JoeLumb's Album Review Scorpions "Blackout" (1982)

 It's been two years since The Scorpions' previous effort "Animal Magnetism" which by the way is an underrated gem in their catalog thanks to such tracks as "Make it Real" and the anthemic "The Zoo". But the reason why it look longer for The German quintet to comeback with a new record was singer Klaus Meine underwent surgery for his vocal chords and was uncertain if he was going to recover or if he was going to record new material. He lost his voice while writing songs for what would become "Blackout" There were demos of material that were recorded with singer Don Dokken who at the time was the frontman of his own band that nobody has ever heard of yet (except for those in the European market). However none of the recordings are featured,as Klaus managed to regain his vocal strength following surgery while Don Dokken is credited with backing vocals.

Unlike previous Scorpions album covers this one did not cause controversy as past albums like "In Trance","Virgin Killer","Taken bu Force","Lovedrive" and "Animal Magnetism" matter of fact the dude that did the artwork for this album was a self portrait of an Austian-Irish visual artist named Gottfried Helnwein and it became the album cover. Rudolf Schenker portrays this character in the music video "No One Like You".

The album was recorded in between November of 1981 and January 1982 the studios they they were in while recording at were Saint Jacques Studio in Grasse,France with producer Dieter Dierks Recording Mobile Dierks Studios in Stommein,West Germany. Released in March of 1982 it reached #10 on the Billboard 200 and #10 on the German charts (which by the way is their homebase),received Gold Status on June 24,1982 and would achieve platinum status on March 8,1984 (Two years after it's release) 

The song "No One Like You" made it to #65 on the Billboard Hot 100 and went #1 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks here in the U.S.  My rating on this album is a 65/100 the title track,No One Like You,Dynamite and China White are the only songs I like on the album,did not care for the rest of the songs on the album at all. 

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