Simon RushworthHere we go again and this week it’s only apt that we continue to spread the Scorpions’ feelgood factor in our regular look at our favourite records from the late 80s and early 90s – and their modern-day rivals for our affections.
Now: 2007 Humanity: Hour 1 (BMG) sees a bunch of old blokes with a huge back catalogue prove there’s still a sting in the tail of the Scorpions.
In an age when the concept record is suddenly cool again our favourite Tuetonic terrors get their teeth into 12 typically emotive slabs of melodic rock and leave fans gripped from start to finish.
The Scorpions, of course, have always had a social conscience and whether they’re whistling about the fall of Communism or taking a serious look at our global future they manage to do so with a certain panache. And this outstanding record is chock full of enough hook-laden tunes to ensure there’s no need to buy into the full concept every time.
We Were Born To Fly and You’re Lovin’ Me To Death are deliciously Scorpions as Klaus Meine stands toe-to-toe with fellow veteran crooners David Coverdale and Joe Lynn Turner in the battle for vocal supremacy. This is a record to impress the band’s 70s die-hards, their 80s fanatics and the Johnny-come-latelies of the Wind Of Change-era 90s.
More significantly it proves there is a place for the Scorpions almost a decade into the 21st century – even if an often sobering album suggests that place is going to pot.
rushonrock rated: 8/10 Scorp Blimey!
…And Then: 1990 Crazy World (Mercury) is the ballad-packed smash hit record which secured the Scorpions a new global fan base on the back of a classic song with a whistled melody.
Wind Of Change is, to this day, the one song music fans will point to when asked to name a tune by Germany’s biggest-selling rock band. And yet Send Me An Angel, from the same album, is the superior lighter-waving anthem – even if it lacks Klaus Meine’s pursed lips and a political message.
At a time when hair metal ruled, this Keith Olsen-produced opus was up there alongside anything Def Leppard, Whitesnake, Motley Crue or Aerosmith could manage. The ballads aside there were enough formulaic Scorpions rockers to keep the band’s increasingly disbelieving fan base at bay – although there is no doubt this album divided opinion right down the middle.
For those of us who like our production slick, our choruses big and our guitar solos crisp and catchy there’s an argument to say this is the best thing the Scorpions ever did. But it’s no surprise that a band rooted in superior late 70s/early 80s melodic rock was able to rise to the challenge of the MTV generation and lay down their own marker in an era when looks weren’t everything.
rushonrock rated: 9/10 Top Of The World