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The Devil Made Me Do It
Future
Dynamite
Last Of The Mochicans
Lost And Found
Twilight Zone
Chargin' Up My Batteries
Secrets
Golden Earring’s 1982 album Cut is often overshadowed by its juggernaut single Twilight Zone, but ignore the rest of the album at your peril. After years of navigating the shifting tides of hard rock and art-pop experimentation, Cut found the Dutch quartet sharpening their edge and stripping away excess in favour of precision.
The album trades in cinematic paranoia, reinforcing Cold War tension with a clipped, urgent rhythm section and icy synth lines. Producer Shell Schellekens' approach lets Barry Hay’s vocals bite through, while the late George Kooymans’ guitar is lean and taut. The Devil Made Me Do It snarls with post-punk brevity, while Future plays like The Who's Eminence Front if Pete Townshend had been listening to Simple Minds while bingeing on spy thrillers.
For a group already two decades in, Cut was a rare moment of reinvention, and while it might not be their most sprawling, celebrated work, it's perhaps their most focused.
Every week, Album of the Week Club listens to and discusses the album in question, votes on how good it is, and publishes our findings, with the aim of giving people reliable reviews and the wider rock community the chance to contribute.
Other albums released in September 1982
- It's Hard - The Who
- Peter Gabriel 4 - Peter Gabriel
- The Dreaming - Kate Bush
- New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84) - Simple Minds
- The Philip Lynott Album - Philip Lynott
- Under the Blade - Twisted Sister
- Love over Gold - Dire Straits
- Forever Now - The Psychedelic Furs
- Nebraska - Bruce Springsteen
- Acting Very Strange - Mike Rutherford
- Death Penalty - Witchfinder General
- Ice Cream for Crow - Captain Beefheart
- Magic - Gillan
- Zombie Birdhouse - Iggy Pop
- Signals - Rush
What they said...
"The best non-Twilight Zone track on the album is the least typical: The Devil Made Me Do It is a witty, fast-paced pop-rocker about love gone bad built on an eccentric but effective combination of mock-gospel call and response vocals and an energetic horn section. Some of the tracks fall short of the mark, but the album contains enough strong tracks to make it worth a listen for the Golden Earring fan." (AllMusic)
"The downside was the album didn't really break new ground. Tracks like Last of the Mochicans and Baby Dynamite were formulaic. Guitar rock remained their prime forte, but guest keyboard player Robert Jan Stips' contributions throughout the album added much-needed vitality to the album." (Rate Your Music)
"There is no doubt that Golden Earring had it in them to be remembered as a better band than they were, but their search for the next big hit just put them in the sad pile of mediocre bands. They did have great songs other than their two hits, but they all came along in the 70s, and the fact that Twilight Zone seemed to come out of nowhere amid a string of bad albums should have been the band's wake-up call to get serious again, but they never would." (Prog Archives)
What you said...
Adam Ranger: I admit to preferring To The Hilt, Contraband, Switch and my all-time favourite, Moontan.
This offering from Golden Earring is not their best, but it's certainly not their worst. They start to sound more 80s, more alternative rock at times, a touch of REM sound perhaps. But I can't criticise a band in the 80s sounding contemporary and trying to move with the times.
The standout track is Twilight Zone, which is a great crossover from the 70s sound of Golden Earring to the more contemporary Golden Earring. I will still reach for Moontan or To The Hilt when I fancy some Golden Earring, but this album is still very listenable.
Mike Canoe: My primary memory of when Golden Earring's Cut came out in 1982 was how disappointed my friend was that the much longer Twilight Zone on the album wasn't the same version played on America's Top 40. I remember thinking the same thing about the band's one big US hit from the 1970s. The single of Radar Love clocked in at under four minutes while the album version was almost two minutes longer. We were teenagers in the late 1900s: what did we know about single edits for radio?
That story might serve as a metaphor for Golden Earring's relationship with the USA. A couple of great songs, but no one really wanted to risk buying the albums. Or maybe it was just a dark ages distribution dilemma.
Either way, it's a shame because Golden Earring always struck me as a cool but kind of weird and unique art rock band that would occasionally release a jaw-dropping single (When the Lady Smiles and Long Blond Animal are two favourites).
Cut opens with another one of those great singles, "The Devil Made Me Do It," with its great choral response of "Bullsh*t!" It may not have gotten them on the radio, but it got them into my heart. Lost and Found and Chargin' Up My Batteries are also pretty great. And now that I'm older, I can appreciate the extra minutes of noodling in Twilight Zone.
