Golden Earring-Switch (1975)

The Dutch band Golden Earring's tenth album faced the difficult task of following their previous and highly successful "Moontan", which featured the timeless rock classic "Radar Love". However, the band, led by guitarist George Kooymans, didn't attempt to repeat the same musical clichés of that album, instead steering their progressive hard rock towards more diverse musical directions. Here, Golden Earring delivers a melodic and catchy sound, with a more mainstream and accessible repertoire that is nonetheless of enormous quality, though without reaching the instrumental complexities of their earlier work. This is all demonstrated in a series of addictive tracks such as the funky rock of "Love Is A Rodeo", the upbeat "Tons Of Time", the atmospheric "Intro: Plus Minus Absurdio", the hard rock of "Troubles and Hassles", the hypnotic "The Lonesome D.J.", and the energetic "Kill Me (Ce Soir)". Despite the setback of its commercial failure compared to "Moontan", this album would achieve more than acceptable sales in the European and North American markets and an absolute number one in its country of origin.