Golden Earring - Cut (1982) {2001, Reissue}

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Golden Earring - Cut (1982) {2001, Reissue}

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After spending much of the late '70s and the early '80s as a cult band, Golden Earring returned to an international level of popularity in 1982 with the hit single (and popular MTV attraction) "Twilight Zone." This song and seven others are featured on Cut, a solid album that found Golden Earring starting to deviate from the pop/rock formula they perfect on No Promises…No Debts and Prisoner of the Night. Like those albums, Cut works its way through a series of guitar-based rock songs built on strong hooks. However, the band allows themselves to instrumentally stretch out a bit on some of the songs this time out. The most notable example is the midsection of "Twilight Zone," where George Kooymans lays out an exploratory series of guitar solos that build to crescendo over the taut bassline provided by Rinus Gerritsen. The other songs on Cut aren't as tightly crafted and hook-laden as those on the last few albums, but there are still plenty of strong tracks: "Baby Dynamite" is a power ballad about a fame-seeking girl that is built on a nicely harmonized chorus and "Lost and Found" is a strong mid-tempo rumination on the end of a relationship that boasts an impassioned yet subtle vocal performance from Barry Hay. However, the best non-"Twilight Zone" track on the album is the least typical: "The Devil Made Me Do It" is a witty, fast-paced pop-rocker about love gone bad built on an eccentric but effective combination of mock-gospel call and response vocals and an energetic horn section. Some of the tracks fall short of the mark ("Future" runs a decent riff into the ground by failing to develop it in an interesting way), but the album contains enough strong tracks to make it worth a listen for the Golden Earring fan.

~ Donald A. Guarisco, All Music

Best known in the U.S. for their hard rock material, Golden Earring have been the most popular homegrown band in the Netherlands since the mid-'60s, when they were primarily a pop group. The group was founded by guitarist/vocalist George Kooymans and bassist/vocalist Rinus Gerritsen, then schoolboys, in 1961; several years and personnel shifts later, they had their first Dutch hit, "Please Go," and in 1968 hit the top of the Dutch charts for the first of many times with "Dong-Dong-Di-Ki-Di-Gi-Dong," a song that broadened their European appeal. By 1969, the rest of the lineup had stabilized, with lead vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Barry Hay and drummer Cesar Zuiderwijk. They experimented with their style for several years before settling on straightforward hard rock initially much like that of the Who, who invited them to open their 1972 European tour. Golden Earring signed to the Who's Track label, which released a compilation of Dutch singles, Hearing Earring, helping the group break through in England. Released in 1974, the Moontan LP spawned the single "Radar Love," a Dutch number one, U.K. Top Ten, and U.S. number 13 hit.

They toured America opening for the Doobie Brothers and Santana, but the lack of a follow-up ensured that their popularity remained short-lived in America, even though they remained a top draw in Europe over the rest of the 1970s. The band experienced a brief American comeback in 1982 with the album Cut and the Top Ten single "Twilight Zone," but as before, Golden Earring could not sustain their momentum and faded away in the U.S. marketplace. ("Radar Love" did enjoy a second round of popularity in the U.S. when pop-metal band White Lion covered the song in 1989.) Nevertheless, the band persisted over the ensuing decades, recording and performing well into the new millennium and remaining a concert draw in the Netherlands and elsewhere in Europe. Although they have not toured North America since the mid-'80s, Golden Earring did record their 2003 album, Millbrook USA, in Millbrook, NY at the studio of Frank Carillo (whose duo album with George Kooymans, On Location, saw release in April 2010). The bandmembers have also recorded as solo artists in Europe.

~ Steve Huey, All Music

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Golden Earring - Cut (1982) {2001, Reissue}

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Golden Earring - Cut (1982) {2001, Reissue}

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Golden Earring - Cut (1982) {2001, Reissue}

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