"Humanity - Hour 1" is a concept record based on the classic "Terminator" theme of a civil war between humans and robots. The only hope of survival is to reclaim the humanity of mankind.
Desmond Child is co-author of the concept and overall the new
Scorpions record has Desmond Child all over it. Desmond Child has produced the album with James Michael and co-wrote all songs except for one.
By all means this is a different
Scorpions record. The classic Meine/Schenker compositions are nowhere to be found. All songs are written with at least 2 co-writers and only one
Scorpions member has been involved in the song writing for each song. Furthermore the duo Child/Michael has provided
Scorpions with a fresh modern sound and each song is hook-laden, which makes the album a strong unit with several highlights.
The album opens with my least favorite
Hour 1- the dark vibe of the song understates the caution of robots are about to eliminate human beings. From then on the record produces 11 hits. The highlights are
Game Of Life, which has same feel as
Bad Boys Running Wild/Big City Nights.
We Were Born To Fly is a perfect cross of classic
Scorpions and their new up-dated sound. The great acoustic driven ballad
Love Will Keep Us Alive is a candidate for "Gold Ballads vol. 2".
The album closes with four unique tracks that see
Scorpions disguised as a contemporary Hard Rock band. If it wasn't for Klaus Meine´s characteristic voice I wouldn't have guessed that
Scorpions were behind these songs.
Your Last song sounds like a summer hit with a soaring melody line.
Cross is an up-tempo rocker with guest performance from Billy Corgan from Smashing Pumpkins (another surprise). The epic
Humanity closes the album in an emotional way since it has several layers and atmosphere to it.
There are lots of big choruses on the record. The guitars are heavy, full, modern and the riffs are fresh. However, nothing of this would work if
Scorpions didn't succeed in making it sound like
Scorpions. Despite being wrapped up in big pompous arrangements, the songs are so well written, structured and performed that it makes "Humanity - Hour 1" the best
Scorpions album since "Crazy World".
Big songwriters like James Michael, Marti Frederiksen, Andreas Carlsson and Hooters´Eric Bazillan has helped Klaus Meine, Matthias Jabs and Rudolf Schenker in giving
Scorpions new blood. The record is a bit similar to
Paul Stanley´s latest "Live to Win" and several of the same songwriter who helped re-launch
Paul Stanley also worked on this record.
Kudos to a band, who manages to reinvent themselves after 15 studio albums and 35 years in the business.
Written by
Michael Monday, July 9, 2007
Show all reviews by MichaelRatingsMichael: 8/10Members: 8.25/10 - Average of 2 ratings.
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