Review Summary: A bad album with a few good songs.
Scorpions are one of the best bands to ever grace the rock scene, and also one of the most underrated. Forming in the 60s, this band from Germany had a bit of a slow start, but things started to come together in the early 70s with their debut album. Due to the departure of a key band member the band looked to have reached a premature end, but the band recollected itself and rose to fame with the release of the brilliant ‘Fly from a rainbow’ album. The band followed the record with ‘In Trance’, but the band really found commercial success with the 1979 album ‘Lovedrive’.
The 80s saw the band at their best musically, and also it was during this decade they had their biggest hit In ‘Rock you like a hurricane’. The 90s came, and like most 80s bands, Scorpions realized they need to change their music style. This saw a departure from the more metal influenced albums, to a more commercial sounding era. 1990’s ‘Crazy World’ was a huge success resulting in hits in the form of ‘Winds of Change’ and ‘Send me an angel’. Despite the change in tone, the album was still very good. This would be the last truly great album Scorpions would release until 2007 with the release of the perfect ‘Humanity Hour I’.
During that period Scorpions released a total of 4 albums, with the worst being ‘Eye II Eye’. Being their most pop oriented album, it alienated the fans they still had, and also saw a drastic slide in their marketability.
Despite how poor the album is overall, it is not all bad. At points Scorpions actually decided to rock out a bit. ‘Mind Like A Tree’ is the best track on the whole record. An extremely heavy track with metaphorical lyrics, contains some really haunting chants, and a chorus that should not work half as well as it does.
‘Aleyah’ and ‘Yellow Butterfly’ are two more tracks worth noticing. They both are in the same mold of the pre-mentioned track. ‘Aleyah’ has the best lyrics on the whole, with a great bridge and an even better chorus.
The album also contains the only song Scorpions have ever recorded in their native tongue. ‘Du Bist So Schmutzig’ is actually one of the better tracks on the album. Even though I don’t understand any of the lyrics, they still seem better than most of the drivel that invades this album. The song is quite heavy, but it also contains an almost alternative metal feel to it, making for an interesting listen.
So from a total of 14 tracks, four are truly good songs. ‘Mysterious’ was the highest ranked single from the album, and it’s an okay track. The rest of the album is mostly ballads, with a few pop rock songs thrown in. ‘Freshly Squeezed’ and ‘To Be No.I’ are generic pop rock, sounding like something Nickelback would release as b-sides. The rest are ballads, and the only song that I believe is worth listening to is ’10 Light Years Away’. Despite its cheesy lyrics, Schenker and Jabs acoustic guitars give the song a mystical vibe that I don’t mind admitting I enjoy. The rest of the songs should be avoided, unless suffer from insomnia.
Here’s an album that almost ruined Scorpions, an album that saw them disappear for 5 years. The follow up, ‘Unbreakable’, is a decent enough album, but it’s their 2007 release that saw them reclaim most of their lost fan base.
