''Prisoners in Paradise'' is the fifth studio album by the Swedish rock band
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...
. It was released on 23 September 1991 by
Epic Records and spawned hits such as the title track, "Prisoners in Paradise" and "I'll Cry for You". The album did not chart in the US, which is unusual for a major label follow-up to two recent (multi)platinum albums. ''Prisoners in Paradise'' is the last album to feature guitarist
Kee Marcello
Kee Marcello (born Kjell Hilding Lövbom, 20 February 1960 in Ludvika, Sweden) is a Swedish guitarist/vocalist, best known as the former guitarist in the hard rock bands Europe and Easy Action. He is currently pursuing his solo career.
Caree ...
.
The band's guitarist
Kee Marcello
Kee Marcello (born Kjell Hilding Lövbom, 20 February 1960 in Ludvika, Sweden) is a Swedish guitarist/vocalist, best known as the former guitarist in the hard rock bands Europe and Easy Action. He is currently pursuing his solo career.
Caree ...
states in his 2011 biography that
Bob Rock
Robert Jens Rock (born April 19, 1954) is a Canadian record producer, sound engineer and musician, best known for producing rock bands and music artists such as Metallica, Mötley Crüe, Bon Jovi, Aerosmith, The Tragically Hip, the Cult, ...
was the first choice for producer for this album, and agreed initially but pulled out to work on
Metallica's
eponymous album instead. The large number of finished bonus tracks is also explained in this book: the first version of this album, called "Seventh Sign" was rejected by the label in 1990 and the band had to write and record new songs. Five more tracks were demoed in addition to the 25 listed below; two of them were rewritten and became "New Love in Town" on ''
Last Look at Eden
A last is a mechanical form shaped like a human foot. It is used by Shoemaking, shoemakers and cordwainers in the manufacture and repair of shoes. Lasts typically come in pairs and have been made from various materials, including hardwoods, cas ...
'' and "Bring it All Home" on ''
Bag of Bones''. Most of the unreleased songs down below can be found on
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...
as demo recordings. Two of the previously unreleased tracks, "Wild Child" and "I Don't Know How to Love No More" were re-recorded for Kee Marcello's 2016 solo album "Scaling Up" on
Frontiers Records.
Track listing
(Note: These unreleased demos can, for some reason, be heard on
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...
and, thusly, accurate time lengths for these songs were acquired.)
Personnel
Europe
*
Joey Tempest
Rolf Magnus Joakim Larsson (born 19 August 1963), known professionally as Joey Tempest, is a Swedish singer best known as the lead vocalist of the rock band Europe. He has written the band's great hits such as " The Final Countdown", " Rock the ...
– lead vocals, acoustic guitars
*
Kee Marcello
Kee Marcello (born Kjell Hilding Lövbom, 20 February 1960 in Ludvika, Sweden) is a Swedish guitarist/vocalist, best known as the former guitarist in the hard rock bands Europe and Easy Action. He is currently pursuing his solo career.
Caree ...
– electric guitars, background vocals
*
John Levén
John Gunnar Levén (born 25 October 1963 in Stockholm, Sweden) is a Swedish bassist in the Swedish rock band Europe. Levén and vocalist Joey Tempest are the only band members who have performed on all of Europe's studio albums.
Career
When Lev ...
– bass guitar
*
Mic Michaeli
Gunnar Mathias "Mic" Michaeli (born 11 November 1962) is a Swedish musician best known as the keyboardist for the rock band Europe. Like many of the other Europe members he grew up in Stockholm suburb Upplands Väsby. He joined the band for thei ...
– keyboards, background vocals
*
Ian Haugland
Jan-Håkan "Ian" Haugland (born 13 August 1964) is the drummer in the Swedish rock band Europe. When he was eight months old, he and his family moved to the Stockholm suburb of Märsta, Sweden. He joined Europe in the summer of 1984, replacing ...
– drums
Additional musicians
*Nate Winger, Paul Winger – background vocals
Production
*
Beau Hill
Beau Hill is an American record producer who is best known for his work with Alice Cooper, Kix, Winger, Streets, Warrant, Fiona, Europe, and Ratt. He also played instruments and sang backing vocals for some of the artists that he produced, as ...
– producer, mixing
*Jimmy Hoyson – engineer, mixing
*Martin Horenburg – assistant engineer
*
Ted Jensen
Ted Jensen (born September 19, 1954) is an American mastering engineer, known for having mastered many recordings, including the Eagles' ''Hotel California'', Green Day's '' American Idiot'' and Norah Jones' ''Come Away with Me''.
Biography
T ...
– mastering
*Jeff Katz – photography
*
Mark Wilkinson
Mark Wilkinson (born 3 October 1952) is an English illustrator. He is best known for the detailed surrealistic cover art he created for a number of British bands.
Wilkinson's breakthrough came through his association with the neo-progressive r ...
– illustrations
*Tony Sellari – art direction
Charts
Album
Singles
Certifications
References
{{Authority control
Europe (band) albums
1991 albums
Epic Records albums
Albums produced by Beau Hill