And another, hot off the presses.
Artist: Europe
Nationality: Swedish
Album: War of Kings
Year: 2015
Label: UDR
Genre: Melodic Rock/AOR
Tracks:
War of Kings
Hole in My Pocket
The Second Day
Praise You
Nothin’ to Ya
California 405
Days of Rock’n’Roll
Children of the Mind
Rainbow Bridge
Angels (With Broken Hearts)
Light it up
Chronological position: Tenth album
Familiarity: I’m aware of their work
Initial impression: Uh, yeah....
Comments: One thing has become clear to me about Europe, and I think I said it before, but it bears repeating. From at least the bulk of what I’ve heard from them to date, they come across to me as a mediocre, third-rate wannabe AOR/Melodic Rock band who desperately want to be Guns’n’Roses, Bon Jovi, Poison or some other American rock band, and who struck it lucky with one chart-busting song, on which they’ve been dining out since 1986. Witness their entire lack of chart success since the album
The Final Countdown, and yet they’ve still sold over ten million albums.
Normally, I don’t really rate chart success as a barometer of a band’s quality - so many artists who have big hits don’t appeal to me, and often seem to rely so much on their singles that they surround them on the album with inferior tracks. So, having bought
The Final Countdown and really thought, meh, I wanted to see if there was more to them than one flash-in-the-pan album, so I downloaded their discography and I really have to say that I’ve been disappointed - very disappointed - so far in how, well, ordinary they are. I listen to their songs and it’s like anyone could have written and played that. It could be any band. Which makes me piss myself laughing at the claim of their new label, UDR that “Europe represent the finest in supremely written hard rock music”. Right. Whatever you’re on, Ms. Rudolph, I want some! To be fair, the one shining light in the dark tunnel into which I plunged when I decided to listen to their music was 2012’s
Bag of Bones, which was a really pleasant surprise. Loved that album. But was, and is, it the exception to the rule? Let's give them another shot and see.
Well, from the off it sounds like Mr. Tempest is trying to be Mr. Dio, which is never going to work. The music is heavier, true, and Joey has a good rock/metal voice, no denying that, but he’s no RJD. To be fair though, it’s not a bad start. Could be worse. Gets pretty standard rock for the next track, tries to be more than it is but comes across a little toothless to me. “The Second Day” again sounds to me like they’re pillaging the Dio songbook, which smacks of kids wearing their parents’ clothes or something. Not that I’m saying Europe can’t play or write, but they really should stick to what they do best, and not try to ape their masters. Again, to be fair, it’s not a bad song, but is it a great song? Oh no, not even close.
“Praise You” is, you’ll probably be relieved to hear, not a cover of the Fatboy Slim hit, but is in fact a sort of nod back to the seventies psych/hard rock era in tone, built on something of an almost proggy organ line, and it’s quite the slowburner. Has some touches of Gary Moore blues about it, circa
Still Got the Blues/Wild Frontier. In fact, the guitar riff reminds me of his song “Midnight Blues”, though I’ll probably find out it’s not his. No, I checked and it is. Well, “Nothin’ to Ya” has some energy all right, but again there’s a lurking seventies feel to it. Some decent keyboards.
The problem, which is one endemic to Europe as I see it, is that there’s really nothing new here. Songs come, songs go - some are better than others, some are mediocre, but nothing so far anyway has yet stood out to me and made me want to really listen. It’s not like with the previous album, which really grabbed my attention, the more so because I had expected so little from Europe. This, on the other hand, is realising those low expectations mostly. The Hum Factor is low, as there is nothing here that I will remember once the album is over. “Days of Rock’n’Roll”, despite the cringeworthy title, is probably the best track here so far, rocking (as you might expect) like a good thing, but then we’re back riding Dio’s coat-tails for “Children of the Mind” while “Rainbow Bridge” is just, well, awful, and tries to rob the riff from Terence Trent D’Arby’s “Sign Your Name” or maybe George Michael’s “Father Figure.” Uh-huh. And that leaves us with the closing ballad, “Angels (With Broken Hearts)”, which turns everything around and ends the album in class style, but unfortunately one decent song can’t save a very substandard album.
Oh, it doesn't. There's another song I didn't notice. "Light it up" does NOT do what it says on the tin. They shouldn't have bothered. At least they looked like they were ending well, then they went and ruined it all. Idiots.
Hum Factor: 3
Intention: I kind of still want to believe Europe have one more decent album left in them. This, however, ain’t it.
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