Sweden’s EUROPE were often called their version of BON JOVI even though they started off as more of a Metal band on their first two albums.
Who would have thought at the time that ‘Final Countdown’ would STILL be played at sporting events around the world? I’ve seen them called a “one hit wonder” even though the song ‘Carrie’ charted higher in the States. When you have a song that is so massive you’ll be know for that song regardless what else you do. For the record ‘Rock The Night’ also broke into the Top 40 as well in the USA.
It’s probably not fair to call them a Bon Jovi clone since they were formed before Jon and the boys. But it would be fair to say they altered their sound enough “Wings Of Tomorrow” break them out world-wide. Joey Tempest’s angelic voice and their modelesque look certainly didn’t hurt matters. They were both beloved and hated almost overnight.
Lyrically the album was a little rough. Songs like ‘Ninja’ and ‘Cherokee’, even if they were well-intended, are pretty cringe-worthy. If you take that out of the equation you’d realize the band is really solid. Yeah, it’s overproduced Pop Metal, but they can write extremely catchy stuff, but that’s Sweden for you. People hated ABBA but they could also probably sing every hit song.
For whatever reason the song “The Time Has Come” still holds up to me, it just builds nicely and Tempest does some of his best work on this song. Yeah, it’s still painfully rooted in the 80’s but it’s charming and harmless.
To be completely honest, the album is loaded with great hooks. It’s one of the album that helped propel the genre into the mainstream. Between this album and Bon Jovi’s “Slippery When Wet”, 1986 became the year when labels got really serious about these band’s potential for airplay. Sure, it had been building, but thanks to these Swedish guys it was a reality.
Their legacy in the mainstream will always be “The Final Countdown”, but in other parts of the world they’re influence goes way past that song and even into other genres. One could argue their early material sparked a generation of Metal bands in Scandinavia and beyond.
EUROPE ONLINE
You just sold 3 million copies of your last album in the United States alone. Your song “The Final Countdown” has become ingrained in people’s heads. You’re already headlining stadiums around the world… how do you follow that up?
That was the task Sweden’s Europe had in front of them in 1988 when they put out “Out Of This World”. Very few bands have lived up to such hype and Europe also fell short as well… or did they?
As far as album sales go yes, they sold 2 million less. Singles? Yeah, not even close, ‘Superstitious’ only made it to #31 on the US Top 40. However, under closer inspection they did mature and wrote a better album. The lyrics and music have improved over ‘The Final Countdown’.
Guitarist Kee Marcello had replaced John Norum and if anything his neoclassical style fit better than Norum’s. Ron Nevison produced the album and instead of giving them more of an edge, he took a little off the mix. Since the first album Guns N’ Roses came out so it might have been better to have given it MORE of an edge, but hindsight is 20/20.
The album follows a similar formula as “The Final Countdown”, there’s a solid ballad in ‘Coast To Coast’, some more uptempo songs like ‘Ready Or Not’, a heavier darker song ‘Lights And Shadows’ and then a bunch of potential radio songs like ‘More Than Meets The Eye’.
They reissued an earlier hit they had with ‘Open Your Heart’ that first appeared on “Wings Of Tomorrow” in 1984. Then there’s the sleeper song, ‘Never Say Die’, with a hammond organ solo harkening back to Deep Purple.
I know “The Final Countdown” has a lot of nostalgia attached to it, but when you take it track by track this is a better all around album. The tides were turning already when the album came out, rock was getting dirtier and heavier and the clock was running for bands like Europe. If anything it’s a guilty pleasure, but I hate using that term as over the years these guys have proven to be extremely talented, they continue performing in front of thousands around the world.
EUROPE ONLINE
As the Swedish sensation EUROPE continued to improve musically in every way, their album sales kept dropping. “Prisoners In Paradise” was their third album to be released after they broke out in 1986 with “The Final Frontier”.
In reality it was their fifth album overall, but their first two had limited release and were more Classic Metal than the Melodic Rock/AOR that made this international stars. “Prisoners In Paradise” was released in 1991 and this style of Rock was simply not getting pushed or as popular.
“The Final Countdown” sold three million in the States in 1986. Two years later “Out Of This World” sold a million, and “Prisoners In Paradise” failed to even chart in the USA. In my opinion it was the changing landscape more than anything.
In reality they album sounds great and they once again matured in many ways. The first single and title-track “Prisoner In Paradise” was a Queen-inspired track that was a little different from their previous singles. Perhaps that was the problem, it took people off guard a little bit.
The album starts with three really strong tracks, “All Or Nothing” and two that were released as singles “I’ll Cry For You” and “Halfway To Heaven”. Again, grunge was taking over and bands like Guns N’ Roses had Skid Row had given a darker edge to Rock so the interest for the more “Pop” sounding Metal was certainly down.
When you listen to the entire album you realize they did go back to their first two albums as well. ‘Seven Sign’ was a darker song that had a more “Metal” vibe. “The Girl From Lebanon” was more guitar heavy and showed a side of the band we hadn’t heard since “Wings Of Tomorrow”
There were a couple songs that could have been cut ‘Little Bit Of Lovin’’ and ‘Got Your Mind In The Gutter’, they came off as forced and sounded like “filler”. The albums also lacked a strong ballad that might have given them some airplay, ‘Homeland’ was nice, but not strong enough for radio. Even in 1991 there was bands like FIREHOUSE having success with ballads so that MIGHT have helped, but ultimately it wouldn’t have added anything to the album.
At the end of the day, this is probably their most complete album. Even if you hated the Hair Metal movement you can’t deny these guys could write songs with great hooks and melody. Eventually their pretty boy image hurt them, but as we would find out in the early 2000’s when they finally reformed and put out new music, they were in fact very accomplished musicians.
I still highly recommend this one, even though some lyrics make be cringe a little bit, it’s beautiful and powerful music. The influence EUROPE had is still being felt in new bands that have been touched by their music.
EUROPE ONLINE
