Welcome to My Music Mondays. Each week I will be delving into my music collection and looking at a new artist going somewhat randomly currently but eventually from A to Z. I’ll examine why I first started listening to them, my favorite album and my top 10 songs for the artist. As my music collection is pretty extensive and I have a lot of one offs, I have set a qualification to be featured here. That is that I have to have at least two albums of the artist’s music before they can be considered. This week I look at Europe.
As some of you may or may not know I am a big fan of cheesy 80s rock, or hair metal. Whitesnake, Warrant, Motley Crue, Def Leppard, Bon Jovi, etc… I was never quite sure why bands of their ilk were considered heavy metal as I always viewed them as pop-rock (popular music with a rock edge). I suppose some of it is the fact that all musicians want to be taken seriously and generally pop-music is shunned because, well because it is popular. In anycase while attempting to rate all the songs I own in iTunes (a daunting task mind you) I got to a little band that I hadn’t listened to in quite some time.
Best known for their rock anthem that made VH1s list of top 40 Most Awesomely Bad Metal Songs, The Final Countdown, Europe was a band that I had pretty much forgotten about. Their 1988 album, “Out of This World” was a constant in my tape player in late 1988 and early 1989. Surprisingly, listening to them again I found I still enjoyed their brand of rock. Yes they rely a little to heavily on synthesizers but underneath it all Kee Marcello shines with some awesome guitar work and lead singer Joey Tempest brings it all home with a rock delivery reminiscent of some of the best vocalist from the 60s and 70s.
The Swedish band is mostly known, outside of The Final Countdown, for their ballads but I myself enjoy their straight up arena rockers. Great guitar work and fantastic hooks can go a long way to cover the stink of Aquanet and cheese.
Favorite Album: Out of This World
It’s filled with solid arena rockers from top to bottom. Even the ballads on the album rock.
10 Favorite Songs
10. I’ll Cry For You
9. Open Your Heart
8. More Than Meets the Eye
7. Just the Beginning
6. Tower’s Callin’
5. Let the Good Times Rock
4. All or Nothing
3. The Final Countdown
2. Superstitious
1. Halfway to Heaven
So what do you think of Europe?
I can’t ever hear “The Final Countdown” without thinking of GOB on Arrested Development.
I’d have to give them a closer listen. I only really know them for “The Final Countdown,” with which they at one point opened and closed their set. Because of that, the single has become somewhat of a joke for me.
It’s a friend’s ringtone. It’s a song played while a prawn runs on a treadmill. It’s the song I put on at the karaoke bar and then walk around the block and return in time to sing the first line.
I think I’m cheesier than Europe because I sing karaoke.