My favourite Earring album. Everything is right here, music is played at a high level, partly due to the input of keyboardist Robert Jan Stips. More jazz-rock than rock, below I have quoted from the book "Golden Earring in 50 songs" by Maarten Steenmeijer. This book has only been published in Dutch and he describes the genesis of 50 Earring songs, but also briefly describes the LPs. He has a substantiated opinion about "To The Hilt" not as positive as mine but that's how one can think about it.

No expense was spared for the new album, which would be released by MCA in America. The ultra-hip London design agency Hipgnosis was hired for the cover.
For the recording of the new album, the mobile studio of Island (a record label) was transferred from England to the backyard of the Belgian home of George Kooymans.
"Why Me" begins with a simple guitar riff. But unlike "Radar Love" it doesn't spark.
And that applies to almost the entire album "To the Hilt" which saw the light of day in early 1976. The approach resembles that of "Moontan" (a lot of time was taken for the recordings), the set-up is also reminiscent of that of their successful album. The songs are on the long side and most of them culminate in extended instrumental passages.
But the differences are just as striking. It's all a little less catchy. The instrumental parts in particular have a very different atmosphere. Kooymans' guitar work is less solid and less prominent, while Rinus Gerritsen's elementary, experimental and effective keyboard work shines through its absence. George and Rinus gave all the space to newcomer Robert Jan Stips, who filled in with great virtuosity and largely determined the atmosphere of the album. As a result, "To the Hilt" became more jazz-rock than progressive rock.

Robert Jan Stips entered the mobile studio well prepared when the recordings started and according to him that also applies to the others. We did a lot more preparatory work for "To the Hilt", he told a national Dutch newspaper. When we started recording, we knew exactly what we were going to do, he said. According to a provincial Dutch newspaper, Barry Hay had a different view on the matter "We did not know what it would be before the recording". The Earringsinger could talk about that. After monthly improvisation, the other four Earrings had played several songs together and he had to write lyrics at the last minute.

This loose way of working resulted in a daring and interesting album that you will love in the long run, but flames barely did it. The fact that this album cannot simply be put away as a time document is mainly due to "Sleepwalkin'" the only song from "To the Hilt" that the group would keep in the repertoire over the years. It's no less complex than the other songs but crackles and pops as the best Earring songs do. It is mysteriously and at the same time irresistibly swinging from a double-thick bass riff that is distantly reminiscent of "Radar Love". The tempo changes and the dynamics also recall the breakthrough song of the Earring.
But it's all a lot more playful, dynamic and, above all, funky (thanks to Juicy Lucy's Chris Mercer for his ripping sax solo).
The jazz influences are unmistakable, but that is not at the expense of the rock in "Sleepwalking".
Stips are occasionally dominantly present, but that's about it as far as his role in this song is concerned. Kooymans, Gerritsen, Zukiderwijk and Hay are in control here.

The lyrics lack the touch of the genius of "Radar Love" but otherwise "Sleepwalking" was potentially the first full-fledged successor to their world hit.
You could hear that the same band was working here, but musically this was too big a step forward to speak of a repetition exercise. Strangely enough, however, the Americans had no appetite for this complex, but also a swinging and accessible song. It was therefore inevitable that "To the Hilt" also flopped, the album only reached number 156 on the Billboard 200. The consequences were dramatic. The large-scale tour of America that had started at the end of March 1976 had to be interrupted halfway through because the album's yields were far below expectations. At the beginning of May, the group was back in their homeland.

The Earring allowed itself no time to grieve. Robert Jan Stips made a brave decision to leave the group. He wrote an article for a provincial newspaper in which he contradicted the rumours that he had left with an argument. The keyboardist mentions the main reasons that he was a vagabond type and that he couldn't get enough of his own material at the Earring. Later Stips would add that Golden Earring came into its own as a four-man team. George, Rinus, Barry and Cesar had a unique bond with each other, there was no room for a fifth man.
The four gentlemen themselves thought otherwise at the time. No sooner had Robert Jan Stips left guitarist Eelco Gelling was asked to join the group.
But that is a new chapter in the Golden Earring history. Enjoy !!!

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