Scorpions – Eye II Eye – 1999

I’ve always thought the cover art of Eye II Eye by Scorpions looked kind of odd. To be perfectly honest it’s a hideous album cover. I never heard Eye II Eye until today though. I never read anything about it or seen it in any list of Scorpions’ best albums. That might be discouraging but despite the album cover being plain ugly it has something that drew me to it. I know you should judge an album by the cover but often you actually can. You know what kind of music it’s on an album just by looking at the cover. Especially if it’s in the metal realm. Of course, when it comes the established bands like Scorpions, this doesn’t apply. And anyway, it’s not a foolproof system.

It’s no problem recognizing Klaus Meine’s voice on Eye II Eye but that’s about it really. It does not sound as the “Scorpions sound” one bit. Now, maybe I don’t have all their albums accessible in my memory but I have heard most albums from the band one time or another, even the first psychedelic-sounding ones. It’s not the sound I associate with Scorpions either. My associated Scorpions sound lies somewhere in between Black Out and Love at First Sting. Those were the days when I discovered the band and it’s still the “true sound” for me.

Eye II Ey has a more “poppy” sound but there are also some nice grooves in there. It’s not riff-driven in any way. Some songs are harder than others of course. But as a whole I find this album to be rather soft. But on the other hand Scorpions kind of invented the power ballad in the first place. The problem is that there’s no real power ballads on the album. it’s just…different!

I kind of like it! When you come to terms with the different sound, the songs are actually quite smooth. And even if there are some drum machines here and there and no real riffs, it’s a nice album. Just different.