• AllMyVinyl #120
• Band: Europe
• Album Title: The Final Countdown
• Release Date: 26 May 1986
• Date purchased: Unknown
• Location purchased: Unknown
• Color of vinyl: black
• Number of discs: 1
• Links: [ Wikipedia | Discogs | Band Website | Complete album on Youtube ]

Now I will admit this up front and with no shame.  I bought this album solely for the first track – everyone knows that riff.  One of the more famous rock songs around.  As I sit down to listen to this in 2025, the entire rest of the album is blank slate.  Zero memory of any of the songs except one being the kind of mid 80’s super sappy power ballad the was uh “popular?” at the time.  When the stash of records arrived from my mom’s basement, I saw this and went “Well, I guess I bought this”, because I don’t remember buying it.  But buying a full album for a single song was definitely something I did at that time in my life, so here we are..  “The Final Countdown”….

This will have a super short intro as I have no memory of buying it, and honestly I can only remember the title track – so this is ALMOST like a totally new album to me.  That’s despite owning it (apparently) since the 80’s.

The Final Countdown – By far their most well known song.  That keyboard intro is super catchy and striking – much in the same way that Dio’s “Rainbow in the Dark” keyboard riff is.  It’s one of those songs that despite how many times I’ve heard it over the years, I have no idea what the main song lyrics are.  But I think everyone knows the chorus.  It’s also the longest song on the album at 5:10.  It also has a pretty nice guitar solo, something that never gets talked about because people just want to sing “THE FINAL COUNTDOWN!”

Part of the problem I have with the song was something I saw on Youtube nearly 20 years ago.  It’s something called “The Worst Cover ever”.  It’s a band presumably from some festival somewhere (Europe?) – doing a pretty darned awful cover of The Final Countdown.  If you’ve seen this video, you know.  If you haven’t, well check it out.  As I write this, there’s slightly over 6 million views of this.  What’s even more amusing is that there’s a video showing Europe’s singer Joey Tempest watching this bad cover.  That’s almost equally as funny. :)

Then even later after that, Geico produced a commercial using the band and “The Final Countdown” where they appear in a lunchroom where someone is microwaving a burrito.  It’s funny as hell.  Make sure and check that out too.

That riff is super catchy, even after watching the bad cover, the Geico ad, and listening on the vinyl, I can’t get enough of it.  CLEARLY their most popular song.   There are a few others on the album, though.

Rock the Night – This has more of a rock sound than the keyboard sound that the title track does.  Right from the start, it feels more up my alley.  It’s got a nice enough sound to it.  It’s for sure mid 80’s hard rock however – no getting around that.  But it’s pleasing enough to my ears if perhaps not the greatest song of all time.  :)    If the title track didn’t exist, this could be considered the best song on the album.  Interesting thing listening.  Some of the keyboards in the background remind me a bit of Jon Lord in Deep Purple.  Not a lot – the whole song doesn’t ,but a few of the flourishes Mic Michaeli puts in the song.  It also has a decent guitar solo.

Carrie – Mid 80’s power ballad that doesn’t do much for me.  So of course it was released as a single and a video produced.  Pass.

Danger on the Track – Also starts off more “rock-y” like Rock the Night did.  Nice chunky repeating riff that runs through it.  Some good guitar work here.  This also has a bit of a Deep Purple sound in the middle where there’s no vocals.  Another nice track that surprised me today when I listened to it.

Ninja – I like the guitar work here, but the underlying beat is a bit too generic for me to really get into the song as a whole.

Cherokee – This starts off with a drum beat that kind of fits the name of the song, much in the same way that Indians from Anthrax does.  However, that’s where it ends.  This goes into the typical 80’s hair metal kind of vibe.  Didn’t do a ton for me.

I’m going to lump most of Side 2 into one update.  The last four songs were typical mid 80’s hair metal stuff, it didn’t do a lot for me, I didn’t want to say that a ton of times.  I did like some of the guitar work in “On the Loose” and “Love Chaser”, but beyond that the rest of the album mostly “meh”.  Actually Love Chaser wasn’t that bad, but it still suffers from that mid 80’s hair metal keyboard thing, but it does have some good guitar work.

Yeah, outside of “The Final Countdown” (the song), I didn’t care for a ton of this.  Rock the Night was good.  As was Danger on the Track – but beyond those three songs, most of this is pretty forgettable to me.  Having said that I found more good guitar work than I was expecting, so that was a bonus.  Still, it doesn’t save the album for me.

I’ll fire up the Geico commercial again.  That was more enjoyable than most of Side 2 of this album.