Return to Forever

Background

In late 2011, the band started throwing ideas for further side projects. They had in mind two ideas. One was to release a film made from over 900 hours of footage from concerts different festivals, concert on Moscow's Red Square, concerts in Amazon rainforest, in front of Pyramids and Russian tour in 2002 and the other one was to release bonus track an album from unreleased songs, mainly from the period when their albums were released on vinyl which had the possibility to fit only eight or nine songs.

In 2011 the band members started searching unreleased songs in their archives. They found many unreleased songs and some of the songs that they hadn't finished composing. These songs mainly had draft lyrics and there were also a couple of jams. Band members compiled a total of three CDs of unreleased songs and gave them to the producers Mikael Nord Andersson and Martin Hansen to choose the best ones for the album. the band entered the studio in early January and stayed in there until late March 2012. They reworked the unfinished songs from Blackout (1982), Love at First Sting (1984), Savage Amusement (1988) and Crazy World (1990) era. Those unfinished songs were recorded only as a simple demos, without a click track. The band members worked with Andersson and Hansen on total of 12 songs, with a plan on working on a total of 16-18 songs and choosing the 12 best ones. They were adding new parts to the existing songs, especially the new set of lyrics in almost every song. The band recorded those songs in a modern way, but they managed to keep the feel, basic ideas, songwriting style and arrangements as much as possible from the period when those songs were written. Songs "Rock 'n' Roll Band" and "Dancing with the Moonlight" were recorded during those sessions. Later, the band paused the project because they didn't have enough time to finish it due to the rigorous touring schedule. In 2014 the band had 12 songs prepared for the project with a plan of releasing around 15 songs from the seventies and the eighties.

In 2010, the Scorpions announced their farewell tour. Before they retired, they wanted to release a bonus track album with leftovers from the seventies and eighties just for the fans. After playing the final show in Munich in December 2012, the band planned to take a break and go on vacation. In January 2013, MTV contacted the band and asked if they were interested in doing the MTV Unplugged album. They agreed on doing that project and it turned out to be successful. That whole thing pushed back the bonus track project. As soon as they finished the MTV Unplugged project, the band immediately went back to the studio to work on the bonus track project. The band was listening to the recordings they had already prepared for the project. They were happy with the result and Rudolf Schenker said that he had a tape with some songs that they could also use for this project. While searching for the tape, Schenker found an old ledger in which his mother enumerated the loans that his father provided to him, so he could buy all the equipment and establish the band. He looked into the book and it said: "September, 1965". He went back to the studio and told the band what he had found and their manager said that it would be great idea to celebrate 50th Anniversary since they were the only German band who was 50 years in music and one of the few in the world, along with The Rolling Stones, Status Quo, The Who, Beach Boys and Pink Floyd. The manager suggested to the band that they contact the promoters and see if they were interested in the band doing a 50th Anniversary Tour. Then Schenker suggested that if the band was going to do a 50th Anniversary Tour, then the band needed to release a brand new studio album. So the band went again into the listening process of bonus track material they had already prepared to see if they could improve something, like choruses and riffs. After that, they re-recorded the old stuff and started to write new songs with the producers Mikael Nord Andersson and Martin Hansen. The result was the album Return to Forever.

Until the end of 2014, the band had around 30 new written songs. When the band took the album to the record label, they had 19 songs that they wanted to do double album. The record label rejected the idea of the double album because they needed bonus tracks for different markets. So the band could only pick 12 songs that would go to the main track listing.

About the tracks

"Going Out With a Bang" is a new song written by Mikael Nord Andersson and Martin Hansen. It is about the triumph of friendship between band members and their survival through all 50 years and all the ups and downs in their careers. Klaus Meine said: "We are still standing strong and we are going out with a bang, yeah!". It is influenced a bit by blues.

"We Built This House" is also a new song and songwriting collaboration between Klaus Meine, Andersson and Hansen. It is about a relationship, but also about the band's past fifty years, their philosophy, and lessons their unusual life taught them. Klaus Meine explained: "In the end, it tells our story. We’ve built this house called Scorpions brick by brick and often quite arduously. From the first days in Hannover, the first concerts abroad, until this very day. We’ve weathered severe storms, but the house withstood everything and turned out to be weatherproof and stable. However, building the house was never just cumbersome, but joyful as well. The joy of music, the joy of having experienced and still experiencing it all, the joy of – and the thankfulness for – the fans’ affection. We have been working hard for this dream, but we’re thankful as well for having been able to live it, and for still being able to live it today". The song has a chorus which comes after the verse and again one more chorus after the chorus.

"Rock My Car" is a song that originates from 1985. It's about driving a fast car on the German Autobahn. Rudolf Schenker came on the idea for the song after the band came home from the long tour where they were traveling in planes and limousines. He just wanted to get into his car and push the "pedal to the metal".

