Europe - Wings of Tomorrow

Part of the Sony Music Memory Collection. 2003 reissue of the soft metal act's second album originally released in 1984, that's unavailable domestically. 10 tracks. Album Description

Overall, A Great Record!

I'm not the biggest "Europe" fan. But there is no denying that this is a really great record. While not as hard as "Bon Jovi's" '7800,' it is a bit harder than 'Crush.' (Kind of upper middle rock.) For the record, I know a nun who really likes this record.

'StormWind' is a great powerful opener. 'Scream of Anger' is a good followup; 'Open Your Heart' has a nice gentle sound. 'Treated Bad Again' has an almost thrash metal sound. 'Aphasia' is a good instrumental. The title track is arguably the greatest on the record. 'Wasted Time' isn't my favorite, but it is alright. I didn't much care for 'Lyin Eyes.' but 'Dreamer' is a nice gentle song with some beautiful keyboards. 'Dance the Night Away' is a great energetic song that ends the record on a high note.

Overall, this is a good record with strong vocals, good music, and an interesting variation of songs. May 5, 2008

One Star for the Instrumental

Everybody remembers "The Final Countdown" by Europe and that's about it. There is good reason for that. Europe stumbled upon a great keyboard riff, and used it to maximum effect on "The Final Countdown", the keyboard riff sold the song.
Unfortunately on "Wings of Tomorrow" you don't get a cool keyboard riff, and while the music isn't bad, anytime lead singer Joey Tempest opens his mouth the songs are ruined. Tempest's vocals have all of the edge and rock quality of Michael Bolton. So while the guitar work is pretty decent, Tempest begins his "ooohhhs" and "ahhhhhs" and immediately makes the songs annoying, you will get douche chills for certain. I can't imagine paying more than $2 for this disk, and that would be for the instrumental "Aphasia"...but even that isn't all that great, but to pay over $20 for this disk is a complete waste of money. May 1, 2008

Here it is

Most Americans lost their sense of humor in like 1984 out of fear of being labeled racist to the working class. Crossing over the line of androgeny with their jock image under the tone let's feel bad for me. Stormwind, Screms of Anger and the title tracks are my favorites on a classic 80s album that still holds up today because the modern sound and futuristic feel to it crosses over to a lot of today's pop culture and more high tech, industrialized working class culture whose workers made good money and actually had something to show for it. It looks and sounds good, as if it were still made just yesterday. 25 cents on taped and it's STILL out of your league! Ha! January 16, 2007

Ride, ride, ride the Wings of Tomorrow

Man, I really love the first two Europe albums. OK, I love all of Europe's albums, but Wings of Tomorrow and the 1983 self-titled debut hold a special place in my heart. Like most people, I discovered Europe when the Final Countdown hit the airwaves, but it was the budget-priced cassettes of the band's first albums that I played to the breaking point.

Far from the super-polished melodic rock sound of The Final Countdown and Out of This World, Europe's 1984 album Wings of Tomorrow sounds more like a regionally displaced NWOBHM band than anything else. Songs like Stormwind, Scream of Anger, the killer instrumental track Aphasia, and of course Wings of Tomorrow are straight-up metal tracks that wouldn't have been out of place on a Diamond Head album. The rest of the album is made up of more standard love song fare, but they're still fairly hard rocking songs. The ballad Open Your Heart could have been a big hit if anyone outside of Sweden had heard it. In fact, the band re-recorded it for their 1988 album Out of This World.

Overall this is a very solid album, and is probably Europe's best release (until the tragically overlooked Prisoners in Paradise at any rate). The only real drawback is the album's poor production quality. Put this one in the CD changer with some more recent discs and you'll quickly find that you need almost double the volume to hear it.

I'm sure there are some casual fans who will be content with the Final Countdown or one of the band's many greatest hits compilations, but Wings of Tomorrow is a must-have for all serious Europe fans, as well as being one of the decade's more underrated metal albums.

Note to whoever owns the rights to the early Europe material: Can we PLEASE get some remastered versions on the market? These classic albums are practically screaming to be cleaned up with today's digital technology. Bonus tracks are optional, but digitally remastered versions of Europe and Wings of Tomorrow are mandatory. August 29, 2006

These wings will have many tomorrows

I'm very pleased about discovering Europe.
This album is pure metal and outstanding, even better than the Final Countdown,their most famous. Energy-full.
The typical metal here is more evident. The keyboard usage by Joey Tempest is minimum in comparison to the succeeding blockbuster. His vocals are more disjointed.
The drums here are tuned differently too.
This cd has the original version of open your heart ( the newer found in out of this world 1988), the guitar solo is different.
Actually,I prefer the remake because it's more enriched.
Now I can see why Don Dokken chose John Norum to replace George Lyinch in his group for a while : his guitaring here, which is worth the price of the cd, is magnificent specially
in tracks 7 ( 2:28 what the heck???? ),
4 ( almost entire song,lick abuse , his fingers don't stand still , the atmosphere here has some rage);
5 ( instrumental masterpiece, some finger tapping to produce a "olun-lun-lun-lun"-like sound );
10 ( he sounded like the master Van Halen,check in 2:11 or 2:20)
and 6.
Most catchy songs : 3 , 1 ,8 and 6.
Dreamer is the one I like less , but not bad.
In scream of anger the guitar, with the help of a pedal, had a different muffle,interesting. The band likes playing it alive.

This album isn't very easy to find, but you can try to download if it's impossible. It's worthwhile. May 26, 2006

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