Europe give the finger to everyone who wrote them off as a one-hit wonder band!
Bag of bones --- Europe --- 2012 (Gain)
What's the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of Europe? Fiscal meltdown, Greek debt, Germany ruling with an iron (financial) fist ... yeah, I meant the band. Oh in that case, that would be DADA-DADA! DADADADADA! DADADADA! and the words "It's the fi-nal count-down!" Yup, that's the one: trumpeting, fanfare keyboards and Joey Tempest bouncing around on stage in front of thousands of adoring fans. I must admit, when I first saw that song being performed on "Top of the Pops", I wondered who the hell these guys were? Coming in and riding the wave of popularity for this sort of music created by the likes of Bon Jovi and Heart, I took them to be an American band, though of course they're not. The single was huge, as we all know, even though it's really, really weak and survives around that famous keyboard arpeggio. I mean, have you ever listened to the lyric? But this was Europe's big hit, it caught on like wildfire and spread across the globe. It was actually taken from their third album, and that sold really well off the back of that number one single, though the other singles released from it did poorly, and subsequent albums didn't make the cut. After blazing brightly for a few months, a year, Europe were gone from the scene, forgotten about, destined always to be associated with, and remembered by, that one song.
But they soldiered on, and while many would class them as a "one-hit wonder", they released another five albums after "The final countdown", and though the followup "Out of this world" was very successful in terms of sales, and did well in the album charts, they never managed to repeat the success of the title track of their third album. Along the way they changed record labels twice, and this is their ninth album overall. In listening to it I did so more out of curiosity thatn anything else, but I found myself if not quite blown away, then certainly impressed, in a big way.
It opens in rockin' style with talkbox guitar as "Riches to rags" gets us underway, and Joey Tempest is in fine voice, even after all this time --- I've heard nothing from him since 1986, and that's over twenty-five years now. It's pretty much the same band, more or less, that recorded that famous album, with a few changes over the years, but mostly the same five guys who lit the charts up with that incessantly catchy single and seemed the new Bon Jovi for a time. There's a great sense of boogie about this opener, and John Norum is great on the guitar, but it's the second track that really lights the spark. "Not supposed to sing the blues" seems to be at its heart a tale of a white man who wants to play the blues, but is advised/warned not to by authority figures/parents, blues being almost exclusively the pervue of the black community back in the sixties, which is when this song is set. Well, it says the protagonist is
"Born in '63/ In the shadow of Kennedy" so I guess it could be seventies/eighties when he's learning the guitar. It might of course be totally made up, or it could be based on someone, I don't know, but it's a strong and powerful song, with some great ominous guitar from Norum, and a real bluesy vocal from Tempest.
There's some small orchestration in the song too, which adds to the somewhat paranoid nature of it as the singer is warned
"If you walk across those railroad tracks/ Son, you're on your own" but is unable to resist the pull of the blues. Blues of course began in the poorer black cities and towns of the deep south, while the "rich white folks" were listening to big band and swing. So a white guy wanting to play the blues could indeed have been frowned upon. It's hard to think of a white man who played the blues back then; all the greats were black. "Firebox" is another great rocker, with jangly guitar and thundering bass, with a brilliant hook which could make it a decent choice for a single, and you can hear really for the first time on the album the contribution from Mic Michaeli on keys. It's not mentioned in the credits, but unless that's some great synth work I believe that must be a sitar, giving the song a real Indian feel, a sort of a hippy vibe in places.
The great and incomparable Joe Bonamassa lends his talents on slide guitar to the other standout on the album, the title track, which starts off like a ballad, and indeed you'd be fooled into thinking that, yes, this is about where a ballad might be. Soft acoustic guitar from John Norum and something that again sounds like a mandolin with Bonamassa's slide in the background frames Joey's passionate vocal, and the song looks like it's going to be a great little acoustic ballad. Bass and percussion cut in, guitar filling out the song and then ... everything kicks up in tempo and the track takes on some real Springsteen influences, hard electric guitar and powerful organ now forming the backdrop for the song, which could be a 9/11 song, with the lines
"My city lies in ruins" and
"I'm siftin' through the rubble", but I doubt it, as it would be very late, over a decade later, and hardly current. Still, it's a great song and definitely my favourite on the album. Bonamassa's slide really adds to the feel of the track, and it rocks along with just enough commercial radio-friendly sound that could make it a single, and possibly a successful one.
