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Had it been released in 1988, there’s no doubt that this album would have been huge. Dripping with sumptuous power and widescreen tunes, Valentine was a heavier version of Journey. Instead, though, it came out two years later, by which time AOR had skidded over the cliff edge.

However, listening now, it is clearly a classic of the genre. And deserved a better fate than to be consigned almost to obscurity.

Led by smoothly evocative vocalist Hugo Valenti, Valentine ride through all facets of melodic rock. From the forceful Runnin’ On Luck Again and Too Much Is Never Enough to the power ballad glory of Never Said It Was Gonna Be Easy and Tears In The Night and the pomp of Where Are You Now and Once In A Lifetime.

Celebrate this album for its enduring AOR brilliance.

Malcolm Dome had an illustrious and celebrated career which stretched back to working for Record Mirror magazine in the late 70s and Metal Fury in the early 80s before joining Kerrang! at its launch in 1981. His first book, Encyclopedia Metallica, published in 1981, may have been the inspiration for the name of a certain band formed that same year. Dome is also credited with inventing the term "thrash metal" while writing about the Anthrax song Metal Thrashing Mad in 1984. With the launch of Classic Rock magazine in 1998 he became involved with that title, sister magazine Metal Hammer, and was a contributor to Prog magazine since its inception in 2009. He died in 2021.

Valentine - Valentine album review

Talk about right album, wrong time!