Racing After Midnight

Celebrated producer Ted Templeman takes the wheel on Honeymoon Suite's third. Of course, the end result, Racing After Midnight, rules, and of course it doesn't pass the preceding Big Prize, but that stunner only narrowly beats this spinner, a slick street speedster burning on all cylinders. Racing After Midnight isn't as cohesively excellent as Big Prize, but the guitars still sear and soar, Johnnie Dee's husky vocals still wring every bit of emotion out of an impassioned teen dream, and numerous moments shine like halogen headlights on the rain-slicked Sunset Strip. Tearing down the "Other Side of Midnight" is a hot clocker demonstrating how these Canadian Casanovas have adopted the L.A. hair aesthetic, revving silver machines and quoting Kiss (again). Opener "Lookin' Out for Number One" waves the checkered flag ("Tell the boss/he's at a loss") for a hot ride through life beyond the blue collar. "Cold Look" could have come from Lou Gramm's second solo slab Long Hard Look. Frenzied fre