"House of Cards" is a song for which Schenker wrote music in 1998/99. and then Meine wrote lyrics for it in 2001. Originally, they wanted to put this song on the live album Acoustica (2001). Lyrically, it is about love and when love turns to hate.

"All for One" is a song about the band's philosophy and friendship.

"Rock 'n' Roll Band" is a song about sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll and about nightlife in Los Angeles. Meine was inspired to write lyrics when he was walking down Sunset Boulevard and when he went to all the night clubs, including Rainbow and strip clubs seeing girls dancing to the Scorpions' music.

Release and promotion

On 16 August 2014 Scorpions released through their social media a promotional picture with which they announced a new studio album and 50th Anniversary Tour for 2015. On 19 December 2014 the band announced album title, artwork, and track listing for standard, deluxe edition and iTunes version of the album. On the same day, first single "We Built This House" was released as an Instant Grat on iTunes Store and Amazon MP3. On 19 February 2015, there was a 50th Anniversary and "Return to Forever" album release party held in Hamburg. The release party was video streamed live on The Scorpions' official website on 19 February 2015 at 8.30 pm C.E.T. After the exclusive pre-listening of the new album together with Klaus Meine, Rudolf Schenker and Matthias Jabs, the band answered questions by fans and media partners and shared intimate insights and stories around the creation of the new record. The album was available for pre-order via Amazon and it released on 20 February 2015 as a standard album, deluxe edition containing four bonus tracks, a double heavyweight vinyl and as a limited edition collector's boxset containing deluxe version of the album, an exclusive "Return to Forever" t-shirt, a 7" picture vinyl single, signed autograph card, USB, fan pass and an audiobook. "Eye of the Storm" was released as a second single on 8 May 2015 worldwide, except in North America. It was released as a digital download featuring the radio edit and album version of the song. Release date for first single "We Built This House", and release date and track listing for the album "Return to Forever" in North America were announced on 16 June 2015. On the same day, pre-orders started for the album. The first single "We Built This House" was released digitally on 3 July 2015, as an Instant Grat for the fans who pre-ordered the album on Amazon and iTunes. In United States "We Built This House" reached No. 10 on U.S. "Classic Rock" radio chart. On 15 July 2015, lyrics video for the song premiered in North America on Rolling Stone official website. Music video for the song premiered in North America on 11 August 2015 on Eddie Trunk's official website. Announcements related to the release of the "Going Out With a Bang" single and music video in Europe were released on 18 August 2015 along with the video teaser. On 21 August 2015, "Going Out With a Bang" was released as a single in Europe. On the same day, the music video for the song was released in Europe. Directed by Dennis Dirksen, the music video was shot during the concerts in Barcelona, Spain, and Maidstone, England. On 14 October 2015, Guitar Player premiered the music video for the "Going Out With a Bang" in North America.

On 11 September 2015, the album was released in various formats, including digital, Deluxe CD, and vinyl containing 19 songs. Besides the four tracks previously found on the deluxe edition of the album "The World We Used to Know", "Dancing with the Moonlight", "When the Truth Is a Live" and "Who We Are", the North American version of the album contains three additional exclusive bonus track "Crazy Ride", "One and One Is Three" and "Delirious". The Scorpions have also launched an official D2C store with exciting offerings for fans featuring brand new t-shirt and sweatshirt designs coupled with the CD and Vinyl versions of the album. Each bundle had an exclusive custom-made fan poster that featured every fan's name on it who pre-ordered the album through the D2C store by 14 August 2015.

Critical reception

Fred Thomas from AllMusic stated that "Return to Forever follows suit very much, with the 12 new songs here embodying the same over-the-top celebration and hedonistic revelry of a much younger Scorpions. At times the throwbacks are a little transparent". Ray Van Horn Jr. from Blabbermouth.net wrote about the album that "The SCORPIONS do their damnedest here, like they did on Sting in the Tail prior, to make believe they're living in a "World Wide Live" once again". Nick Hasted from Classic Rock wrote that "It’s 1984 forever for the Scorpions, a return to slick, semi-hard rock and power ballads". Arie van der Graaf from Melodic said that the Scorpions "haven't made an album as fresh as this one for years. With its razor-sharp guitars, great melodic harmonies and hymns they still rule as Germany's most successful rock band, miles ahead of good followers Edguy and Rammstein". Jedd Beaudoin from PopMatters concluded its review saying "We don’t know that this will be the final Scorpions LP, but if it is, the little band from Hanover will certainly have gone out with, as they say, a bang".

Personnel

Scorpions

Klaus Meine – lead vocals

Rudolf Schenker – rhythm guitar, backing vocals

Matthias Jabs – lead guitar, backing vocals

Paweł Mąciwoda – bass, backing vocals

James Kottak – drums, backing vocals

Production

Mikael Nord Andersson – production, engineering, mixing

Martin Hansen – production, engineering, mixing

Tim Eckhorst – cover artwork