Scorpions - Love at First Sting  
Audio Fidelity
https://audiofidelity.net/product/scorpions-love-first-sting
 

Rating: B

The Scorpions have been making albums since 1972's Lonesome Crow.  They had several line-up changes and had morphed sounds a few times before they came upon the right recipe for international success.  The 'new' sound started a few years before on the albums Lovedrive and Animal Magnetism.  It gelled on Blackout and the band was finally enjoying the fruits of its labor.  The best was, however, yet to come.

The year was 1984 and MTV was going strong.  Drummer Herman Rarebell wrote a song about a one night stand where he rocked her like a hurricane.  Guitarist Rudolf Schenker had a riff that went perfectly and the next thing you know the Scorpions had sold over three million copies of their classic Love at First Sting.  The band kept pumping out chart toppers, as this release also contained the hits "Bad Boys Running Wild," "Still Loving You" and "Big City Nights."  They band's videos dominated MTV and they performed with such fresh enthusiasm that no one would have guessed this was their ninth album!

The album also contains some great deeper cuts, most notably "Coming Home" which the band used as a show opener on the tour to support the album.  "I'm Leaving You" and "The Same Thrill" were great rock songs buried in an album of amazing rock songs, so re-discovering these songs nearly makes this re-do worth the purchase price. 

Audio Fidelity did an another bang-up job remastering this album, making it one of their best 24 Karat Gold CDs to ever be released!  The cymbal crash is clearer, the guitar solos more biting and the vocal delivery more intense.  The instrument separation makes the band sound like you're in the front row of a concert!  This one sounds so good you will feel the sting and fall in love with the sound! 

Buy this one and get stung... for the first time again! 

Tracks:
Bad Boys Running Wild
Rock You Like a Hurricane   
I'm Leaving You   
Coming Home   
The Same Thrill   
Big City Nights   
As Soon as the Good Times Roll   
Crossfire   
Still Loving You
 

By Jeb Wright