Background
Alphaville is a relatively underrated synthpop outfit that
achieved territorial success with their timeless debut album “Forever Young”.
The talented trio consisted of the enigmatic lead singer Marian Gold and
the other members were the angelic Bernhard Lloyd and the pensive looking Frank
Mertens. The band was initially named
“Forever Young” before changing to “Alphaville” which was possibly inspired by
the science-fiction movie with the same name.
This ultra modern approach was apparently quite the trend during the
eighties especially with the advent of the Futurist/ New Romantic movement that
was so prominent early in the decade.
The band was formed in 1982 by Marian Gold and Bernhard
Lloyd after meeting at the music project Nelson community. They then subsequently recorded the first
demo of the title track as Alphaville.
The album was released in autumn 1984 and produced by Colin Pearson,
Wolfgang Loos and Andreas Budde.
Unfortunately, Frank Mertens left the band and was replaced by the more
earthy-looking yet equally talented Ricky Echolette who played a major role in
the follow-up album “Afternoons in Utopia”.
Singles released
“Big in Japan” was the debut single which was inspired by
the phrase used to describe Western bands who are popular in Japan yet unknown
in their native country. It achieved
major success in countries such as Switzerland, Germany and Sweden and even
reached the number one spot on the Hot Dance Club Play in December 1984. The song has a unique oriental style
introduction showcasing typical ingenuity and technical wizardry that became
common place in that era.
The dance orientated “Sounds Like A Melody” was the next
single to be released on 14 May 1984 which managed to top the Italian
charts. The song structure is quite
phenomenal as it focused on vocal melodies with alternating stanzas. It also includes an 8-bar instrumental
synthesizer melody at the beginning, followed by a verse-chorus-verse structure
and then repeats for almost one minute to the end creating a euphoric synth
experience even by modern standards.
The emotionally charged “Forever Young” made quite an
impression in Scandinavia and the German Speaking countries in Europe. It failed, however, to reach the American Top
40 even after three separate US single releases. This is probably the strongest track on the
album and the synth instrumental at the end is sheer emotion translated in
electronic bliss. Don’t forget to check
out the eerie intro as well.
The upbeat “Jet Set” was release in March 1985 which is a
light-hearted take on modern greed and the end of the world. This is a superb final track to the album.
“Victory of Love” which is the first track on the album also
appears on the greatest hits album First Harvest but according to my research
this was not officially a single.
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