With or without consistent US chart success, Golden Earring had a great run - with the same lineup since 1970(!) - and their home country loved 'em. RIP, George Kooymans.
John Davidson: Before this album was suggested, I could have named precisely one Golden Earring song, and had no idea that they had continued to produce albums into the 2000s.
The album opens with The Devil Made Me Do It, which sounds to me like a hybrid between Blue Oyster Cult and the US new wave sounds of bands like The Cars. Track two, Future, is slightly funky MOR AOR with nothing to recommend it. Baby Dynamite doesn't improve things, being something of a damp squib.
Last of the Mohicans shows promise with a decent riff and some chunky bass, but by the time the vocals start we're back to forgettable new wave pop rock, but at least it has a bit more pep than the previous couple of songs. Lost and Found? More new wave pop rock filler.
Twilight Zone is undoubtedly the best song on the album, but it's still basically a Chris De Burgh song being played by a rock band. Nice guitar solo, though. Chargin Up my Batteries chugs along well enough, but it sits in the shadow of Twilight Zone, while closer Secret" returns the album to that mid-paced new wave/AOR mire.
Overall, I found this a bit dull. Twilight Zone was decent enough, but even then, it's not a song that has me reaching for the download button. 5/10.
Hylton Blignaut: Love this band. Really good album, and Twilight Zone still hits the spot. My favourite Golden Earring albums, however, are the three they released before Moontan. Golden Earring (Wall of Dolls), Seven Tears and Together.
Gus Schultz: I bought this album based on Twilight Zone and having a copy of Moontan. While I often listened to Moontan in its entirety, I generally only played Twilight Zone and not the whole album. In my later years, I started playing it in full and realised what a great album it really is.
From start to finish, it keeps my attention and is on my turntable quite often these days. It's a very well-produced, well-written and recorded LP, although there are some early-80s production techniques there, it doesn't seem to hinder the quality of the sound much.
I find Cut a much more energetic and faster-paced recording than Moontan, which sounds much darker and surreal but is equally fantastic. In this age of streaming, I've discovered how large their discography is and realise I have a lot of listening to do!
RIP George.
Greg Schwepe: So, it seems that FM rock stations here in my slice of rock and roll heaven here in the U.S. will only ever play two songs from your band if you’re from the Netherlands and you’re named Golden Earring. And surprisingly, one of those cuts is from Cut, Golden Earring’s selection for this week’s review. Weird. Who knew?
While Radar Love has long been an FM radio staple here, Golden Earring finally hit the jackpot (and their second radio song) with Twilight Zone from their 1982 release, Cut. At six-and-a-half minutes, Radar Love got airplay. So, the band probably figured “we’d better up the ante and make this song longer than our last radio-played song!”
At just shy of eight minutes, that song was all over FM radio, MTV, and even our little 10-watt college station. You could play anything, but generally, college alternative stuff was played. Twilight Zone was our “one-month zeitgeist song” after someone probably saw the video on MTV, saw Cut in our record library, and then it became “that cool song by that one group” that everyone played.
And back to Cut, listening for the first time, there are other good songs on this album. After the keyboard/horn-like lead-off track The Devil Made Me Do It, next comes the slightly funky plucked guitar sound of Future. Baby Dynamite, Last Of The Mohicans, and Lost And Found come next, and each one keeps my interest.
We then get to Twilight Zone and you realise why it was popular; long, moody intro, drumbeats that keep you drawn in, the vocals, then that long pick-slide that leads you to the chorus. And then you get the breakdown: chugging bass, more drums, and a cool guitar solo. Is this Radar Love II? Could be, but it’s damn good! I can’t remember if radio played this full album cut or if it got edited, but even a shorter version had enough stuff to get its point across.
All in all, a decent set of songs from Golden Earring. Too bad with the long and productive career the band has had, that here in the U.S. they are mainly known for two songs. 8 out of 10 on this one for me.
Pat Taylor: She Flies on Strange Wings got me into the band, and I was never disappointed with later efforts. Twilight Zone is a masterpiece.
Andrew Bramah: Cut is a brilliant, under-the-radar album. Really well produced and written.
Warren Bubb: Cut is far from Golden Earring's best album. Moontan, To The Hilt and Contraband are all superior, but Cut does have the magnificent Twilight Zone, which is worth the price of admission. Amazed that it wasn't a hit single in Britain after it reached the Top 10 in the USA and number one in Holland. There are some other good tracks on the album, but for the uninitiated, I'd recommend listening to one of the albums I mentioned above. Still a great band and sadly underrated. 7/10.
