New Scorpion's disc...

krokus wrote:

MetalGuy71 wrote:

So to get us back on track...

What does everyone think of the new Scorps? I, for one, am really digging it. So much so in fact, it's making me want to investigate their back catalog past the greatest hits I own. There must be some other good music I'm missing.

You have been missings all those increible albums by SCORPIONS??? You realy have to buy some of their classic albums brother.
Anyway, i like their new cd. After the first listening i didnt realy like it much because it sounded to modern but after some time i realy feld the SCORPIONS spirit in their new songs and now i love it.

Yea. I guess I got burned out on hearing "Rock You Like A Hurricane" too much back in the day and never really investigated them any further than "The Best of Rockers & Ballads". Even today, if you listen to satellite radio, the "hair" channel and the "classic rock" channels have 4 or 5 hits that seem to be in constant rotation. I need to hear more of their non-popular material I guess.

In regards to Humanity, since I didn't have much to base my opinion on, it was easy to say that I just liked it. Plain & simple.

Eyesore wrote:

spiritoradio wrote:

Why are we fighting about this!? It's no big deal. I realized that I should have done a search. I will next time. Let's just let it die.

No one is fighting. =)

just hijacking threads

spiritoradio wrote:

Humainty Hour 1 is only $7.99 this week at Best Buy and it comes with a bonus track. I love first week deals

Also Heaven and Hell: Live From Radio City Music Hall and Queensryche: Sign of the Times, Best Of... are both $11.99 @ Best Buy. A good week for new tunes.

The double-disc edition of Queensryche is only $16 bucks. That's only $4 more for a bonus disc of rarities. I talked to Gene Simmons and even he thinks that's a great deal.

MetalGuy71 wrote:

So to get us back on track...

What does everyone think of the new Scorps? I, for one, am really digging it. So much so in fact, it's making me want to investigate their back catalog past the greatest hits I own. There must be some other good music I'm missing.

I personally think their only bad album is Eye II Eye, which is just too mellow and experimental. But like I've mentioned before, "Mind Like A Tree" is killer.

As for the new album, I think it's great. The Best Buy exclusive track is excellent, too. But I find it hard to view this as a "true" Scorpions album and say "they're back." Look at all the songwriting credits. Every song is co-written by at least one mainstream songwriter, usually more than one. And no song has more than one Scorps member on the writing credits. So while it's a great album, it's more or less just a Scorpions album by name, I think.

I was looking at the writing credits and thinking the exact same thing.

Anything that has Desmond Child's name attached to it is gonna have some mainstream appeal. That's the reason that guy is brought it. It's his job to create "hits". He's gonna turn them into the next Aerosmith, singing Diane Warren ballads. Whatever. Hope it works for them. It certainly has me interested in investigating their back catalog.

Gonna pick this one up this weekend hopefully.

MetalGuy71 wrote:

Anything that has Desmond Child's name attached to it is gonna have some mainstream appeal. That's the reason that guy is brought it. It's his job to create "hits". He's gonna turn them into the next Aerosmith, singing Diane Warren ballads. Whatever. Hope it works for them. It certainly has me interested in investigating their back catalog.

But the dudes that pen tracks for Britney Spears and NSync and Ricky Martin have also written for this album. One thing I think they did right, however, is they kept it a heavy rock album. Aerosmith went the light and fluffy route, as did Bon Jovi and Def Leppard, when they employed the services of these "hit makers."

I wonder if bands do this out of a desire to work with other writers, or if it's part of the industry now where labels sort of force the bands to.

Eyesore wrote:

MetalGuy71 wrote:

Anything that has Desmond Child's name attached to it is gonna have some mainstream appeal. That's the reason that guy is brought it. It's his job to create "hits". He's gonna turn them into the next Aerosmith, singing Diane Warren ballads. Whatever. Hope it works for them. It certainly has me interested in investigating their back catalog.

But the dudes that pen tracks for Britney Spears and NSync and Ricky Martin have also written for this album. One thing I think they did right, however, is they kept it a heavy rock album. Aerosmith went the light and fluffy route, as did Bon Jovi and Def Leppard, when they employed the services of these "hit makers."

I wonder if bands do this out of a desire to work with other writers, or if it's part of the industry now where labels sort of force the bands to.

