Arrested Development

RE-REVIEW: Europe – The Final Countdown (1986, 2019 Rock Candy remaster)

EUROPE – The Final Countdown (1986, 2019 Rock Candy remaster)

When Europe set in to do The Final Countdown, some changes were necessary.  The drum seat went from Tony Reno to Ian Haughland, a guy that Joey Tempest liked partially because his drum kit looked like Alex Van Halen’s.  Some new songs, such as “Carrie” and “Ninja” had already been road-tested on the Wings of Tomorrow tour.   The record label was gunning hard and hooked them up with Journey producer Kevin Elson for the third album.  What Elson brought to the music was not drastic change, but the essentially improvements that made the record what it is today.

Record?  In this case, CD.  In 2019, Rock Candy reissued The Final Countdown with six bonus tracks:  the same three live ones from the 2001 Epic remaster edition, plus three extra.  For that reason, let’s take a second deep dive:  It has been over 10 years since we last reviewed it.

With the ominous boom of synth, the anthemic title track opens The Final Countdown with regal, grand intentions.  The track was cut down from seven minutes to just five, and for that reason it was able to become the hit it was.  Today you hear it on TV commercials and shows such as Arrested Development (in hilarious fashion).   Back then, it was pushing the envelope about how much keyboard was acceptable in hard rock or heavy metal.  Europe really started as a metal band on their first album.   Yet here we are, with those big gongs of synth provided by new member Mic Michaeli.  When the trumpet-like main keyboard melody enters the fray, it’s all but over.  Your mind is now hooked!  The wicked John Norum guitar solo remains one of his catchiest and most memorable, with plenty of fret-burning action.  The lyrics tell the story of abandoning the Earth for Venus due to catastrophe.  Corny, but pretty unusual for its time.  “The Final Countdown” remains one of those career-defining songs that live forever.

“Will things ever be the same again?” begs Joey Tempest, before the chorus.  For the band, no.  Superstardom hit soon thanks to this unforgettable anthem.  Though their fortunes would fade and they would never hit these heights again, they wrote themselves into rock history with one song.

Straight-ahead party rocker “Rock the Night” was the infamous video that featured Joey Tempest using a ketchup bottle as a makeshift microphone.  Great song though, with that kind of shout-along chorus that Bon Jovi were also becoming experts in.  But listen to Ian Haughlaand’s drums!  Absolutely pounding.  All the elements come together in perfect balance here, with the keyboards taking a back seat to John Norum, who continues to burn on the solo.  His tone on this album was unique and very tasty.

“Carrie” was born on tour as a simpler arrangement with just Joey and Mic on stage.  When recorded for the album, it was a full band arrangement.  A little heavy handed, a little over-dramatic perhaps.  It too was a huge hit.  It still sounds good today, largely thanks to Joey’s impassioned vocal performance.  The man was at the peak of his powers, and it shows here.  Very few singers can do what Joey does on “Carrie”.

The rock returns on “Danger on the Track”, a tale of Joey fleeing from the strangers on his back.  And he was so right, apparently, but we won’t get into that!  This is clearly an album track, not up to the standards of the previous three singles, but still good enough for rock and roll.  It’s “Ninja” that surpasses the singles, with a ripping tale of the era of the ninja.  It has the rhythmic chug that the other songs don’t, and plenty of John Norum’s addictive, dramatic runs.

The final song written for The Final Countdown was one of its best:  the side two opener “Cherokee”.  It seems odd for a band from Sweden to sing about a dark period in American history, but the lyrics aren’t too far off the mark.  They were based on a book Joey saw while working in America.  This is probably the second most anthemic song on the album behind “The Final Countdown”.  It has a big keyboard hook too, and a chorus that sticks for days.

“Time Has Come” is only the second ballad, but it has some heavy guitars to keep it from going too soft.  Once again, Norum’s solo is a highlight, being a key part of the song’s melodicism.  Moving on to “Heart of Stone”, a memorable mid-tempo track, John Norum continues to shine.  This cool song boasts a killer chorus to boot.  There are cool stabs of organ a-la Deep Purple ’84.  You wouldn’t call it a heavy song, but “On the Loose” sure is.  This scorcher is among Europe’s best blasts.  It’s just a simple song about teenage frustration and energy.  This might have been the song that made me a John Norum fanboy in the first place.

