Simon RushworthHoneymoon Suite — Wake Me Up When The Sun Goes Down (Frontiers)
It’s more than 40 years since classy melodic rockers Honeymoon Suite dropped the self-titled debut that looked set to launch a stellar MTV-fuelled career.
Singles New Girl Now and Stay In The Light oozed AOR goodness with frontman Johnnie Dee’s signature tone immediately capturing hearts and minds.
Ultimately, serious chart success remained confined to Canada — the Toronto natives never quite cracked it despite sliding into the lucrative TV and film market.
Honeymoon Suite’s songs soundtracked Miami Vice and Lethal Weapon in the late 80s as big-name producers Bruce Fairbairn (Bon Jovi, Aerosmith) and Ted Templeman (Van Halen) got on board.
Indeed, The Big Prize (1986) and career-high Racing After Midnight (1988) remain exemplars of polished soft rock primed for FM radio.
And quite how the latter failed to crash the album charts on both sides of the Atlantic is a question critics are still debating four decades down the line.
It’s essential listening if you like your AOR edgy, entertaining and endlessly inventive.
A couple of lengthy hiatuses never dimmed the enthusiasm for Dee and co. and 2024’s (ironically titled?) comeback Alive proved to be a timely return.
Turns out that first album since 2008 paved the way for what’s more akin to classic Honeymoon Suite.
Wake Me Up When The Sun Goes Down is a shining example of dreamy melodic rock done right.
Suite sound of success
The Southern-rock tinged Unpredictable might be the outlier within a set that plays on Honeymoon Suite’s storied AOR past.
But a spirited tune echoing 38 Special at their commercial peak somehow works a treat on a record that, elsewhere, is anything but.
The remainder of Wake Me Up When The Sun Goes Down’s nine tracks explore reassuringly familiar territory.
Layer upon layer of meticulously crafted melodies envelop the kind of chorus-driven bangers that helped define Dee’s early work.
And it’s only the over-reliance on auto-tuned vocals that takes the shine off the best songs here.
Evocative opener I Fly kicks things off in suitably slick fashion before the punchy Way Of The World — featuring a blistering Derry Greham solo — picks up the pace.
Every Minute uses broad strokes of 60s pop and 90s punk (it’s a grower) to stretch the AOR boundaries but it’s still trademark Honeymoon Suite.
As are the ballads.
Way Too Fast (Peter Nunn’s subtle keys add a touch of class) and the Bryan Adams-styled Keep This Love Alive are as catchy as they’re cuddly.
Thought the Honeymoon was over? Think again.
