I wasw a serious metalhead as a kid and the very idea that a song perceived as "metal"-or even hardrock-was driven by a fucking *syntheseizer*-riff while the guitars are barely nowhere to be found outside of the solo was repulsive to me and I still hate it.

Of course, if viewed more as an 80's pop-tune, i guess it fares better but how could I possibly view it as that? When it comes to Europe, this is more my speed even if Joey's FAR too "clean-scrubbed" vocals prevent it from being genuinely good:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVl8qX23K-M

Also, Europe's last two albums have been surprisingly good with lots of Thin Lizzy, Rainbow, (70's) Whitesnake and Deep Purple-overtones; not something I've ever buy due to sounding too slick and "old fart" but far better than their successful 80's shit... Seems like they got back to their roots while forgetting the bullshit

They were better than Bon Jovi though in terms of fake-heavy; that band were marginally more "metal" than Bryan Adams, journey or Foreigner and yet were perceived as such, shit pissed me off to no ends. Say what you want about Mötley Cure, Twisted Sister etc. but they at least put the big, dumb riffs front-and-center in their music... Those were reasonably "credible" acts for that reason-Europe, Bon Jovi and late period Def Leppard were not...