Album closer “Love Chaser” is a melancholy mid-tempo romp.  It has a bouncy beat and keyboard hooks, and it ends the album just perfectly.  It even has a keyboard melody at the start that recalls “The Final Countdown” a bit, providing the album with a nice set of bookends.  Sadly this would be John Norum’s last appearance with Europe until a 1999 reunion.  He was replaced by Kee Marcello, who appears in all the music videos aside from “The Final Countdown” itself.

The first set of bonus tracks are the three live songs that appeared on the 2001 Epic remaster.  These are taken from the Final Countdown World Tour VHS from the Hammersmith Odeon in 1987, and feature Marcello on guitar, though this information is not included in the otherwise excellent booklet.  It is audibly him.   “The Final Countdown”, “Danger on the Track” and “Carrie” are the three tracks included, though there is a clear opportunity here to do a 40th anniversary edition with the entire show on disc 2.  These are solid live versions, and it does sound pretty live especially in the lead vocals.  Joey Tempest is one of the most impressive singers in hard rock, and though the press was trying to build a rivalry with Bon Jovi in 1986-87, Joey was clearly the superior singer.

The first of the new bonus tracks is a rare 1986 re-recording of “Seven Doors Hotel” from their debut.  There are now drapes of synths over the piano opening, but the song still scorches hot as ever.  John’s guitar is doubled effectively for a more Lizzy-like approach.  It was clearly too heavy for The Final Countdown album but it could have been an excellent B-side.

Speaking of B-sides, a special B-side remix of “Rock the Night” is another rarity brought back to light.  This version could have been better than the original, but falls short of the mark.  It does not actually sound like a remix at all, but a completely different recording, at least vocally.  If you wanted to hear this song a little heavier, then this version might do it for you, except for the annoying looping of hooks.  “Rock now, rock now, rock now, rock the night!”  “What do you want?  What do you want?”  Stop looping the hooks, please!  It sounds so artificial.  This version is a minute and a half longer than the original.  It’s a slog, but it didn’t have to be.

Finally, the excellent B-side “On Broken Wings”, previously available on compilations, has been restored to the album as it always should have been.  It’s a hard rocker, a driving song, and could have fit very well on side two.  It would have been one of the faster songs, yet with another memorable Europe chorus.

This new Rock Candy remaster sounds sharp and vibrant.  An excellent remastering of a stone cold classic.  The booklet includes an interview with Joey Tempest on the making of the album.  Until they issue an expanded edition for the 40th anniversary (let’s hope), then this is the version to buy, hands down.

5/5 stars

 

 

#787: Mix CD 19 – “Green Album”

GETTING MORE TALE #787: Mix CD 19 – “The Green Album”

As we’ve done in the past, let’s have a look at a mix CD I dug up, from about a decade ago.  It’s an interesting mix, made mostly of stuff I found online.  Any time I’d gather at least 80 minutes worth of downloads, I’d burn them to a CD.  I considered that to be a much more permanent format.  This disc is really just an archive of things I downloaded during a certain period of time in 2008.  The title 19 suggests that it’s the 19th such archive CD that I burned.  More than that though, I made it a good listen.  As usual there are surprises and a few attempts at buffoonery.  Let’s dive in.

The first thing to notice:  There are 23 tracks on the CD, but 19 listed on the front sleeve.  That means I hid four comedic bits somewhere between the songs, to be discovered by surprise.  That’s why I left off the track numbers.

The opener “Big Yellow Joint” is a jingle from the TV show Arrested Development.  Remember the Banana Stand?  In the 60s it was a popular place to meet to buy and sell weed!  But that’s out of the way quickly and it’s “25 or 6 to 4” by Chicago from a very poor quality mp3.  “25 or 6 to 4” is the definitive rock song with a horn section.  Find me a better one.

Then, seamlessly, it’s an old childhood favourite:  “Bad to the Bone”!  When you make a mix CD, the software generally defaults to a three second gap between songs.  I liked a tighter flow than that, so I always used one second or even no gap.  This disc is almost 80 minutes long so I used every second I could find.  The transitions on my mix CDs are always top notch.  After George Thorogood, it’s Pat Travers with “Snortin’ Whiskey”.  I was probably hearing these tracks on the radio a lot at the time, so I downloaded ’em and burned ’em.

A really terrible sounding mp3 of “Sonic Reducer” by the Dead Boys reflects my love of the movie Hard Core Logo.  It started with the H.C.L. version of “Sonic Reducer”, and then Pearl Jam’s cover.  If I liked those, I figured I should download the original.  But all this proves to me is why you need to buy the CD.  Downloaded versions suck.  This is sonically not up to par and I’m surprised I was satisfied by this 10 years ago.