Henry Martinez: I had my doubts about the meeting of music and video at the dawn of the MTV era. Then I saw the video for Twilight Zone. Even decades later, it's still one of the best ones ever made with its mysterious and sexy stranger-in-distress storyline. The song is peak Golden Earring, even though they made better overall albums back in the Radar Love era. But with a lyric like this, they deserve to be fondly remembered: "When the hitman comes, he knows damn well he has been cheated."
Philip Qvist: Say whatever you want about Golden Earring, but a band that was formed in the early '60s, and then managed to keep the same lineup from 1970 until their breakup in 2021, has got to be admired. Their breakup had nothing to do with band dynamics, and everything to do with lead guitarist, vocalist and band leader George Kooymans being diagnosed with ALS, which sadly led to his eventual death a couple of weeks ago.
Despite releasing nearly 30 albums in their lifetime, this Dutch outfit will be remembered by many for two uber hits, Radar Love and Twilight Zone - and probably not much else. It's not necessarily a bad legacy, but it does mean that songs like When The Lady Smiles, Long Blonde Animal, Eight Miles High and She Flies On Strange Wings do get forgotten in the mix.
I think it is probably safe to say that Golden Earring are better known for their singles rather than their albums. And this brings us neatly to their 1982 album Cut, which is a perfect example of one great song overshadowing the rest of the record.
Twilight Zone, their only US Top 10 Single Hit, is the dominant track here, but there are a few other pretty good songs on Cut, such as Last Of The Mohicans, Secrets and Chargin' Up My Batteries.
The album does get off to a sluggish start, but it gets better the longer it goes on. George Kooymans and singer, rhythm guitarist and flute player Barry Hay dominate the songwriting, although bass and keyboard player Rinus Gerritsen does come up with one songwriting credit, while Cesar Zuiderwijk keeps the pace going with his drumming.
It's a decent album, and Twilight Zone is probably worth the price of the album on its own, so I will give this one a 7 this week.
Do yourself a favour and check out Golden Earring's concert in Amsterdam in December 2015. They may have been in their late 60s at the time, but they were pretty tight and certainly rocked that evening - especially Twilight Zone.
Nigel Mawdsley: Golden Earring will always be remembered in the UK for Radar Love, which is a shame as there was a lot more to the band than one song.
Cut simply demonstrates what an awesome rock band Golden Earring were, with phenomenal musicians and songwriters.
The album was a crossroads in the band's career, as I believe their major Dutch and US hit single Twilight Zone was going to be on a George Kooymans' solo album (George also wrote the song) as the band were on the verge of going their separate ways. Thank goodness they didn't!
I seem to recall The UK rock magazine Kerrang! stating that Twilight Zone "...caught you in between headbanging and dancing". Indeed, it is an amazing song with a hypnotic bass guitar riff throughout.
Twilight Zone appeared briefly on the UK chart show Top Of The Pops when the programme reviewed the American Billboard charts. Alas, it wasn't played on major UK radio stations and wasn't a hit in this country.
Twilight Zone wasn't the only great song on Cut. The other single release from the album, The Devil Made Me Do It; The Last Of The Mohicans (should have been a single), Lost And Found and Secrets are my particular standout tracks, with some differences in style. Commercial rock at its very best!
The differences in style were probably due to the fact that George Kooymans and singer Barry Hay wrote a lot of the band's songs as a songwriting duo, but on Cut we only see three collaborations. The rest of the songs are solo writing efforts or a collaboration between bassist Rinus Gerritsen and Barry Hay (Lost And Found).
If you are new to Golden Earring, or only know of the band because of Radar Love, then Cut is a cracking album to start with, but work your way backwards and forwards from Cut to get a better taste of the group. As stated previously, Cut was a crossroads for Golden Earring; their subsequent albums throughout the 1980s just got better!
I don't recall Classic Rock magazine ever doing a major feature on Golden Earring, although one was 'promised' around 20 years ago... hope springs eternal! RIP George Kooymans.
(As a footnote, also have a listen to George's excellent 1987 album Solo and Twilight Zone's superb b-side King Dark.)]
Michael Møller: 7/10 - Very good, but not their best. I'm a huge Golden Earring fan. My top two would be Live & 2nd Live, but my favourite studio albums are very hard to choose. Right now, it would be Grab It For A Second, Switch and Keeper Of The Flame
Final score: 6.90 (44 votes cast, total score 304)
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