Alphaville - Forever Young

The 1984 debut, Forever Young, by Alphaville deserves to be viewed as a classic synth pop album. There's no doubting that Germans are behind the crystalline Teutonic textures and massive beats that permeate the album, but vocalist Marian Gold's impressive ability to handle a Bryan Ferry croon and many impassioned high passages meant the album would have worldwide appeal. Indeed both "Big in Japan" and the touching, sad change-of-pace "Forever Young" raced up the charts in multiple continents. Borrowing inspiration from Roxy Music's detached theatricality and Kraftwerk's beats and rhythms, Gold and company hit upon a magic formula that produced here an album's worth of impossibly catchy tunes that could almost serve as pure definitions for the synth pop genre. The hits race straight for one's cranium and embed themselves upon impact. "Big in Japan" feels like a more serious cousin to Murray Head's "One Night in Bangkok," as a slow-pounding beat spars with Gold's desperate voice. "Forever Young," a stark, epic song that would become essential for every post-1984 high school graduation, drips sadness and never fails to cause a listener to nostalgically reflect on life and loss. Outside of these hits, the remainder of the songs rarely falter, mixing emotion, theatre, and of course electronics into a potent, addictive wave of synth euphoria. It's likely every fan could pick his very own favourite of the other should-have-been-hits, but "Fallen Angel" deserves special mention. It begins with spooky, funny warbling and icy keyboards, and then explodes and transforms into a startling, romantic epiphany at the chorus. If its lyrics are a bit goofy or juvenile, it only adds to the heartfelt love the song expresses. Alphaville stick firmly to their synths and sequencers on Forever Young, but they keep things interesting by incorporating motifs from funk, Broadway, Brazilian jazz, and even hip-hop. Even when the band takes itself too seriously, the songs' catchy drive and consistently smart production cover any thematic holes. Forever Young is a technically perfect and emotionally compelling slice of 1980s electronic pop/rock music. It's also a wonderfully fun ride from start to finish.

Animotion - Obsession 12” & Alphaville - Big In Japan 12”

It’s been a while since I posted a couple of 12” singles together, and I’ve been thinking that as 2024 approaches I should be working out some ideas for celebrating one of the most versatile ways of releasing music…yes dear reader, the 12” single. So, testing the water we have two absolute club dance bangers. I can’t really keep them apart, where there is one, the other is also.

Obsession was written by Holly Knight and Michael Des Barres, who recorded the song as a duet in 1983. This original version features spoken-word verses by Des Barres, giving the song a far more sinister feel. Released as a standalone single, it went nowhere, but it became a big hit the following year when it was recorded by Animotion. The song is about a stalker who seems to get more obsessed as the song progresses. At first, it appears he has a serious crush on the girl, but he later becomes more dangerous and intent on "capturing" her. Animotion recorded this song in 1984 and released it as their debut single. It was a good hit for the San Francisco band, which was a six-piece, synth-heavy group with both male and female vocals. 

Big in Japan is the debut single of the German synth-pop band Alphaville from their 1984 album Forever Young. "Big in Japan" and the single's B-side "Seeds" were two of the first three tracks recorded for Forever Young and was released as a single before Alphaville had finished recording the remainder of the album. The timing of the song was influenced by "The Safety Dance", changing the speed to double-time halfway through the song. The theme was based on two friends who were involved in the sordid drug scene of Berlin's Zoo station.