Review Summary: Commercial metal mastery
Much like British Steel and Back in Black, Blackout represents Scorpions fully embracing pop metal and leaving behind their old eccentricities. The songs are streamlined, the hooks are in your face, and the lyrics have leveled out to more conventional romance and rocking out themes. It’s the sort of shift that would’ve flopped in lesser hands but comes more naturally to the band than perhaps anybody else who ever underwent the same trajectory.
For starters, the band manages to inject way more feeling into their performances than most of their peers. There’s a real sense of urgency in a song like “No One Like You” as the dynamic shifts are executed at just the right moments and the vocals are full of what sounds like genuine longing between the gentle verses and wailing chorus. Even if this song was written about some fling, there’s a real sense that Meine means every word of it. If seventies Scorpions was music for the kinky sex dungeon, then eighties Scorpions is for softer, more intimate lovemaking.
It also helps that the band’s songwriting puts in a perfect synergy of catchiness and sheer energy. The title track makes for a wild start with its choppy riffs and vocals that climax to glass-shattering screams. “Dynamite” and “Now” do well to push that energy even further with driving tempos while “Can’t Live Without You” is a stage-ready anthem with a bouncy rhythm. “China White” also works as an incredibly powerful contrast, following up “Animal Magnetism” with an equally crunchy riff set and epic atmosphere that makes for one of the band’s greatest songs.
Of course, the album isn’t perfect. “You Give Me All I Need” feels like a redundant inclusion, essentially repeating “No One Like You” with similar transitions and an infinitely less engaging chorus. Fortunately even that track manages to be fairly enjoyable.
If Blackout isn’t my favorite Scorpions album outright, it’s at least in the top three. As much as I admire the early albums’ experimental flair, it’s really satisfying to see the band pull off a more direct approach. Love at First Sting may have been the bigger album, but Blackout offers commercial metal that isn’t as overplayed and retains just a little bit of edge. Consider it essential listening.
