Buckcherry couldn’t send a stronger signal with the opening pair of “All Night Long” and “It’s a Party” on their fifth album,
All Night Long: the band has bounced back from the murky hangover of
Black Butterfly with yet another soundtrack for an endless party. It’s still a bunch of L.A. sleaze in the tradition of
Aerosmith,
the Crüe, and
GNR, with just a little
AC/DC for flavoring -- but the tone is decidedly lighter than the long hard slog of
Black Butterfly, and not just because the ballads are a little sweeter. The swagger has a bit of a snap, the rhythms a little more swing, the guitars snarl a little bit harder -- subtleties that are notable when the music is so faithful to tradition, as
Buckcherry’s is. They compensate with attitude, which they have in spades. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine