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I love this album and was lucky enough to catch one of the shows promoting it.The album starts off with just under a minute of the thrilling and moody orchestral "Prelude" before launching into the title track and single "Last Look At Eden". Surely this has to be Europe's greatest track ever? Yes, even greater than that song. It dawned on me a while ago that perhaps the song "Last Look At Eden" is similar in some ways to Zeppelin's "Kashmir". It has the same epic sweep and momentum. Likewise "The Beast" is hard and heavy and would liven up the charts, given half a chance. Other great tracks you will find here are "Gonna Get Ready", "Catch That Plane" (somehow reminiscent of Blue Horizon era Fleetwood Mac) and the spunky "U Devil U". Second single "New Love In Town" is an AOR FM-friendly ballad. The album ends on a bluesy note with "In My Time". Except that my copy has a couple of bonus live tracks - not sure why - but why not? - "Yesterday's News" and "Wake Up Call". All in all a monster album.
Live - well, outstanding. Maybe even a bit over-rehearsed! Even when there were equipment problems (bass head) the band were real troupers, with Singer Joey Tempest launching an acoustic interlude. He is still a fantastic frontman and an accomplished guitarist in his own right.
Live in Oxford, England
The band are one of the few from the era who still play with all their original hit line-up members. The ridiculous hair metal blonde looks have gone to be replaced by a harder image. The playing on the album is really tight - a special mention here for drummer Ian Haugland and guitarist John Norum. I note that singer Joey is now based in London, while the rest of the band still live in Sweden.
I like the album artwork. My copy is a limited edition of sorts, a digipack with the two live tracks. There is now a standard jewel case edition without the live tracks. I haven't seen a vinyl edition anywhere, but the CD is just fine with a nice "live" and uncompressed sound. It would be a crime to settle for a squashed mp3 version.
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| Digipack version with 2 live tracks |
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| Mini album, 5 audio tracks, 3 of which live plus 1 promo video |
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| Standard jewel case edition, no live tracks |
There is also a mini-album of 5 tracks plus the promo video for the title track. Buy that as a supplement to the main album, not as a substitute.
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