Europe - Europe (1983) WMA320

In the early 1980's Europe won the Swedish rock championship (yes, there was such a thing!) and the prize was to record an album. I remember watching the final on TV and I was taken by this band. When they later released this self titled effort (with a different cover than this cd re-release) it was very clear that especially Joey Tempest (vocals) and John Norum (guitar) were talented. Being influenced by Deep Purple, Thin Lizzy and UFO, Europe themselves did a great job carrying the tradition.
This album, together with the follow up "Wings of tomorrow" are the bands best albums although none of them include their world wide hit "The final countdown". The music is both melodic and energetic with very good vocals and guitar playing. Every single song is heavy metal of top quality in a genre that hadn't experienced hair metal yet.

Europe went on and recorded "The final countdown" from which the title track became a huge hit. The rest of the albums' material wasn't pop metal oriented, but the record company which had got a taste of Europe's ability to earn large sums of money for them pushed the band into hair metal... John Norum (who was more heavy metal oriented) decided to quit the band and go for a solo career (later to join Dokken), while Joey Tempest struggled to write another hit in the same vein as "The final countdown".

After two rather mediocre albums: "Out of this world" and "Prisoners in paradise", Europe had come to an end. Joey Tempest released a solo album "Place to call home" that sounded more in the line of Tom Petty. Joey Tempest's first release is in fact a very good album and if you come across it - buy it. His follow up "Azalea place" was not so good, but still worth having. His third recently released self titled album is different (due to the production with it's more modern approach) from the two previous albums, and it takes some time to appreciate it.

If you think I'm qualified to give advise, I suggest you check out Pretty Maids "Red, hot and heavy" - very good!

by L. B. Ivarsson

TRACKLIST:

01 - In The Future To Come.wma
02 - Farewell.wma
03 - Seven Doors Hotel.wma
04 - The King Will Return.wma
05 - Boyazont.wma
06 - Children Of This Time.wma
07 - Words Of Wisdom.wma
08 - Paradize Bay.wma
09 - Memories.wma

WMA 320Kbps 44100Hz STEREO