Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Scorpions
Label: Sony Music
Released: 2015
Length: 47:38
Rating: 4/5
And to think they said they’d retired. The irrepressible lads from Hanover, Germany, are back with their 18th studio album, breaking the promise that »Sting in the Tail« would be their last. So »Return to Forever« carries a pretty meaningful title. With this release, Scorpions are marking 50 years in the game this year. Unbelievable. The new album’s title already hints that it’s a kind of bridge connecting the band’s present with its past. And it’s hugely convincing at that.
While the album was in the making, Scorpions already announced they’d use some old demo recordings that never made it onto their studio albums, with fresh original material coming together alongside. »Return to Forever« sounds familiar because it’s a typical Scorpions album. Compared with its predecessor »Sting in the Tail«, it looks more traditionally minded, and that goes even for the production.
The 12 tracks keep the consistency up from the first second to the last, and they carry all the band’s trademarks, which, given their longevity, their experience and the fact that they’ve sold over 100 million albums worldwide, Scorpions are frankly obliged to uphold. Anything else would be an embarrassment, right, Bon Jovi? The band isn’t losing its spark. Not in songwriting, not in performance. Klaus Meine has lost some range over the years, so he doesn’t overdo the high notes on the new album, but his voice is still especially effective at getting under your skin again and again where it needs to be soft and supple (this time on three excellent ballads, Gypsy Life, Eye of the Storm and House of Cards). Meine remains an extremely powerful presence in the band’s musical dossier, irreplaceable in his charisma. These days it’s even better that he keeps mangling some English words in the verses. Once a target of ridicule, in his golden years it’s become Klaus’s trademark!
»Return to Forever« sounds brighter and more party-minded than »Sting in the Tail”, which, with its occasional nostalgic gaze back at the eighties, works really well. The opener Going Out For a Bang makes that clear right away, a flirty rock’n’roller wickedly spun out of the blues! A quick, biting riff, the chemistry of the Schenker/Jabs duo, a compact rhythmic fortress and that unmistakable rock eruption are all here. We Built This House gives off even more traditional vibes, with an extremely catchy leap in the air between the verse and the gigantic-sounding »arena rock« chorus! This track could easily have ended up a big Scorpions hit had it been written in the eighties or the early nineties. Rock My Car might knock a few people flat right back to the early eighties, the era of the album »Black Out« (1981). This track shows off the band’s well-known lucid side, which Rock ‘n’ Roll Band and All For One then easily join.
Scorpions remain excellent composers and arrangers. Everything in the songs sits in the right place. Experience and routine. The right amount of musicality, stripped-down rock rawness and adrenaline rush in the penetrating guitar riffs, with Klaus Meine’s charismatic vocals ruling over it all and a solid, relentless rhythmic drive underneath. Shards of primal rock’n’roll, blues, even cabaret swing (The Scratch), are caught in the core of a highly musical yield, and this way of fitting the building blocks together pays off in full. Here and there the band also colored the arrangements with keyboards, which play a subordinate role, but the album is steeped in arena rock chorus melodies, deepened especially by the refined harmonization of Klaus’s vocal lines. The band has also cunningly sequenced the tracks, which gives the album a real feeling of quality consistency. Scorpions know how to slip minor chords into their party riff framework at just the right spots, so the album doesn’t leave the slightest trace of sugariness. How strong Scorpions really are as songwriters shows when they get serious. The three ballads mentioned above sum that up in the most direct way, with exceptionally strong messages in the lyrics, Meine reliving them, coloring his vocals here and there with that familiar raspiness and putting the dot on the “i” for the drama theater. Ballads have always been the band’s specialty, and the new album is no exception.
So much looseness, optimism and cheekiness in their golden years keeps the band forever young at heart and in character (Catch You Luck And Play). Rollin’ Home feels nostalgic in its message, as if the circle is closing and rock, after all the battles fought, finally rolls home for a well-earned rest. It’s been a long road. Fifty hefty years. »Return to Forever« is an excellent album. A real Scorpions album. What’s especially surprising is that the band managed to put together 12 extremely strong compositions, which bring a great deal of dynamism and mood variety to the album. And that fact announces the unique substance of Scorpions’ musical dossier at every moment. It’s great to realize that a band can still deliver such a positive shock of freshness and real, hard-hitting rock power in their golden years! That keeps their credibility exceptionally high, especially when you set the whole giant legacy of past works next to the new album, the works with which they wrote themselves into the ranks of the immortal architects of rock ‘n’ roll a long time ago.
Line-up
Klaus Meine – vocals
Matthias Jabs – guitar
Rudolf Schenker – guitar
Paweł Mąciwoda – bass
James Kottak – drums, backing vocals
Production
Mikael Nord Andersson & Martin Hansen
Track list
1. Going Out with a Bang (3:47)
2. We Built This House (3:53)
3. Rock My Car (3:20)
4. House of Cards (5:05)
5. All for One (2:58)
6. Rock ‘n’ Roll Band (3:54)
7. Catch Your Luck and Play (3:33)
8. Rollin’ Home (4:03)
9. Hard Rockin’ the Place (4:06)
10. Eye of the Storm (4:27)
11. The Scratch (3:41)
12. Gypsy Life (4:51)
