Humanity: Hour I | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | 14 May 2007 | |||
Recorded | October 2006 – February 2007 | |||
Studio | Little Big Guy Studios, Gentlemen's Club, Glenwood Place Studios, Track Record Studios, The Village and Record Plant, Los Angeles, California | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 48:59 | |||
Label | RCA/Sony BMG New Door/UME (North America) | |||
Producer | ||||
Scorpions chronology | ||||
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Singles from Humanity: Hour I | ||||
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Humanity: Hour I is the sixteenth studio album by German hard rock band Scorpions, which was released in Europe on 14 May 2007 and in the United States and Canada on 28 August 2007. Humanity: Hour 1 is a concept album based on a loose storyline by Desmond Child and futurist Liam Carl, which predicts a world torn apart by a civil war between humans and robots. This apocalyptic nightmare serves as a warning shot to all humanity, whose only hope of survival is to reclaim our humanity.
The album was produced by James Michael and Desmond Child, who also provide backing vocals. The song "Humanity" was performed for the first time by Scorpions on 24 March 2007 in Brussels, Belgium and released as the first single from the album.
Also of note is the band's logo on the album's cover: the text font is similar to their first two albums, as opposed to the band's more famous logo. This marks only the third time in the band's career (and the first time in 33 years) the less familiar font has been used. However, if one looks closely, their more familiar logo can be seen on the back of the neck of the gynoid.
The opening track "Hour I" has been used as the intro of the NHL's Minnesota Wild from 2007 to 2015.
After Scorpions had finished the UK tour as special guest for Judas Priest, Rudolf Schenker revealed that band had started working on a live video album which would later become Unbreakable World Tour 2004: One Night in Vienna and also revealed that the band was planning to start working on a new album in late 2005. [1] In an interview for the Malay Mail in May 2006, Schenker confirmed that the band was working on a new album which would have been hopefully released in late 2006 or early 2007. Describing the upcoming album, Schenker said: "For now, I can only tell you that it's going to pick up where Unbreakable left off. It will have superb power ballads and hard-rocking songs playable on commercial radio. I guess you can say that the new Scorpions album is going to sound fresh and rocking. Also one more thing, it's going to be a great album and not an album with one or two great songs". [2] Originally, the band had in mind to choose Dieter Dierks as album producer, but it did not work out because of a disagreement on the contract. After the planned collaboration with Dierks did not happen, Scorpions had in mind to produce album by themselves at Rudolf Schenker's Scorpio Sound Studio, but were afraid that their efforts might not be good enough. Schenker said: "We knew we wanted to make a special record. We wanted to make sure that this album was going to be a masterpiece. When we do an album these days it has to be something special. If we only did it to make the fans happy – that's one thing – but you also have to make yourself happy." [3]
Scorpions had been working intensively on the songs during the concerts in 2006 and invited several producers to come over to Germany for an interview (one of them was Roy Thomas Baker), but band members weren't really pleased with what producers had to offer, so in the end band decided to choose Desmond Child and James Michael as the producers of the new album. James Michael worked on the production of guitars, drums and bass. [4] [5] [6] In October 2006, Scorpions band members went to Los Angeles to start recording the new material and during the next month and a half they worked on recording the basic tracks for the album. [7] [8] The band arrived there with 30 songs already written and soon after they began a second songwriting process. In the end of the second songwriting process, band had around 20 songs and many of those songs had a tone "too dark" from the lyrical standpoint, so band choose to eliminate many of the "darker" songs from the album and put in more optimistic songs. Among those songs are "The Game of Life" and "You're Lovin' Me to Death". In order to make those songs fit the concept of the album, songwriting teams had to rewrite the lyrics and the choruses on those songs. [6] [9] During the first couple of weeks, the band was working together in a rehearsal space, every day for eight hours. After the rehearsals, they started to arrange and record in different studios in the Los Angeles area. Guitars were recorded in one studio with James Michael, while Klaus Meine's vocals were recorded with Desmond in another studio. Child also hired a vocal coach for Meine, to perform about an hour of vocal warm-up before the recording sessions. Matthias Jabs explained: "Vocal cords are like muscles and you need to warm them up. Desmond was a visionary guy and knew if the vocalist is in good form, then he'll get what he wants from them". In the period between October 2006 and February 2007, band managed to record thirteen songs, of which twelve managed to make the album. Among the remaining 37 songs, several were recorded only as a demos.
