#134
by Rob Slater
Scorpions
Animal Magnetism
Genre: Metal
Allen’s Rating: 2 out of 5
Rob’s Rating: 4 out of 5 4.00 [Probably about 3.5, If I wasn't as biased, but the four songs that anchor this album are a great intro to 80s metal.]
Four Stellar tracks, one mediocre and a 4 fillers.
Full Disclosure: This album was my intro to “metal” and will always have a soft spot in my heart. But I listened to it with my 16 y.o. daughter while we did floor leveling and wall spackling. She mostly agrees with my evaluation.
Standouts: Make It Real, Lady Starlight, Falling in Love, The Zoo.
Animal Magnetism. Meh, but decent and interesting. If they'd started the album with this it would have killed it.
Side One:
From the opening guitar sound it's obvious what you are getting. Starts out with the scratchy crunch rhythm guitar and then the melodic lead comes in. Make It Real. It does. Then they blow their advantage with the next THREE songs! Then Lady Starlight come in. Theme-wise it's the Scoprion's “Faithfully” and it's lovely.
Side Two
Only one Dud on this side. And it's bookended with "Falling in Love," and "The Zoo." And then Animal Magnetism. A solid ending.
Interesting Liner note reader kinda thing: I last reviewed UFO's Run, and Michael Shenker had just left UFO. He also played on most of the tracks of the Scorpion's previous outing Lovedrive, had him playing lead on half the songs, with his older brother Rudolph on rhythm guitar. I think this album is as good as Lovedrive and Blackout, the first Scorpions album I bought (with much cooler cover art!), is the best, so this is a nice build up.
Bottom line it's not fair to UFO to follow up with this. But, oh well. Life's not fair. And when you've got the chops and the hooks, use 'em.
https://open.spotify.com/album/0P074q35RL8oUOpKsHJd07?si=2c_Hl1HnTeOHv7GVgUI90g
