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However, I was absolutely thrilled to hear this new stuff from Alphaville. Some of the songs on it were absolutely incredible, as I was to find when I ordered the German import CD (there is now an American version licensed through A Different Drum, but my early review of the German version sat there for about a year.) The first track, "Inside Out" is a slowish ballad, with a little bit of acoustic guitar, and beautiful Marian vocals, like you'd expect. "Monkey In The Moon" is a relaxed dance song, with typical Alphaville mysterious lyrics, and a slow, thoughtful start. An even more club-friendly version was recently released on the Mix, Rinse and Spin Volume 2 CD sampler. One of my favorite songs from the very beginning is "Guardian Angel" with a more typical darkly atmospheric quality, and a very retro-classic Alphaville sound. It is extremely fast tempo and danceable. The same is true for "Wishful Thinking" which lacks the classic Alphaville sound, but which is still a very good song nonetheless, with a more techno-inspired dance beat. This was also the first CD single to be released in conjunction with the album. "Flame" is another single, but is an extremely slow ballad written in a more pop fashion with only a touch of "New Wave" in it. "Point of Know Return" is more synthy and artistic for a ballad, but I wonder if the title is a clever play on words or just plain bad grammar. "Control" is also very classic-Alphaville, with the nasal vocals that Marion used often on the first album. Again, it's a very high energy dance song, and it shows off Marion's vocal range as well. It's probably, along with "Guardian Angel" my favorite song on the album, maybe because both of those two have such retro sounds to them, although updated somewhat with higher bpm rhythms and more complex programming. "Dangerous Places" sounds a little bit like it wants to verge into Eurodisco territory. It's plenty dark, and has very nice synthwork, but Marion is no rapper, that's for sure. "Spirit of the Age" features some rapping-like singing as well, which I'm not too fond of, but it's got an even better dance beat, and the falsetto chorus is pretty atmospheric and nicely done. Next we come to "Soul Messiah" another one of the better songs here, a kind of relaxed dance song, ala "Monkey in the Moon." "New Horizons" features some almost ambient-like bleeps, some acoustic guitar and odd Bono-like vocals on the chorus. It's fairly slow, again, and I'm not really convinced on the merits of that particular fusion. The slow finale, "Pandora's Lullaby," is also a bit different from Alphaville of the past. It's got retro sounding lyrics, very nice orchestral touches, and a melancholy rather than dark atmosphere that, curiously, remind me quite a bit of the old sixties song "To Sir, With Love" or other songs in that genre.
Overall, the album is interesting, and I'm delighted that Alphaville is still carrying on. It seems to me, though, that many of the songs contain too many diverse stylistic elements and influences, and none of those songs impressed me as much as the straight-up stuff that sounds like it could almost be vintage Alphaville, only a little faster and more complex. Although I appreciate an artist's need to experiment here and there, almost the entire album is experimental here and the end result is mixed. As I said earlier, I'm very excited that Alphaville is still around, and I think this album has some high quality music on it, but it doesn't end up staying in my CD player as long as it could if it had more songs like "Control" or "Guardian Angel."
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