Pink Bubbles Go Ape (1991)
This album came out during a very strange and stressful period in the band’s history. Out is Kai Hansen and in comes Roland Grapow into a mess of disputes and lawsuits. The direction of this album is misguided and in some respects the band does progress in their songwriting. Also the band spent close to 600,000 dollars recording this album. Many disputes between the producer, bandmembers, management and the record company ensued. Its amazing the album even got recorded with all of the bullshit that was going on at the time. There are some high notes though, as Roland Grapow came into the band with his first set of songs, of which “The Chance” and “Mankind” and Grapow fits in just fine here, and although the style of the music here is not the raging power metal fueled by an assortment of complex and melodic dual harmony guitar leads as in the past, he and Michael Weikath still throw in plenty of tasty solos and catchy riffs. Catchy cuts like “Goin’ Home” and “Back on the Streets” are just damn good rock songs, and it’s not really until “Someone’s Crying” where the band lets their hair down and cranks out some speedy double bass drum work and lightning leads. Michael Kiske is in fine form throughout Pink Bubbles Go Ape, really shining on some of the mellower pieces like “Number One” (a sign of things to come perhaps?) but also shows his range on the heavier tunes like the tongue-in-cheek “Heavy Metal Hamsters” and the anthem “Kids of the Century”. “Heavy Metal Hamsters” was originally suppossed to be a b-side. One song entitled “City Cries” was also recorded but never mixed nor released on any album or single. The band also progressed as songwriters and there were a lot of musical ideas Michael Weikath came up that weren’t used but would later resurface on later albums. The Japanese bonus track for this album was Markus Grosskopf’s “Shit and Lobster”.
Recorded at PUK Studios in Gjerlev Denmark and Mixed at Battery Studios in London
Produced, engineered and mixed by Chris Tsangarides
Sound Engineeing by Pete Iverson and Lars Laverson
Additionial Engineering by Paul Wright
Keyboards: Pete Iverson and Paul Nichols
All tracks published by Zomba music publishers
Tracklist:
1. Pink Bubbles Go Ape (Kiske) 0:37
2. Kids Of The Century (Kiske) 3:52
3. Back On The Streets (Grapow/Kiske) 3:23
4. Number One (Weikath) 5:14
5. Heavy Metal Hamsters (Weikath/Kiske) 3:28
6. Goin’ Home (Kiske) 3:51
7. Someone’s Crying (Grapow) 4:18
8. Mankind (Grapow/Kiske) 6:19
9. I’m Doin Fine Crazy Man (Grosskopf/Grapow) 3:39
10. The Chance (Grapow) 3:48
11. Your Turn (Kiske) 5:39
Total Running Time: 44:08
Roland Grapow (Guitars)
Ingo Schwichtenberg (Drums)
Michael Kiske (Vocals)
Markus Grosskopf (Bass)
Michael Weikath (Guitars)
