Scorpions in 1980 release Animal Magnetism and how about that album cover? Ha! Them fella’s sure knew how to do some thought-provoking images didn’t they?
Geez man I started High School a little over a year later in September 1981. Should have drawn up this image in art class! Haha….Would have bought me some Instant Street Cred until the Principal came knocking than I would have said it was Tbones drawing! Hahahaha!
Seriously the Scorps put out one decent Piece Of Rock and if you’re keeping score it wasn’t until 1985 (after I purchased Scorpions World Wide Live ) that I got around to purchasing Animal Magnetism. A full 5 years after its release! (On cassette none the less and a few years ago rebuying it on ITunes)
Alright Kids…time for some Good Ol Hard Rock….
Must also mention that I hooked up with those Two Crazy Southern Ontario Amigos, Mikey And Mr Books! Check out there spin on this album as well. Click the links provided Peeps! Seriously for top notch writings go there……Do It!
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Cast Of Characters-Klaus Meine(Vocals),Herman Rarebell(Drums) Francais Buchholz(Bass) Matthais Jabs(Guitar) and Rudy Schenker(Guitar)
Make It Real opens the album and the first thing you notice if you were weened on World Wide Live like myself is that the 1985 Live version of this song is at a much quicker pace than the studio version. 1985 and the Scorps were the big deal …Selling out Arenas! Check! Selling Shitload Of Albums! Check! Hot Chicks Digging Ugly Dudes! Check! Ingesting A Ton Of After Hours Party Treats! Check! So of course the live version is a different beast but the studio version has a real cool slower like chill tempo and I love the production on this album courtesy of Dieter Dierks.
Don’t Make No Promises(Your Body Can’t Keep) blasts right out of the gate kinda like that Blackout tune that would surface a few years later(1982) Kinda surprising this is not the opening track as it just rips your noggin apart especially during Jabs solo. Klaus Meine you can hear his tonsils shredding apart on this song. Yep you want rock! Look no further than track 2!
Some cool power chords open Hold Me Tight while Herman Ze Drummer plays a straight ahead rock groove and keeps the troops on board. Pretty cool snappy chorus! Klaus hollers ‘Alright!” Jabs dips n doodles a pretty slick little solo while Rudy holds the rhythm end down on guitar.
Twentieth Century Man once again begins with the guitars and speaking of, they must have been just cranked up loud in the studio to make the paint peel off the walls. This song is a no frills straight ahead mid tempo German Stomper. Jabs basically takes the three minutes and 5 seconds to solo under everything and makes it sound cool so I don’t puke and push skip! Atta Boy!
Lady Starlight is the ballad and the first half is filled with acoustic guitar work,strings,perhaps a symphonic element added as well but later on the song stops and all you hear is the sound of electric guitar and Bam here comes the slow to mild build up with a real nice guitar solo that ramps up whereas the song in the background stays at the same tempo. Kids this is the way you do PowerBallads…
Ok…the first 20 seconds of this opening guitar riff of Falling In Love Warrant nicked for their song Mr Rainmaker ten years later in 1990. Scorps pick up the pace with this song and the guitars are so loud! Jabs rocks the solo and to be honest the chorus I find so so. If they would have stopped the repetitive Falling In Love yada yada sing-song chorus this could have been a real good track.
Only A Man begins with Klaus leading the vocal charge before the rest of the Scorps join in. Klaus almost sounds like his voice is double tracked to make him sound sinister to make this sound like Black Scorpions but there’s is no Sabbath Doom like music stomp just Klaus sounding evil caused by some crazed groupie!
The ZOO…..man what an opening and groove! The guitars are so good here. Herman plays a straight ahead groove on his drums. Just a great tune! Classic! The chorus is Gold! how about tossing in a talk box and a ton of riff n roll during the chorus.Dreams we call The Zoo! Think these guy’s have played The Zoo every four since 1980! That’s saying something about the song folk’s!
How often is the name of the album the last song on the album? Mmmm…not to many! Except here! Animal Magnetism is a slow plodder of a track this is actually more with its mid tempo Sabbathy like vibe. Its a heavy devy slow kick to the ass beat.
All in all a pretty good Hard Rock Album! Even with the ballad. Scorps were smart they were doings these kind of tunes before any real success in North America so for that I give them a Hall Pass! They didn’t just do it with later day albums as it was the thing to do in the 80s with so many bands….
Also this album was a good lead in for The Blackout album which was to follow a few years later when Klaus almost lost his voice!
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