The first audio hoodwink follows the Dead Boys.  It’s a 30 second clip from the movie Walk Hard, starring John C. Reilly as Dewey Cox.  This clip features Jack Black as Paul McCartney, Paul Rudd as John Lennon, Justin Long as George Harrison, and Jason Schwartzman as Ringo Starr.

Having a chuckle at the Dewey Cox clip is a perfect way to transition over to a couple good reggae songs by Inner Circle: “Sweat” and (of course) “Bad Boys”! Have a laugh, then get down and dance. I like what I did here, if I do say so myself! Going from that back to rock and roll is tricky, but I think I pulled it off with the very poppy “Fire, Ice & Dynamite” by Deep Purple (Mk V). It’s an oddball rarity, only ever appearing on a Deep Purple DVD as a video slideshow.

One of my favourite 80s songs, the Grateful Dead’s “Touch of Grey” still pleases today. I can only handle the Dead in small doses, but this is my favourite of their songs. It’s probably 50% pop and 50% nostalgia. In keeping with the 80s, it’s Guns N’ Roses’ “Sweet Child O’ Mine”, a live version with the 1999 lineup supposedly intended for the Sandler flick Big Daddy.  Immediately following is a live version of “Dead Flowers” from an earlier time.  Ah, Limewire!  I remember regularly typing in searches like “Guns N’ Roses rare” or “Guns N’ Roses live” and downloading anything I could get my digital digits on.  It was also hit and miss in terms of quality.  These are bootleggy but not excessively so.

I remember watching Napoleon Dynamite a fuck of a lot back then.  I used the presentation Napoleon gave about the Loch Ness monster for the next unlisted comedy bit.  Then it’s another rarity, also only available as a bonus track on a DVD:  “Nobody Knows What It’s Like to Be Lonely” by Motley Crue.  The track is 7:05 long, and every fan of Too Fast For Love needs to hear it and have it.  “Song to Slit Your Wrist By”, which I used to think was by Motley Crue but is actually by Nikki Sixx’s 58, is a waste of time that I shouldn’t have included.  I thought I had downloaded a rare Japanese bonus track.  In a cruel twist, Motley included a 58 song on the Japanese edition of Generation Swine, forcing me to seek it out, not realizing it wasn’t actually Motley Crue.

In the very first instalment of Getting More Tale called That Crush on Avril, my not-so-secret affection for Avril Lavigne was revealed.  Let’s be honest, folks — her second album rocked.  I still like it.  She’s never rocked heavy like that since, and I’ve long since gotten off the train.  This CD has a rare acoustic version of “Complicated”, but far better then that is Weird Al’s parody “A Complicated Song”.

“Why’d you have to go and make me so constipated?
‘Cause right now I’d do anything to just get my bowels evacuated,
In the bathroom I sit and I wait and I strain,
And I sweat and I clench and I feel the pain,
Oh, should I take laxatives or have my colon irrigated?”

Keeping the comedy going, it’s a clip from Arrested Development with Jason Bateman and Michael Cera.  It’s a good show; you should watch it.

In 2008, Harem Scarem released a free official download:  a recent live version of “Hard To Love”.  This was intended as a final gift to fans, since the band were breaking up.  Temporarily, thank you very much!  The live version shows off the band’s impressive singing abilities, and of course being an official download, the sound quality is all but perfect.  I followed that with a live radio performance by ex-Tesla guitarist Tommy Skeoch, a song called “I Left the Circus”.  Well, I think technically he was kicked out of the circus.  It’s a jokey song about Tesla.  According to Skeoch in the intro, one of the guys from Tesla heard it and took it well.  “Although he’s kind of a pompous fuck and I don’t really like him.”  I’m glad I downloaded this; I don’t know how you’d find it today.  Who knows what radio show I downloaded it from.  The LeBrain Library™ is a storehouse for things like this.  I keep things that the record companies lose in massive fires.

Too soon?

In the late 80s, Robbie Robertson had a popular single called “Somewhere Down the Crazy River”, from his solo debut.  Some like it, some hate it, but it’s a remarkable song.  It sounds both retro and futuristic.  It featured a weird electronic instrument called the Omnichord, and an explosive chorus accompanied by Sammy BoDean.  A lot of this CD, scattershot as it is, features songs I enjoyed in my youth, but don’t own the albums.  I should fix that.

