Hardest Part Is The Night – Opening up with a very short and simple, yet awesome riff which is completely unlike anything else on the album; this song is actually more synth heavy than the rest of the album, although it doesn’t come across as overdone: the synth and guitar manage to complement each other perfectly. The strength of this song is not only that it’s a great hard rock song (all traces of pop-metal have definitely vanished here), but also that it also manages to be dramatic and harrowing, in much the same way that Aerosmith’s Janie’s Got A Gun would be four years later. Two major highlights are the building, multi-layered guitar solo which sees Richie at his most experimental; and Jon’s wordless vocal outro. Driven by atmospheric synths, unflashy yet perfectly judged guitar, and a relentless bassline; and with lyrics that highlight both the difficulties (“a young boy hides the pain”) and lures (“darkness fades, he’s the prince of his city”) of street life, while possibly relating it to being in a touring band (“these four walls they could tell you some stories / about lying and dying and fame / there’s a price that you’ll pay for the glory”); this understated gem is absolutely an album highlight.

4/5