Nightfly Heat In The Street is arguably the best album Pat Travers has ever released. It’s certainly the heaviest. The introduction of Tommy Aldridge on drums and bringing in second guitarist, Pat Thrall seems to have given Travers a good kick up the backside after the disappointing Putting It Straight.

The songs on Heat In The Street burst with energy, the title track kicking things off in fine style laced with great riffs and infused with accents, clever rhythmic shifts and time changes. I doubt there are many Travers gigs where this song hasn’t been played. As brilliant as the title track is it wouldn’t be such a great album if the rest of the songs fell short. The dual guitar partnership of Travers and Thrall is put to good use – these guys play off each other really well, both equally adept at rhythm and lead and throwing in some dual guitar runs to good effect – check out Killer’s Instinct for proof. Even the semi-ballad I Tried To Believe kicks ass in the hands of this line-up. Aldridge fills up the album with some fantastic drumming including his double kick drum work on Evie and instrumental Hammerhead and Mars Cowling proves that he’s one of the best and most under-rated bass players in hard rock, his sound being powerful, funky and clear cutting, often with quite a toppy sound. Go All Night is the band at their funkiest and another highlight. Prelude is another instrumental, lacking the punch of Hammerhead but a good vehicle for some melodic dual guitar runs. The album finishes with One For Me And One For You and after the incendiary nature of most the tracks is a bit of a let-down, bringing it out with a whimper instead of bang.

The same line-up would go on to release another studio album together, Crash And Burn as well as the live Go For What You Know which was one of the best live albums of the era but as far as studio work went this was Travers finest hour and there really isn’t a better place to start if you’re new to him.