Golden Earring was one of the most successful groups to come from Holland ever. They started up already back in 1965 as a pop-group, but moved gradually more toward hard rock. "Moontan" was their best album, consisting of lengthy tracks where their boogie-based hard rock was fused with progressive elements. Several passages on the album includes flute, strings, brass and moog, and this together with the length and complexity of the songs makes this a lot more than your average boogie hard rock. The only exceptions are the straightforward and light rockers "Suzy Lunacy (Mental Rock)" and "Just Like Vince Taylor". The best-known song here is of course their signature track "Radar Love" and this is one of the classic rock songs of the '70s. It's basically a quite simple hard rocking tune, but it also features an instrumental mid-part with moog and horns. The opening number "Candy's Going Bad" is another hot rocker, but the band again shows their taste for sophistication as the track slows down to a very relaxed and pleasant instrumental-part at the end with a quite weird moog-solo. "Vanilla Queen" is for me the highlight on the album. It starts as a melodic song before it turns into a very tasty instrumental part where the electric guitar plays a beautiful solo over the acoustic chords that drives the track forward, and then finally builds up to grandiose and symphonic finale with lots of strings and powerful brass. Absolutely superb. "Are You Receiving Me" is another winner, featuring a great jam in the middle with atmospheric flute and more great brass, and the whole thing just increase in intensity and energy before it finally returns to the main theme of the song. "Moontan" can be counted as a classic of '70s rock with progressive tendencies, and comes highly recommended for everyone who likes that kind of stuff!
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