Among those 37 songs one was co-written by Meine with Michael Nord Andersson and Martin Hansen. Child liked that song, but he did not like the lyrics, so he and Meine rewrote the lyrical part and the song became "The Game of Life".
After recording process was completed, the band immediately started the promotional tour. Since the album in that period was not mixed yet, the band had to collaborate with Desmond Child over the Internet in the mixing process. To do that, they had to download the whole album, get appropriate speaker system and later send comments to Child via Internet. [3]
Humanity: Hour I is a concept album based on a loose storyline by Desmond Child and futurist Liam Carl, which predicts a world torn apart by a civil war between humans and robots. [10] It's a concept album where songs are connected under the global theme of humanity. [11]
Speaking of the album sound, frontman Klaus Meine said: "We wanted to make an album that was up to date, with a more modern sound to it without losing the Scorpion signature and I think it's still there. A lot of people feel it's a very good connection between the typical Scorpions sound but in a new way. It wasn't so much that we were trying to experiment; we still wanted a Scorpions record but not so much a classic rock album like going back to the old days, the 80's. We really wanted a record that would sound like 2007". [12] Guitars on songs on this album are in drop D, drop C and drop C sharp tunings and those tunings were chosen depending on the Meine's vocal ranges on the songs. Matthias Jabs explained: "Sometimes if you play the guitar riff dropped to a D, it will not only sound different but play different. But whatever was the best for the vocals is how we proceeded. It is no point in recording something if it is too stressful for the singer to sing properly". [9]
The album title and artwork were first released through the official French Scorpions fan club Crazyscorps in February 2007. [13] The album artwork is featuring a human robot with the Scorpions logo on the back of its neck. [4] However, after nearly two months since the fan club released the artwork on its website, they received information from the webmaster of the official Scorpions website about the illegal leak of that material and that the band disclaimed Crazyscorps for posting the artwork without authorization. The fan club website was closed soon after.
The album was released in May 2007 in Europe and in August 2007 in North America. Delay of the album release in North America happened because the band had changed their US management and also because Desmond Child was afraid of the album leaking on the Internet. [3] [14]
Review scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
411mania.com | 7.5/10 [15] |
About.com | [16] |
AllMusic | [17] |
Daily Vault | C− [18] |
Blabbermouth.net | 7.5/10 [19] |
Forces Parallèles | [20] |
Metal Storm | 8.3/10 [21] |
Metal Temple | [22] |
PopMatters | [23] |
RockReport.be | [24] |
Humanity: Hour I generally received very good reviews. Dan Marsicano from 411mania.com wrote that the "album really shows the band on fire and as powerful as they were 35 years ago". [15] Chad Bowar from About.com stated that "Humanity Hour 1 proves that even though Scorpions have been around for a long time, their creative juices, excellent songwriting and musicianship are fully intact". [16] Thom Jurek from AllMusic wrote that the album "deserved an American issue, since radio needs the Scorpions more than the Scorpions need radio at this point". [17] For Don Kaye of Blabbermouth.net "it's quite easy to say that Humanity – Hour 1 is probably the best Scorpions album since 1990's Crazy World and that "Scorpions recovered their sting". [19] The Metal Storm review remarks how Humanity – Hour 1 "has a distinct sound that sets it aside from the rest. Hard-rock yes, but with a slightly different radio vibe that might not please the die-hard fans". [21] Grigoris Chronis from Metal Temple concluded his review saying that Scorpions "have still enough to say and to give to the world of music". [22] RockReport review added that "this is the first album that bridges the old and the new Scorpions the way it should have been done, thanks to Desmond Child who showed the band the right direction". [24]
