My Amazon Reviews: Golden Earring "The Continuing Story of Radar Love"

We've got a thing...
3 Out of 5 Stars

And it's called "Radar Love." In America, at least, that was one of two calling cards for Golden Earring. The other came a decade later for these Dutchmen, and that was the top ten "Twilight Zone," which sounds almost like it came from a different band. But in between, Golden Earring cut twenty-some albums and had a huge following in Europe. Their cult following in the USA kept them on major labels through their career, and the obvious title of "The Continuing Story of Radar Love" tries to sum up the decade plus between the band's two main hits.

The CD does OK in that regard, especially since most folks will be buying this for one or the other hit. However, there are Golden Earring albums not even represented here, like "Hilt," "Prisoner of The Night" or "NEWS," which even had a near miss with "When The Lady Smiles." What falls between the two hits are a mixture of songs and styles; GE were straddling hard rock and prog and not really grounded on either. It made a song like "Radar Love," with the hard rock book-ended by jungle drums and a horn break in the center, or "Ce Soir" a film noir of a song about an assassin. Or even another attempt at US single, "Candy's Going Bad" (the follow-up to "Radar Love"). It starts of with a hard rock band and slows down at the end into a proggy instrumental fade. Or that, by the time they got to "The Devil Made Me Do It" and "Twilight Zone" (yet another song about an assassin), they were embracing slickness and new-wavish synths.

Lead vocalist Barry Hay manages to pull off his English pretty well, and guitarist George Kooymans often has a flair for quirky riffs and solos (give a listen to the spacy "Vanilla Queen" or the solos that build the bridge of "Twilight Zone"), but many of these songs do show their age. That's not in a good way, I should add. Come for the hits, and explore the rest with the knowledge that Golden Earring have been style chameleons throughout their career. Then listen to "Leather," a song that riffs about that "same old masochism" for a good chuckle.