Lovely strings and orchestration then for a short --- less than thirty seconds --- piano instrumental which reminds me of one of those old western movies, and runs into the slowburner "My woman my friend", with a great repeating piano line leading it, courtesy of Michaeli, joined by booming guitar and heavy organ in a real blues scorcher, a great vocal from Tempest with a lot of power and passion. The song reminds me a little of late-seventies Deep Purple, with some great multi-tracked backing vocals adding to it. Great burning guitar solo from John Norum. One thing I do notice on this album --- and this is on the understanding I have only heard the one other Europe album --- is that it's nowhere as heavily keyboard-centric as "The final countdown" was. With much less of the AOR and more of the straight-ahead rock, this is an album that shows a band evolving and moving in the right direction. I don't know what Joey Tempest looks like these days, but I'd say those golden locks are probably much shorter, probably not golden any more, and the music has matured along with the man, and his band.
"My demon head" is another hard rocker, with a great descending chord structure in the melody, and the great line
"Some drunken honesty", more talkbox guitar from Norum and thrashing, pounding drumwork from Ian Haugland. A great almost gospel style organ punctuates procedures, and then guitar and drums take over again with Joey singing his (demon) head off, and the organ returns for the somewhat frenetic ending, taking us into another great track, the acoustic "Drink and a smile", which succeeds in not taking itself too seriously on the back of an uptempo acoustic guitar and a blues vocal from Joey, the return of the sitar (if it is a sitar) and some laidback electric guitar from Norum. Other than the instrumental it's the shortest track on the album, under two and a half minutes, and very simple and sparse, with handclap beats and a little reverb on the vocal.
The fun continues in "Doghouse", a big rip-roaring rocker with the eternal complaint of men: nag nag nag. A really heavy guitar melody carries this song, almost ZZ in style, and some deep organ from Michaeli blends in early Zep with Purple, Joey doing a very passable Coverdale, while "Mercy you mercy me" is a faster, almost frenetic track with a big city feel and racing guitars, a dark heavy sound to Norum's axe, almost Iommi-like at times. There's a great thumping, pounding, punching anthemic chorus too, though I'd think this is a little too heavy, comparatively, to make it as a single. The album ends then on the "cigarette lighter in the air" moment, with the Poison-ish "Bring it all home", a stirring semi-ballad with some pretty deep emotion in it, though it rather worryingly sounds like a sign-off, with lines like
"Thrills will fade/ We've had some good laughs on the way" seeming very like a thank-you and farewell to their fans. And let's face it, they must have them: you don't last almost thirty years in the business and sell over five million records without having a big fanbase. Joey's voice sounds totally ragged and raspy here, more Joe Cocker than Jon Bon Jovi really, and it's sure to be a crowd-pleaser if used to close a concert, which I'm sure it will. If it is Europe's swansong I'd be disappointed, on the strength of this album, as I think they have many more years left in them yet. Still, if it is to be their last hurrah, it's a damn good one, and brings the curtain down in style on one fine album.
TRACKLISTING
1. Riches to rags
2. Not supposed to sing the blues
3. Firebox
4. Bag of bones
5. Requiem
6. My woman my friend
7. My demon head
8. Drink and a smile
9. Doghouse
10. Mercy you mercy me
11. Bring it all home
For some time now, I've been intending to look deeper into Europe's catalogue, and I had hoped to have managed this in 2012, but that now seems increasingly unlikely, so next year I'll be launching a new section (what? Another one? Yeah, another one: you got a problem with that??) in which I'll be looking at perhaps forgotten bands, or bands or artistes who are seen only in the light of one album or single, but who have produced a lot more than most of us realise. The story of Europe, so far, will head this up; I want to see if "The final countfdown" was a blip (albeit a very successful and profitable blip), if their music has always been that brand of slick AOR or if they developed from other styles, indeed to other styles. Does that one album, I'm asking, define, characterise and represent Europe? Find out next year...
In the meantime, if you thought all there was to this band was that one song, then give a listen to "Bag of bones": you just might be pleasantly surprised.