After a final sketch from the movie Superbad (“I’m gonna cry myself to sleep every night.  When I’m out partying”) it’s the ultimate rock comedy of all time.  Can you guess what that might be?  No, not Spinal Tap.  No, not Bad News either.  It’s Van Halen’s isolated vocal track of “Runnin With the Devil”!

Weird CD indeed, random but with a lot of effort to make it cohesive and listenable.  I’ll give myself:

4/5 stars

#363: The Art of the Mix CD

For more reading of this nature, I recommend the 1001 Albums in 10 Years site, by Geoff.  He is always posting interesting musical nerdiness like this so cheers to Geoff and his excellent site.

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RECORD STORE TALES MkII: Getting More Tale
#363: The Art of the Mix CD

We have come a long way from the mix tape. If you’re of a certain age, you probably made many mix tapes. I know I did. Dozens upon dozens, spending hours doing so. We had to make the tapes in real time. I would meticulously cue up the tapes so there wouldn’t be excessive gaps between songs, or awkward edits. I couldn’t have a song getting clipped at the start or finish. Mix tapes were a matter of pride and I sank a lot of time into making them, from the recording to the J-card. Sometimes the tapes were for me, but most often they were for someone else (usually a girl I was trying to woo).

Making a mix CD is much easier than making a mix tape. Still, for my level of perfectionism, it requires a lot of work and attention to detail. I have certain “rules” that I always adhere to, when making a mix CD. In the past, I have burned and then thrown away many CD copies that did not meet my exacting standards. I would not settle for a mix CD with an annoying flaw in it! My friends deserve better!

Here are my rules:

1. All songs must be more or less equal in volume.

Nothing worse than diving for the volume knob when a song that was mastered waaaay too loudly comes on! Nero has a built-in “normalize” function that analyzes and automatically equalizes the volume on all tracks. However it doesn’t always work well. It can create volume swells within an actual track that weren’t there before. I do not use this feature any longer. Now, I use Audacity to raise or lower a track’s volume manually, before adding it to my mix.  Painstaking, but you get better results.

GOB2. All live songs must have fade-ins and fade-outs.

I cannot stand the sound of crowd noise starting and stopping abrubtly. I add my own fade-ins and fade-outs. Sometimes this is tricky, because certain live albums may have the song breaks in odd locations. There may not be enough room at the start or end of a track. So, sometimes I have to manually add in enough crowd noise to enable a fadeout, a time consuming fix. I also enjoy doing the occasional cross-fade between songs, which used to be very hard on Nero but is easy as pie with Audacity.

3. CD must have a start, middle and ending.

All tracks are carefully selected for each one of my mix CDs, but usually there are several contenders for opening and closing songs. I try to create a flow, with slow parts and heavy parts, through the disc, with a dramatic climax. I don’t always succeed but my goal is to create a mix CD that works like an album. It has to have a direction.

4. Throw on a rare track.

It doesn’t matter who I’m making a mix CD for, I want an obscure song or two on there. I don’t want to make a mix CD entirely of songs you already know. I want to surprise you with something I know you’ve never heard before, but will probably like.

5. All songs must be properly labelled.

Don’t you hate getting a CD from somebody without having a clue what’s on it? Every CD I make for a friend comes with a computer generated cover, including full and accurate track list, down to every punctuation mark and detail. Sometimes I’ll even throw some pictures or logos on the cover for fun, if there is room. Nero also encodes the song and artist names onto the CD. So I have to make sure the file names are all done correctly too, because when you pop my mix CD into certain players (like my car deck) you’re going to see the titles come up automatically. This must always be done correctly. No spelling mistakes, or I’d junk it, and make a new one.

And finally, there is the optional not-rule:

6. Optional – Include short, funny bits between songs to surprise the listener.  

This only applies in certain circumstances.  The “Integrity Mix” CD shown here, with G.O.B. and Franklin Bluth on the cover, has such bits at strategic points.  One is the song “Big Yellow Joint” from the show Arrested Development, and the other is the appearance of the “Hot Cops” busting George Michael from the same episode.  You can see I wanted to keep those bits a surprise for whoever ends up with a copy, because I didn’t number the tracks and didn’t list the bits.  So in a sense they are “hidden” until the listener stumbles upon them.

Are you as picky as I am, or is your quality control as extreme as mine? What are you own techniques in the art of the mix CD?

