1990
5 keepers
keeper avg .454
Released in 1990 Crazy World is one of the last hurrahs of hair metal, before Nirvana did the one-arm table sweep. Though not strictly hair/glam-metal in sound or visual aesthetic, one needs look no farther than opening track "Tease Me Please Me"**** for an-era appropriate celebration of the era's decadence and excess; much like Motley Crue's Dr. Feelgood from the previous year, Scorpions find the pop-rock sweet spot with badass riffs and memorable melodies, with the help of outside writer Jim Vallance. Similar to their earlier hit "Big City Nights (and also aided by Vallance), the more "metal" "Don't Believe Her"**** follows, which finds Rudolf Schenker rocking out some dense chordal riffs (similar to Ratt's "Round and Round"1984).
Scorpions have never shied away from an earnest ballad here and there, but none ever took the world by storm like "Wind of Change"****, which reached number 4 in the US and even higher in most of Europe. Besides being a legitimately well-written song for radio, it features Matthias Jabs doing something truly tasteful for a change, and as proven by live footage, Klaus Meine, the song's main writer, can really properly whistle. One of a handful of pop songs forever synonymous with a major world event, it's still evocative of a momentous time, however much its optimism is blunted by current events. Also Meine-penned, "Send Me an Angel"****, a more somber power ballad much like "Silent Lucidity" from earlier that year and "Still Loving You" (1984), is also memorable despite its own respectable success and ubiquity at the time.
They crank up the tempo on "Kicks After Six," for some mindless fun, and the more serious "Hit Between the Eyes"; not played at mountains of cocaine "Dynamite"(1982)-speed but pretty haulin'. On the other end of the spectrum, Matthias Jabs adds some evil slide to a "China White"(1982) stomp-beat, bringing some real menace to "Money and Fame"****. The best of the rest is "To Be with You in Heaven," which is punctuated by short blasts of guitar though just a little limited musically. The almost grunge-y title song, "Lust or Love", and "Restless Nights" don't work very well as songs, though Jabs unleashes some wicked leads on the last one there. Although this line-up had been together since the seminal Lovedrive (1979), their sound has changed somewhat, for better and worse, and this would be the last album with that line-up. By the next one, Scorpions, like all the other mainstream metal bands, would be far less relevant in a different musical landscape. But they gotta be happy with how this one turned out.
Comments