The album also received some negative critics. Ben McViker from Daily Vault rated album with C− stating that "it sounds more like an album written by two architects of latter-day Aerosmith, with the Scorpions performing the music". [18] Andrew Blackie of PopMatters also rated the album poorly and stated that "if Humanity is an unremarkable album in itself, complete with a frankly laughable social slant, the band sound more confident stuck to their hammy hard-rock than anywhere else". [23]
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
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1. | "Hour I" | Rudolf Schenker, James Michael, Desmond Child, John Lowery | 3:26 |
2. | "The Game of Life" | Klaus Meine, Child, Mikael Nord Andersson, Martin Hansen | 4:04 |
3. | "We Were Born to Fly" | Matthias Jabs, Eric Bazilian, Marti Frederiksen | 3:59 |
4. | "The Future Never Dies" | Meine, Child, Bazilian, Jason Paige, Russ Irwin | 4:03 |
5. | "You're Lovin' Me to Death" | Schenker, Child, Andreas Carlsson, Bazilian | 3:15 |
6. | "321" | Schenker, Child, Frederiksen, Paige | 3:53 |
7. | "Love Will Keep Us Alive" | Meine, Child, Bazilian, Frederiksen | 4:32 |
8. | "We Will Rise Again" | Jabs, Michael, Paige, Child | 3:49 |
9. | "Your Last Song" | Schenker, Child, Bazilian | 3:44 |
10. | "Love Is War" | Jabs, Michael, Child, Frederiksen | 4:20 |
11. | "The Cross" | Jabs, Michael, Child, Frederiksen | 4:28 |
12. | "Humanity" | Meine, Child, Bazilian | 5:26 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
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13. | "Cold" | Jabs, Child, Bazilian, Frederiksen | 3:52 |
14. | "Humanity" (Radio Edit) | Meine, Child, Bazilian | 4:06 |
15. | "Love Will Keep Us Alive" (Radio Edit) | Meine, Child, Bazilian, Frederiksen | 4:06 |
Scorpions
Additional musicians
Production
Chart (2007) | Peak position |
---|---|
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria) [25] | 41 |
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia) [26] | 79 |
Czech Albums (ČNS IFPI) [27] | 47 |
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100) [28] | 91 |
Finnish Albums (Suomen virallinen lista) [29] | 29 |
French Albums (SNEP) [30] | 16 |
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100) [31] | 9 |
Italian Albums (FIMI) [32] | 44 |
Japanese Albums (Oricon) [33] | 54 |
Mexican Albums (Top 100 Mexico) [34] | 94 |
Spanish Albums (PROMUSICAE) [35] | 59 |
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan) [36] | 36 |
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade) [37] | 27 |
US Billboard 200 [38] | 63 |
US Top Rock Albums (Billboard) [39] | 17 |
US Top Hard Rock Albums (Billboard) [40] | 7 |
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
---|---|---|
Russia (NFPF) [41] | Platinum | 20,000* |
* Sales figures based on certification alone. |
Region | Date | Label | Format | Catalog |
---|---|---|---|---|
Europe | 25 May 2007 | Sony BMG | double LP | 309146 |
Scorpions are a German rock band formed in Hanover in 1965 by guitarist Rudolf Schenker. Since the band's inception, its musical style has ranged from hard rock, heavy metal and glam metal to soft rock. The lineup from 1978 to 1992 was the most successful incarnation of the group, and included Klaus Meine (vocals), Rudolf Schenker, Matthias Jabs, Francis Buchholz (bass), and Herman Rarebell (drums). The band's only continuous member has been Schenker, although Meine has appeared on all of Scorpions' studio albums, while Jabs has been a consistent member since 1978, and bassist Paweł Mąciwoda and drummer Mikkey Dee have been in the band since 2003 and 2016 respectively.
Unbreakable is the fifteenth studio album by German hard rock band Scorpions, released in 2004. In this release, Scorpions return to the style of music of their most successful albums, after experimenting with many different concepts and influences in the 1990s. This was the first album with Paweł Mąciwoda on bass guitar. Despite critical acclaim and extensive touring of the album, Unbreakable was not a big hit on the charts.
Blackout is the eighth studio album by the German rock band Scorpions. It was released in 1982 by Harvest and Mercury Records.
Love at First Sting is the ninth studio album by German rock band Scorpions. It was released in March 1984 on Harvest/EMI in Europe and Mercury in the US. The album contains "Rock You Like a Hurricane", "Still Loving You", and "Big City Nights", three of the band's most famous songs.