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WTF Search Terms: Rock and Roll edition

ELVIS UH

WTF Search Terms VI:  Rock and Roll edition

Welcome back to WTF!  Click here if you missed the last one.  This edition collects some musical Google searches that somehow led people here to this blog.  Enjoy these head-scratchers and WTFs!

This first guy’s obviously an idiot.

10.  steve morse sucks

9. is paul stanley loosoing his voice?

8.  i wouldl like to hear mob rules (why, how polite!)

7. life+it+up+kiss

6.   black sabbath paranoid deluxe edition where is the 3 disc (right there.)

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5.  phrase from what tv show – it’s the final countdown!! (Arrested Development.)

4. puff daddy’s embarring habit

3. new kids on the block poster greatest hits

2. real elvis videos tumblr hornny holes

And this week’s winner:

1. marilyn manson with butt plug

Like the WTF’s?  Then come back soon, or better yet, subscribe!

REVIEW: Europe – The Final Countdown (1986)

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TFC FRONT

EUROPE – The Final Countdown (1986, 2001 Epic remaster)

I remember back in 1986/1987, all the rock magazines were playing on the same angle: Who’s better, Europe or Bon Jovi? Hard to believe that the two bands were once considered on the same playing field, now that Bon Jovi are permanent megastars. Not to mention their music sounds nothing alike!

Everybody knows “The Final Countdown” which received a new life thanks to TV shows shows like Arrested Development. (Gob Bluth uses it as his theme song during his ill-fated magic acts.)  What you may not know is that this album had three other classic singles (“Rock the Night”, “Carrie”, “Cherokee”) and 6 great album tracks with no duds. As an added bonus, this remaster also includes three live tracks from 1987’s Final Countdown World Tour.  These may in fact be the same tracks as the Extended Versions release, but I don’t have that one to verify.

The synth-y title track kicks off the proceedings, its regal anthemic melody setting the mood. A science fiction themed song, the people of Earth have departed for Venus (let’s ignore that Venus is 460 °C). The lyrics…not super great on this album, but let’s not forget that English was their second language and they were still kids at the time. Regardless, “The Final Countdown” is a complete success as a song, from insanely catchy verses to chorus to intricate guitar solo courtesy of John Norum.

“Rock The Night” follows, another catchy song, this time with the guitar handling the meat of the tune. Then, the hit ballad “Carrie”. It’s a bit soft by today’s standards but is still a well written keyboard ballad with a great melody. This is followed by another great rock song, “Danger on the Track”. Vocalist Joey Tempest tells us of a journey followed by “strangers on my back”.  (See, because “back” rhymes with “track”.)  Again, not a great lyric, but it is a great song. Side One of the original LP was finished with the fantastic “Ninja”, which in my own personal world was a single in its own right. The lyrics: “If I were a noble ancient knight, I’d stand by your side to rule and fight.” OK then.

PHANTOM ZONE

Apparently the phantom zone wasn’t just for General Zod.

Side Two kicked off with a riff and a smile, and probably the best tune: “Cherokee”.  The lyrics here are not bad, a tale of the demise of the American Indian. However it is the riff that holds the song down, a typical Norum burner of great integrity. Still can’t tell what that voice says at the beginning of the song, though! The next track is “Time Has Come”, a mid-tempo soft one that I considered filler back then but like quite a lot now. “Heart Of Stone” has a bit more meat to it. This is followed by the fastest and heaviest song on the album, “On The Loose”, which has some of Norum’s best playing. In fact it was this song that brought Norum to my attention as a monster shredder in the first place. After hearing this song, I continued to watch his career with great interest, from solo albums to Don Dokken back to Europe. The album closed with another mid-tempo soft song, “Love Chaser”, which has a keyboard melody reminiscent of “The Final Countdown” itself, bringing us full circle. It is another great tune with killer melody and vocals from Joey Tempest.

The three bonus tracks are live takes of “The Final Countdown,” “Danger on the Track” and “Carrie”. Clearly, Europe could always cut it live.  These are from the Hammersmith Odeon in 1987, and feature Norum’s replacement Kee Marcello on guitar.  Marcello is no slouch, and had a different style to Norum’s, therefore adding another element to the songs.

The Final Countdown is the kind of album that I think should be owned, rather than just pick up a hits disc. You won’t go wrong with any of these ten tracks. The live stuff is just an added bonus.

5/5 stars