Exposé Online banner

Exposé Online

Not just outside the box, but denying the existence of boxes.
Covering music from the fringes since 1993.

Reviews

Sanjay Michael — Rocking into Midnight
(Bandcamp no#, 2023, DL)

by Henry Schneider, Published 2023-10-21

Rocking into Midnight Cover art

Now here is an interesting album taking you back decades to hard rocking glam rock tunes reminiscent of Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, Sammy Hagar, Van Halen, and even Mötley Crüe. Based in Singapore, guitarist Sanjay Michael has jammed down-and-dirty in sleazy bars and professional studios, covering those hard rock classics. Then, realizing that no one was recording any new fresh and fun songs, he took advantage of the pandemic shutdown to write his own songs that are now released on Rocking into Midnight. The title track immediately grabs your attention with its aggressive swagger as Sanjay captures the strutting women on Sunset Strip. Each of the ten songs has a different vibe, but all come together nicely with Sanjay’s masterful hooks and simple lyrics. For example, the blues rock song “Rockin’ Machine” has the refrain “Keep it dirty, keep it mean / Plug into the rockin’ machine.” And then there are lyric snippets on “It’s Just Business” that jump out at you “It’s just business, it ain’t personal,” “Don’t get so worked up like an animal,” and “You say buy, I say sold.”  You may not like everything on this album, but you will find it hard to hate. Rocking into Midnight is definitely fun music. I even get a feeling of Ted Nugent on “Backtracks.” My favorite tracks are the melodic hard rocking love song “Should Have Never Let You Go” and the rockabilly boogie of “Friday Night Drinks.” And as Sanjay says “Rock ’n’ Roll never left the party — it was just getting a drink at the bar!”

Filed under: New releases, 2023 releases

Related artist(s): Sanjay Michael

More info
http://sanjaymichael.bandcamp.com/album/rocking-into-midnight

 

What's new

These are the most recent changes made to artists, releases, and articles.