Savage Amusement is the tenth studio album by the German hard rock band Scorpions, released in 1988. It peaked at No. 5 in the US and was certified platinum by the RIAA on June 20, 1988. It was the last Scorpions record to be produced by Dieter Dierks.
Lovedrive is the sixth studio album by German band Scorpions, released in 1979. Considered by some critics to be the pinnacle of their career, Lovedrive was a major evolution of the band's sound, exhibiting their "classic style" that would be later developed over their next few albums. Lovedrive cemented the "Scorpions formula" of hard rock songs combined with melodic ballads.
Still Loving You is a compilation album by the German hard rock band Scorpions.
Face the Heat is the twelfth studio album released by the German hard rock band Scorpions in 1993.
Eye II Eye is the fourteenth studio album by the German hard rock band Scorpions, released in 1999. It is a radical departure in that Eye II Eye is much more pop-oriented than their previous work, which alienated some fans, despite the single "Mysterious" reaching number 26 on the Billboard Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. It is the first studio Scorpions album to feature James Kottak on drums and also the final Scorpions studio album to feature Ralph Rieckermann on bass guitar.
Crazy World is the eleventh studio album by the German hard rock band Scorpions, released on 6 November 1990. The album peaked at No. 21 on the Billboard 200 chart for albums in 1991. That same year, the song "Wind of Change" reached No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and "Send Me an Angel" reached No. 44 on the same chart. It also has the only Scorpions track to credit bassist Francis Buchholz as a writer, "Kicks After Six". This album was the band's first album in a decade and a half to not be produced by Dieter Dierks.
Pure Instinct is the thirteenth studio album by the German hard rock band Scorpions, released in 1996. Reviewers criticized the album for having too many ballads and not enough hard rock or even rock.
Acoustica is an unplugged live album by German hard rock band Scorpions. It was released in 2001 on East West Records.
Tokyo Tapes is the first live album by German rock band Scorpions and their last release by RCA Records. It was also the final release to feature Uli Jon Roth, who left after the 27 April taping session.
World Wide Live is a live album by German rock band Scorpions, released in 1985. The original audio recording was produced by Dieter Dierks. A VHS was released at the same time with footage of Scorpions' world tour.
Rock Will Never Die is a Michael Schenker Group live album released in 1984 and recorded at Hammersmith Odeon in London, over two nights in October 1983. The concert was also released in VHS with the same title. This is the last album recorded with Gary Barden before he rejoined the band in 2008.
Sting in the Tail is the seventeenth studio album by German hard rock band Scorpions. It was released on 19 March 2010 in Europe and on 23 March in North America. At the time it was intended to be a farewell album, released prior to their farewell tour.
Comeblack is a compilation of songs recorded by German hard rock band Scorpions; and is intended as a comeback album, following their farewell tour. Released after the successful 2010's Sting in the Tail, half of the album features re-recorded versions of their own classic songs and the other half cover versions of 1960s and early 1970s popular rock songs. It was announced on 3 October 2011, with a planned global release date of 4 November and a US release on 24 January 2012. Comeblack was also released for streaming online by AOL Music on 23 January 2012. The album was released by Sony Music Entertainment and available in both CD and vinyl formats.
Return to Forever is the eighteenth studio album by German rock band Scorpions. It was released in Europe on 20 February 2015. The album marks the final release of the band to feature the Unbreakable-era lineup with longtime drummer James Kottak leaving the band in September 2016, who was replaced by former Motörhead drummer Mikkey Dee.
Born to Touch Your Feelings: Best of Rock Ballads is a compilation album by German rock band Scorpions. It includes the most popular Scorpions ballads, with a brand new acoustic studio version of the song "Send Me an Angel", a new full band studio version of the song "Follow Your Heart" and two brand new songs "Melrose Avenue" and "Always Be with You" that were written specifically for this compilation.
Rock Believer is the nineteenth studio album by German rock band Scorpions, released on 22 February 2022 in the United Kingdom and 25 February elsewhere. This is the band's first studio album with drummer Mikkey Dee, who replaced James Kottak in 2016, and their first studio album in seven years since Return to Forever (2015), making it their longest gap between studio albums.
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