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Alphaville

Another band that burst on the New Wave scene in the mid-80s. Alphaville had one really huge hit that everyone remembers, "Forever Young." However, they had a lot of really good songs. Although I only now have two of their CDs, Alphaville also had a string of releases. Unfortunately, only the first three were released in the U.S., and the next two were released in Germany only although the most recent was just recently released stateside with a few bonus tracks. Of course, I have the European version because I couldn't wait. (sigh)

Alphaville pioneered a new sound in German synthpop. While the standard German sound was pioneered by Kraftwerk and borrows liberally from Depeche Mode of the mid- to late 80s, Alphaville was dreamy, ethereal and artistic in it's own right. Alphaville also has a penchant for very obscure lyrics. I've read the lyrics to some songs dozens of times and come up with dozens of differing interpretations of what they mean, none of them particularly convincing.

Overall the mark Alphaville left on the synthpop scene is unmistakable, and the fact that they're still around putting out music makes them especially attractive.