Audio CD review:
Europe - The Final Countdown

Europe - The Final Countdown

Band: Europe Title: The Final Countdown Rating: Release Date: 25 October, 1990 Media: Audio CD Tracks: 1: The Final Countdown 2: Rock The Night 3: Carrie 4: Danger On The Track 5: Ninja 6: Cherokee 7: Time Has Come 8: Heart Of Stone 9: On The Loose 10: Love Chaser

Customer Reviews Europe rocks the night...and the rest of the world To call it a breakthrough album would be a major understatement. Released in 1986, the Final Countdown is the third album from Swedish rockers Europe. The Final Countdown sold millions of copies worldwide and made Europe one of the era's biggest bands. To this day you can't attend a major sporting event without hearing the song "the Final Countdown" in the closing minutes. This is the song and album that made me a Europe fan for life. It's may also be the band's weakest album. Hear me out. 20 years after its release it is possible to look at the Final Countdown objectively in comparisons to Europe's other albums. Sales figures aside, the Final Countdown followed what is arguably the band's best album - 1984's Wings of Tomorrow (I say arguably because I sometimes think 1991's Prisoners in Paradise may be the best thing the band has ever released). Instead of a natural progression, the Final Countdown took a sharp turn into hair metal/arena rock territory, amping up the keyboards, power ballads, and of course the hairspray. There's no denying that the move paid off, but musically it resulted in a weaker overall album. That's not to say it's a bad album. It still has plenty of great songs, like Rock the Night, Time Has Come, Heart of Stone, and of course the Final Countdown, which to this day has to be considered THE Europe song. It also has some weaker, if not downright silly moments, like Ninja, Danger on the Track, and the weepy ballad Carrie. I should probably add Cherokee to that list, but it's so darned catchy I can't bring myself to do it. The Final Countdown will always hold a special place in my heart, but looking back it's plain to see that the albums released just prior and soon after it are better efforts. It still deserves a 4-star rating for what the album did for the band, and what it meant to me as a kid. Hybrid Perhaps I even detect a little of Styx in there too. I love rock music groups like Asia and Journey but I also love new age/jazz like Mangione so "The Final Countdown" is a natural for me. This is so eighties!. G.O.B.'s theme O. All you need to know is that "Final Countdown" is the music that plays whenever G. B. does one of his magic acts on Arrested Development. . You can see a complete list of all Europe discography, or go back to the Europe tabs