arena band. Live, it would have been normal to follow them seated, to appreciate their spontaneous and well-crafted melodies, or in the middle of the crowd to celebrate their energy. Fortunately, they didn’t stop here but followed up immediately with another extraordinary album titled Injection, which I hope to present to you soon. AOR, in the year this album was released, was already an evolved genre that had seen an endless sea of masterful examples. But try listening to Dalton and tell me if this is cat's tripe or not.