Baton Rouge (3) – Lights Out On The Playground

Released in 1991, Baton Rouge's second album Lights Out on the Playground is another in a long list of albums that deserved far more attention that it received at the time.

Coming at a time when the charts were dominated by Bon Jovi, Warrant, Steelheart, Slaughter, Damn Yankees and the like, Lights Out on the Playground should have been Baton Rouge's big breakthrough. It certainly had all of the right elements. It was a very melodic hard rock album with a definite blues flavor; it featured a dynamic vocalist in Kelly Keeling, and it boasted behind-the-scenes by former Surgin' mainman Jack Ponti, whose songwriting skills were among the best in the business. His song "Desperate" is one of the best metal ballads ever written, and I'm still perplexed as to how neither Baton Rouge nor Babylon A.D could make a hit of it.

Lights Out on the Playground may not have reached a huge audience, but it was still a terrific hard rock album. It may seem dated now, but for those of us who grew up with this kind of "hair metal," this is the kind of music that gets the blood pumping. If you're already a Baton Rouge fan, you know what I'm talking about. If you haven't heard Baton Rouge yet, but are a fan of the late ‘80s and early ‘90s hard rock sound, you'll definitely want to check out Lights Out on the Playground.