Scooter – Jumping All Over The World

If anyone is looking for the box that contains the hand-signed card, I have two boxes - one factory sealed and one that I opened to take photos.

Scooter ceased to exist for me after they decided to switch to this apalling jumpstyle genre. All the airiness and vividness are gone, the aggressively pounding beat and claps with every drum hit are a gigantic turn off for me. And on top of that, half of the melodies are ripped off from other songs. And even if that doesn't manage to drive you far away from this record, the high-pitched squirrel vocals should finally do the trick effectively. Just listen to the songs like "Break It Up" from their second album "Wicked", "Leave In Silence" from "The Age Of Love" or "Eyes Without A Face" from the "No Time To Chill" and prepare to get shocked that H.P. Baxxter actually CAN sing, and not just like any singer, but he can do it with exceptional charisma and sensitivity. At times, he actually sounds a bit like Marian Gold from Alphaville, and believe you me, that is a high compliment indeed. It's a freaking crime, that he decided to stop the singing, and focus on yelling and adding those awful, childish, sequencer-produced vocals to their songs.

When I heard this album for the first time, I was frightened, how much Scooter changed their style - too much HPV and poppy melodies, jumpers instead of chicks in the videos... But as the years go by, I must it, that this album is very fresh and cool after all the previous work. Band wasn't afraid of radical change. Composition of the tracks isn't so much complicated, it's very easy to listen and also very addictive, which is more attractive to common listeners. This album is not taken so seriously by the band , I feel, it's just about happy and catchy melodies and spreading good mood. Yeah, sounds a bit repetitive, but that's the reason, why is the record so complex and well done (intro and outro make this effect as well). One of the best albums I've ever heard.

Another great release, one of the best when it comes to Hardcore/ maquina musics, very powerfull, extremely alived, perfect to dance and to sing along, the cd2 is also a generous offer with classic tunes. Highly recomended!!!

The absolute masterpiece on this album is Lighten Up The Sky, fantastic hardstyle track, cut in two halves with sweet melody, then pumping forth as none of other Scooter songs on this album. The reworked version with HP's vocals on Jumping All Over The World - Whatever You Want, is not worth a comment.

What the hell happened to Scooter? This album is terrible. I'm not referring to Disc 2 as that contains many classics but whats going on with Disc 1? A slight change of direction is understandable but the fusion of Jumpstyle/Hardstyle with the signature Mickey Mouse vocals and melodies/harmonies just doesn't work. They've tried to jump (excuse the pun) on the Jumpstyle/Hardstyle bandwagon in an attempt to be "down with the kids". Jumpstyle/Hardstyle, in my opinion, is fairly minimalistic and Scooters 'touches' only serve to make it sound far too busy and messy. Jumpstyle/Hardstyle often uses the bass 'kick' to convey, again, a minimalistic bassline (by tuning the kick) but Scooter attempt to use it as they would with a traditional bassline, which sounds odd to say the least... especially as it sounds like they've used a sampled kick which when pitched up or down (to create a bassline) is not timestretched resulting in many parts of the tracks sounding completely out of time!

"Neverending Story" starts off promising with the tried and tested Scooter formula but then it all goes horribly wrong. They go far, far too over the top with the constant clap on every beat... and ruin the breaks which could have actually been quite pleasant to listen to.

"The Question..." is what were they thinking? A bit of Technohead's 'I Wanna Be A Hippy', a sample from Real to Reel's 'I Like to Move It', a sample from DJ Kicken's Louder [DJ Jacky Jump Mix] and the cliche'd 'Woo. Yeah. Woo. Yeah' from way back in the late 80's/early 90's. Running out of idea's or something Scooter? Another track that ends up sounding badly sequenced courtesy of the roaming bassline/kick

"Enola Gay" despite the repeated claims of 'Hardstyle' (baby) and, once again, the constant clap on every beat it is absolutely nothing like what I would term Hardstyle. Then there's the blatant use of the 'Hardstyyyyyyyle' sample from the NEXUS VSTi expansion pack? Oh, and come on Scooter... ELO's Enola Gay has been done to death!!

"And No Matches" is one of the better tracks on Disc 1 and is a little more like what we expect from Scooter... Good old cheesey dance with the typically stupid vocals: 'Coffee is not my cup of tea'

"Cambodia" is a poor rework of a Vorwerk track with the same title, only Scooter have gone and ruined it. Shame really as Cambodia was one of the first Jumpstyle tracks I heard and is quite possibly my favourite.

"I'm Lonely" sounds far to similar to Frozen Flames by Jekyll & Hyde... Well, apart from the break down which at least benefits from not having that annoying clap on every beat.

"Whistling Dave" Tetris? Oh please Scooter, you really were struggling with this album weren't you?!

"Marian" is obviously from the 80's bless her... There's nothing else that would explain this track. An 80's sounding electro track with a modern house beat, quite frankly a bizarre choice for inclusion on this album.

"Lighten up the Sky" actually sounds like a proper Hardstyle track but oddly suffers from the lack of Scooter signature elements that make their tracks instantly recognisable. Its a good track I guess but it could have been written by anyone.

Actually, I'm bored now... and so are you probably. So I'm not going to bother reviewing the rest of the tracks! It just seems like Scooter are trying to be cool when their unashamedly cheesey and happy sound was all their own and made them cool to begin with! Sorry for such a negative review but this album falls far short of Scooters previous works.