Me personally, I think it's a waste of time for the Scorpions to hire hit-makers this late in the game. They have their fan-base who will support them no matter what they put out. They're not gonna have a hit with this, no matter who's writing for them. If you weren't a fan of the band to begin with, this cd won't change your mind. And yes, I realize what I just wrote contadicts my previous posts, but I'm in a very, very small percentile. And even then, I got the cd for free. Honestly, I wasn't a big fan to begin with, so chances are, I would not have purchased this, no matter how good the reviews were.

And yes, I think it's more of label pressure to go with outside writers. The bands may not own up to it in the press or in interviews, but for guys that have been in the business as long as Aerosmith, Scorpions, Leppard, etc. that have done just fine with their own material, on some level they must consider it an insult to be forced to work with outside help, especially "hit-makers".

I just got it a couple of hours ago. On first listen it's not really bad, but nowhere near the caliber of Lovedrive, Animal Magnetism, Blackout or Love At First Sting. Some songs are pretty good and some just don't sound like the Scorpions I remember at all. They now sound like a modern rock band to me. Granted this is the first Scorpions album I've bought since Crazy World though, so I've missed hearing like their last 5 or 6 albums. Maybe I shouldn't have looked at the picture of the band in the cover. I see they all have short hair now and even look like a modern rock band. Ughh....

P.S. I'm really going to be curious to see Scott's review of this album. Please let us know what you think Scott.

7thsecond, give the new album a change. For shore if you listen to it more times, it will get better and better.
METALGUY71, yes, i understand you. Same thing happend with RUSH for me. I only knew their classics from VH1 etc...but now after buying most of their cds i feel that i should have bought them before.

It's definitely a great album, but also most definitely a more modern 80s rock album. I think there's a distinction between modern rock like 3 Doors Down and modern 80s rock like the last Tesla album. Humanity: Hour 1 fits in there with the new Tesla.

Just received my copy from BestBuy with the bonus track Cold. So far I really like it. One point, Desmond Child is credited with co-authorship. These are not "his" songs. The whold concept along with Liam Carl is his . The Scorpions brought it to life. Maybe it is really that Desmond needed the Scorpions to bring his story to song. I agree with eyesore on the point of modern 80s rock and this being a perfect fit. just my 2 cents.

I got the disc this morning and listened to about 3/4's of it and I think it is fantastic! Good job Scorps.

I understand that this is a concept album. Has anyone heard of plans for a Humanity: Hour 2 or anything of that nature?

I am writing a review for this CD. Picked it up today.

I've listened to it all the way through once and can say it's a good CD. At the same time I agree with whoever said that it's a Scorpions CD in name only. With Desmond Child and a host of pro-songwriters behind them, The Scorps have ended up sounding like a polished, modern, pop rock band. Far from the shrieking metal of "Blackout" and "Virgin Killer." Much like some of the more recent Aerosmith albums that also feature hosts of professional songwriters, I find much to like and enjoy about this album. At the same time, the Scorpions have lost much of their personality.

I've played it a few times now and it has started growing on me somewhat. I agree though that it just doesn't feel like I'm listening to the Scorpions, that I grew up with anyway. Maybe they should've went ahead and added the "The" in front of Scorpions for this one, as most people mistakenly do anyway.

OK, listened to this one a few times now and my opinion sticks. This CD is good, but somewhat generic and lacks that distinct Scorpions 'personality'. With a bunch of corporate pop songwriters writing the songs, rather than the band as a unit, it gives the album as that generic feel.

To me personality defines who someone is. It gives them a distinction from everyone else. On this new CD, other than the vocals, the music is not all that distinctive. Any number of pop rock bands could have written it with any number of vocalists singing it. You could probably throw some of these songs onto the latest Bon Jovi or Paul Stanley (both of which are also credited to Desmond Child) and they wouldn't sound out of place. Several of these songs could easily fit onto American Idol and would fit right in. On the other hand, I can't imagine any other band writing or singing "Blackout", "Still Loving You", "Big City Nights", "Hellcat", "Holiday" etc.. Those songs are distinctly Scorpions. These new songs weren't even written by the Scorpions as a band, thus they lack the personality of the older material.