At NUMBER 12 on our Countdown:



The biggest rock act to ever come out of Sweden - EUROPE - with their 1988 (4th) album "OUT OF THIS WORLD". This was the follow-up to the highly successful "Final Countdown" album from 1986, but despite being less successful than its predecessor, was much better!
On this album they again created an eclectic mixture of hard rock and synthesizers - in the event delivering quite a "pop" sound (something they were criticized a lot for from "hard rock/metal" fans, but what they did, they actually did very well!)

This album doesn't have one filler on it, and especially lead single "Superstitious" became a big hit and got a lot of attention. The biggest highlight for me however, is the second single - the BEAUTIFUL "Open Your Heart" - which starts out as a ballad, but soon explodes in a solo guitar-riff and goes all "uptempo" on us! And I just love the lyrics... "I've been waiting, for the angels to knock on my door..."
Other singles followed in the form of "Let The Good Times Rock", "Sign Of The Times" and "More Than Meets The Eye"...
Oh, how I LOVE this album!!

Time to continue with my Top 30 Albums Of All Time Countdown, which brings us to NUMBER 13:



DAN REED NETWORK's self-titled debut album from 1987 lands this position.
With this, frontman Dan Reed created the most delicious blend of rock-guitars meet synthesizers, delivering a very powerful and melodic kind of pop/rock. The thing that really won me over though, was the charm he delivered with his unique voice and tongue-in-cheek lyrics...
Especially two singles off the album were played to death - "Ritual" and "Get To You", and the way the album moves non-stop from first track "World Has A Heart Too" into the AMAZING intro of "Get To You" with his: "class! class! can I have your attention, please?" before exploding in a sequence of drums, synths and then guitars... have just been one of my favourite intros EVER!

This is songwriting at its best... and I'll always be grateful for this MASTERPIECE... from Dan Reed Network...!

It's of course almost that time of year again... for the YEAR END CHARTS to be decided and posted, and for:



The prestigious annual BLUE GLOVE AWARDS for 2005! This year it will take place on Friday 30 December, and the winners will be announced on this site as soon as available. In the meantime, the nominees for this year have been listed - check them out under "Blue Gloves"...

Three cheers for the UK Singles Chart this week!
1) for the "new" Westlife single (the UMPTEENTH cover) NOT reaching #1...
2) for the new Robbie single "only" reaching #8... (not a bad song, but he's done the same thing UMPTEEN times before!!! )
3) for Mariah MISSING the Top 10!! (Yes, it IS a terrible song!)

Robbie and Mariah were both great once, but they're SO overrated at the moment... I wish the world would get over them!!

At NUMBER 14:



Germany's SANDRA - the female voice of Enigma - charts at #14 with her 6th album from 1992, "Close To Seven".
For several years for many she became known as "Europe's answer to Madonna"... since her 1985 smash hit "Maria Magdalena", and thanks to her husband who acted as songwriter and producer - Enigma's Michael Cretu - her music had evolved with each album. Her two albums before this one - "Paintings In Yellow" and "Into A Secret Land", were both STRONG contenders for this Album Chart list as well. It's this one though - that stands out as the best one they've done.
"Close To Seven" delivered the hits "Don't Be Aggressive", "I Need Love", "Seal It Forever" and the classic, jazzy "Steady Me". There isn't however, one bad track on it! Superb songwriting, combined with captivating singing and some very attractive rhythms - make this one of the best electro-pop albums ever released...