First Night – Deep Connection

Here’s the second album from Estonian melodic rockers First Night.

Written by: gdmonline

ARTIST: First Night
ALBUM: Deep Connection
LABEL: Self Released
YEAR: 2023
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Estonia

LINEUP: Reneck Sweet – vocals * Mikk Tivas – guitar, keyboards * Kristjan Aasamae – drums

TRACK LISTING: 01 These Hearts * 02 Little Love * 03 Beginning Of The End * 04 Savage Heart * 05 It’s Only Feeling * 06 Love Me * 07 Don’t Ever Say Goodbye * 08 Someone * 09 Is Your Love Alive * 10 Talk To Me * 11 Suddenly * 12 Can’t Forget * 13 In The Name Of Our Love

RATING: 95/100

WEBLINKS: FB Page

Background

Here’s the second album from Estonian melodic rockers First Night. From Tallin, this band were reviewed back in 2019 by us, even though they flew well under the radar as their self released debut was pretty hard to track down if you didn’t know that they existed. The reviews (from what I saw) were pretty encouraging, these were in line with the GM review of 9/10.

So now, here they are four years later, and again First Night are flying close to ground level, with their Facebook page and Spotify being their first ports of call but not a lot else. From what I can tell, the comparisons to Def Leppard, Bryan Adams and Stage Dolls are still apparent as they were on the debut. Whether that’s a sign of progress remains to be seen.

The Songs

From the outset, the songs are simply captivating. True, the Stage Dolls are a great comparison but I’m thinking First Night are more AOR than our Norwegian friends. So too the Bryan Adams comparison, which is mainly due to Reneck’s style. Having heard thousands of AOR bands over the past 4 or 5 decades, I’d plump for a band like On The Rise as another close comparison.

‘These Hearts’ is a super start with its racy tempo, magic keyboards and AOR templated sound. Great. ‘Little Love’ is introduced with graceful keys and acoustic guitar. Gradually it takes shape, a perfect identikit of On The Rise and Stage Dolls. A synth motif leads into ‘Beginning Of The End’, the song itself is the ultimate breakup: its time, it’s time to let you go, it’s the beginning of the end.

I love those stabbing synths on ‘Savage Heart’, it returns First Night to a faster tempo which suits these guys to a tee. ‘It’s Only Feeling’ drops a few needle points on the speedometer but the whole thing is laden with copious levels of sugary melody. Diabetics beware! ‘Love Me’ carries similar attributes from previous songs while ‘Don’t Ever Say Goodbye’ is the most obvious choice as a doppelganger Def Leppard track. Elliot and co can only fantasize about trying to revert back to this style rather than what they are doing now.

‘Someone’ borders on ballad territory, with its big vocal harmonies. It’s good but I prefer the energy of ‘Is Your Love Alive’ which sits in the top rung of songs on the album. ‘Talk To Me’ comes across as a song of lament which is played in a softer tone. I’m not really into what I call ‘sad sack’ songs, I much prefer positive and uplifting tunes. ‘Suddenly’ is a return to that On The Rise comparison made earlier, it’s like taking a trip down memory lane.

‘Can’t Forget’ is propelled by a pulsing bass line which creates a smooth backdrop, very nice as we get close to the end. The finale ‘In The Name Of Our Love’ is full of counter melodies coming at you from across the soundscape. The synth wash in the background is subtle and understated providing the perfect cover.

In Summary

At 13 tracks there’s a lot to listen to. Maybe a few songs could have been kept to the side, the whole album clocking in at nearly 57 minutes. Some songs were similar to others, which made it an overall pleasant experience but needed more variation and points of difference.

First Night are accomplished in their chosen sub-genre of melodic rock, and the album sounds great according to my ears. I’m listening to this as a set of high quality flac files under a set of decent head phones and the fidelity is spot on, no problems there. In the long run, First Night much like the response from their debut comes highly recommended.

Video

These Hearts