SEVEN TEARS

This was one of those bands I first became acquainted with in the 1980's when their song and video "Twilight Zone" received a fair bit of airplay for a while. Not bad but not quite my taste. I never knew that the song "Radar Love" was also by Golden Earring, but that song was never totally my taste either.

It was a surprise to me to find this band on PA, but given that many bands of the early seventies ventured into the progressive rock zone there is probably a good reason for their inclusion. Seeing a familiar name, I decided to check out Golden Earring by listening to samples of their music on iTunes. My choice for a first-time purchase: "Seven Tears".

The band's seventh album, "Seven Tears" includes seven songs, each with a distinct style and approach. Rock based to be sure, Golden Earring don't venture too far from just plain and simple good rock songs; i.e. the prog factor is pretty low, thus their place here as only prog related must be considered. Nevertheless, it's a fairly entertaining album with at least one stand out track. If you listen to nothing else, give "She Flies on Strange Wings" a run through. It's the longest track and includes a slow beginning, a terrific rock groove with a bit of swing to it, some great mixing of the bass guitar, a slow and spacey middle part with synthesizer, and a rocking conclusion with saxophones. This is a rock and roll band stretching out and doing something more with their music.

The rest of the album never achieves this level of adventurousness; however, as a rock album it's quite good. "Silver Ships" begins with some acoustic guitar and flute. It keeps to a slow and easy pace with electric guitar and organ joining along with bass and drums. At times it has a bit of an American rock feel to it. "The Road Swallowed Her Name" is a straight ahead hard rock song that fits in very nicely with the burgeoning hard rock genre of the day. This was one of the songs that sealed the deal for me to buy this album first. "Hope" reminded me of Jefferson Airplane in a way, perhaps because of the passionate vocals and acoustic guitar. The song turns electric and includes saxophones, too. "Don't Worry" opens with bass and piano and has a really cool bass groove with a bit of swagger going on. It's funky and hard and the bass and piano lead the music until the guitar solo.

Side two opens with the aforementioned "She Flies on Strange Wings", the real showcase song of the album. Next is "This is the Other Side of Life", which starts with a backwards spoken line that says "Uh, this is the other side of life" in a silly accent (I found this out by putting the song in a music application for iPhone that can play songs backwards). It's a weird number with an odd beat and peculiar vocal style, and again strong piano and bass. "You're Better off Free" is slightly blues-based but features a lengthy guitar solo backed with a simple organ melody. The wah-wah effects remind me of a Uriah Heep guitar solo. It's a good closing song for the album.

Once again, not much progressive rock here but a varied and enjoyable album with some very good songs and one standout track that should please a good number of progressive rock fans. For a prog-related album, I give it a very high three stars.