Credit the three remaining original members of Night Ranger (Jack Blades, Brad Gillis and Kelly Keagy) for trying, as a new album of fresh material, Hole in the Sun, remains set for release later this summer. After all, that's arguably more laudable than a listless covers album or yet another summer reunion tour in exploitation of the glory days, which is the typical practice of most '80s artists still kicking around out there. Even so, I gotta say I greatly prefer the Night Ranger from the early to mid-'80s to any labored attempts to recapture the one-shot brilliance of a song like "When You Close Your Eyes." So, if you'll excuse me, I think I'll gather up my half-dozen Night Ranger keeper tracks and take a half-hour iPod trip back to the late '80s, when I hardly knew there was any other music worth listening to besides this kind of classic/arena rock. And while I'm glad my musical taste has matured since then, I'm also grateful that I can still see how great some of that mainstream '80s stuff was and always will be.

• Night Ranger Profile
• Top 6 Night Ranger Songs of the '80s
• Hole in the Sun Album Review