Prisoners in Paradise

For the song, see Prisoners in Paradise (song).
Prisoners in Paradise
Cover art by Mark Wilkinson
Studio album by
Europe
Released23 September 1991
Recorded1990–1991
StudioEnterprise Studios, Burbank, California
GenreGlam metal, hard rock
Length54:57
LabelEpic
ProducerBeau Hill
Europe chronology
Out of This World
(1988) 		Prisoners in Paradise
(1991) 		1982–1992
(1993)
Singles from Prisoners in Paradise
  1. "Prisoners in Paradise"
    Released: September 1991
  2. "I'll Cry for You"
    Released: December 1991
  3. "Halfway to Heaven"
    Released: March 1992
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Classic Rock[1]
The Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal3/10[2]
Record Collector[3]

Prisoners in Paradise is the fifth studio album by the Swedish rock band Europe. 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.

The band's guitarist Kee Marcello states in his 2011 biography that Bob Rock 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.[4] 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 and "Bring it All Home" on Bag of Bones. Most of the unreleased songs down below can be found on YouTube as demo recordings. Two of the previously unreleased tracks, "Wild Child" and "I Don't Know How to Love No More"[5] were re-recorded for Kee Marcello's 2016 solo album "Scaling Up" on Frontiers Records.[6]

  1. ^ Elliott, Paul (February 2010). "Europe – Out of This World/Prisoners in Paradise". Classic Rock. No. 141. p. 92.
  2. ^ Popoff, Martin (1 August 2007). The Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal: Volume 3: The Nineties. Burlington, Ontario, Canada: Collector's Guide Publishing. p. 143. ISBN 978-1-894959-62-9.
  3. ^ Jones, Tim (June 2013). "Europe – Out of This World / Prisoners in Paradise". Record Collector (415). Retrieved 19 October 2016.
  4. ^ Marcello, Kee; Johansson, Stefan (8 June 2012). Rockstjärnan Gud glömde (in Swedish). Sweden: Månpocket. ISBN 978-917-2-32258-5.
  5. ^ "Album review: KEE MARCELLO – Scaling up".
  6. ^ "Kee Marcello släpper nytt album – Rocknytt". 21 February 2016.