SWITCH

It's a minor tragedy that Golden Earring is primarily remembered for their two albotross (albotrosses? Albotri?) in "Radar Love" and "Twilight Zone". This album is sorely underrated, perhaps due to it having a tough act to follow commercially. I personally view Switch as a continuation of the band's previous effort Moontan, with the latter album's closer "The Vanilla Queen" bearing many sonic similarities to the former's "Absurdio" in arrangement, like an extended cooldown after Moontan's brassy finale. "Switch" largely plays like an orbit around an alien landscape, with an intense sense of serene loneliness throughout the album. As the album progresses, more and more semi-funk influences surface, with plenty of guitar effects and quick, yet mellow keyboard triplets peppering tracks to great success. Many tracks are quite accessible, particularly helpful for relative newcomers to progressive and related music, with not quite anthemic, yet still clearly pop influenced tracks throughout the tracklist. While perhaps not the most traditionally progressive work (Iron Maiden's decision to cover a decidedly heavy song like "Kill Me (Ce Soir)" is a natural fit), the quintet stylishly shows their command of their respective instruments with performances that don't overly show off but are clearly alert and involved. This album is an auditory treat and worth listening to at least once that both starts and ends on a mellow high note.