Golden Earring

Together represents an important step forward for Golden Earring. Unlike the group's previous outings, the songs on this album don't fall into strict rock or progressive categories. Instead, the group blurs these strict lines and weaves elements of each genre into a distinctive style that gives the songs their unique flavor. For instance, "Brother Wind" has the complex arrangement and length of a prog rock epic, but it moves forward with the energy and powerful riffing of a hard rock song. The group also makes a concerted effort to give each song a tight arrangement and usually more than one catchy hook. The result is the band's first truly consistent album.

Although the band has put out several fine albums over the years, Golden Earring has not always had an easy time staying consistent from album to album. This 1980 effort is one of the rare instances in the Golden Earring catalog in which the group takes a good album, No Promises…No Debts, and actually improves on it. Like the aforementioned album, Prisoner of the Night presents a collection of songs that combine pop hooks and hard rock muscle in a radio-friendly way. However, Golden Earring improves on this style instead of recycling it: The guitar riffs hit harder, the hooks are catchier, and the arrangements are more willing to toss an occasional left turn at the listener while still managing to keep the songs lean and exciting.

On To the Hilt, Golden Earring fully gives themselves over to the prog rock tendencies that they had toyed with throughout the 1970s. The resulting album has a strong prog feel but lacks the characteristic sound and the solid material that defined the group's best efforts to that point. The band puts in a typically energetic and thunderous performance, but their strong instrumental chops can't overcome the self-indulgent nature of much of the album's material: "Why Me?" and "Latin Lightning" are a few of the potentially interesting songs on To the Hilt that are undercut by dull, overlong sections of jamming. Said songs also lack the tight arrangements and the sudden, surprising instrumental twists that made the group's past epics so interesting.

Golden Earring is a Dutch rock band, founded in 1961 in The Hague as the Golden Earrings. They achieved worldwide fame with their international hit songs "Radar Love" in 1973, which went to number one on the Dutch charts, reached the top ten in the UK and went to number thirteen on the US charts, "Twilight Zone" in 1982, and "When the Lady Smiles" in 1984. During their career they had nearly 30 top-ten singles on the Dutch charts; over the years they produced 25 studio albums.

The Continuing Story of Radar Love is a 12-song hits collection from Dutch rock band Golden Earring, containing both the chug-a-long rock staple "Radar Love" and the full eight-minute version of "Twilight Zone." These two songs are the most renowned on this compilation and both cracked the Top 20, with "Radar Love" hitting number 13 in 1974 and "Twilight Zone" peaking at number ten nine years later. The other ten songs on the album consist of long, heavy guitar-filled runs that surround obscure lyrics, sometimes sounding like modern psychedelia. Some of the songs, like "The Vanilla Queen" and "Mad Love's Comin'" harbor a distinguishable progressive edge, thanks to woven keyboard and guitar interplay.

This 1997 follow-up to The Naked Truth repeats the basic "live and acoustic" formula of that album, but it isn't the uninspired retread one might expect. Since the last album used most of the group's familiar numbers, this collection of songs digs deeper into the group's catalog to highlight some lesser-known gems that will delight Golden Earring fanatics. Two of the best examples are "Buddy Joe," a rousing adventure tale that translates perfectly to the acoustic setting, and "Bombay," a tune that takes an almost hoedown-style quality when stripped of its electric guitars. The set list also includes a few covers that appeared on Love Sweat, "Who Do You Love" and "This Wheel's on Fire."

This 1977 double-album opus represents Golden Earring's entry into the series of live albums that were so popular in the late '70s. At this point in its career, the band's live sound had a newfound sense of power, thanks to the addition of second guitarist Eelco Gelling…