GRAB IT FOR A SECOND

After their excellent live album released a year prior this ''Grab It For A Second'', GE is heading towards a much straight rock music (heavy oriented to be complete).

The opener is not bad per se, but is so closely linked with a standard Stones number (whom I like pretty much as well to be honest - I mean The Stones) and it is quite unusual for Golden Earring.

The same feeling prevails for the jumping title track which is some sort of a dynamite song, almost punkish (but this was released in 78?). One of the best song from this album though.

The heavy sounds are truly unbearable during ''Against The Grain'' and the whole of this album does sound too basic, below par to what this very good band has used us to so far. The line- up is the same than the one of their prior three studio albums and only two years have passed between ''Contraband'' and this ''Grab It?'': But what a change!

I wouldn't say that GE is selling out, but their sophisticated hard-rock has turned into such a common rock sound that one can only be disappointed with this type of recording.

Don't get me wrong though: this is not a bad album but their prog side (which was never obvious to me) has completely disappeared with this work. To listen to such an average rock ballad as ''Leather'' is not decent.

The worse is the disco/funk ''Temptin''. Of course, this style was also in the mood those days. But I didn't expect this from Golden Earring. The good closing number provides some sort of relief: at last a true GE song. It was about time! But don't expect a masterpiece unfortunately. These are past history, I'm afraid.

Two stars.

Somewhere between the release of Moontan and Cut, the two most popular albums by Golden Earring, the band continued it's aimless wandering of trying to find their next hit, and the proof of their wandering is probably most evident in their 1978 release "Grab It For a Second". With the release of each album during this time, their popularity kept waning as their music just seemed to keep missing the mark. The band was constantly trying to get notoriety, but it seems they were having a lot of trouble trying to find that sweet spot, pushing their music to be more rock oriented, radio friendly and less progressive.

There really isn't much to say about "Grab It for a Second" since it just doesn't have a lot to offer. What you have here is a very short album with 8 songs on it, only one of them exceeding the 6 minute mark. Throughout the album, you hear the band missing opportunities left and right to make some great music, even if it isn't progressive, yet they can't seem to pull that off. Neither Hay nor Kooyman's vocals show any kind of emotion. The entire band just seems like they are going through the motions of "hurry and release another album and fill it with songs that were written in 5 minutes and sound like they were recorded in 2 minutes".

There really is only two tracks that stand out on this lackluster album: "Leather" which is a mid-tempo blues rocker that also appears on their "Continuing Story of Radar Love" compilation (which you would be better off getting than this album), and "Against the Grain" which breaks from the boring formula of rock beats to be a bit more heartfelt and more ballad-like, even hinting at some progressiveness, but not enough to really waste your time with this album.

The album goes by rather quickly with hardly anything on it to make any impression on the listener. It's all just less-than- mediocre music that has no soul or great hooks. If the performers can't bring out any enthusiasm for the music, than how can you expect their fans to get excited about it. Once again, Golden Earring misses the mark, but this time, seemingly even further than before.