Opening with Matthias Jabs' marvellous crawling guitar riff, "Bad Boys Running Wild" opens an album that combines lyrical references that young men around the world could relate to with a thumping and heavy back beat, blazing guitar riffs and stadium-filling vocals that make this such a huge recording. "Bad Boys Running Wild" sets the tone, before crashing into the 80's anthem "Rock You Like a Hurricane", a song that propelled the Scorpions to stardom in the US and around the world. This became their signature tune, setting the tone for their future shows, at least until the release of "Wind of Change" on the Crazy World album. "Rock You Like a Hurricane" was played everywhere, and became an air guitar classic. Still is, in fact.
"I'm Leaving You" deals with the teen angst (though, maybe surprisingly from the male perspective - I never had this when I was a teenager...), rolling in with a guitar lick to a simple chorus, leading into Matthias' brilliant liquid guitar solo. After this comes the no doubt autobiographical "Coming Home", with a beautiful understated beginning then blazing into the heart of the song with lungs pumping and guitars sizzling.
The rest of the album continues in the same vein - but okay, it's hard to top the first half of the album. "The Same Thrill", "Big City Nights", "As Soon As the Good Times Roll" and "Crossfire" are all great songs though, more than holding their own against the heavyweights in the first act. All have those sing-along choruses that just drag you in each time you play the album.
The closer is a creeper, in a similar vein to Lovedrive's closing number "Holiday". Yes, it is a slow track, in essence a power ballad. And yes, for the most part I believe you can take your power ballads and shove them up your... shirt. But this is a rarity, one of those power ballads that is written and performed so well in the context of the album that you can' help but like it. For a star, it doesn't stop the momentum of the album, because they hold it back to the end, after they have finished ripping out your senses with their awesome tracks. As a result, it fits in perfectly, and ends the album in amazement of Klaus's vocal range and Rudolph's great solo to the fade out. So, on this occasion, it is a worthy addition.
Klaus Meine's vocals are absolutely magnificent throughout this album. From the opening strains of "Out on the streets!..." from "Bad Boys Running Wild" he nails it immediately. His anthemic triumph in "Rock You Like a Hurricane" and "Coming Home". His soulful crooning in "Still Loving You". His vocal performance on this album is quite possibly the finest in his tenure. He has to find every range, and every emotion, and he does so with aplomb. Matthias Jabs and Rudolph Schenker are again superb on guitars, combining brilliantly throughout, and trading lead duties on different songs along the way.
Jimmy Bain and Bobby Rondinelli were both apparently brought in to record the demo's of this album. It then depends on who you choose to believe in regards to who actually appears on the album. The band insist the bass and drums were re-recorded by Francis Buchholz and Herman Rarebell (as Buchholz says in this interview), while others insist that Bain and Rondinelli's work remains as the recorded work on the album (as Bain suggests in this interview), with Buchholz and Rarebell's names on the album as the players to save face only. Maybe the truth will be absolutely confirmed one day. Or maybe not.
So to finish where I started, the late 70's and early 80's is this band's finest era, with the albums Lovedrive, Animal Magnetism, Blackout, Love at First Sting, and the live album World Wide Live. It is where their greatest tracks reside. And if I was forced to separate the albums listed, then I guess my vote would go with this one as the best Scorpions album. It is one of the classics.
Rating: Year after year out on the road, it's great to be here to rock you all. 5/5
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