Customer Reviews

Forever Young

5 star:		(42)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This album remains one of my all-time favorites, and stands as one of the greatest synth-pop albums ever recorded. Many of Alphaville's biggest and best songs are here - "A Victory of Love", "Big In Japan", "Sounds Like A Melody", "The Jet Set" and (of course) the title track. The rest of the album is excellent as well, especially "Summer In Berlin" and "Fallen Angel". Alphaville would not return to an all-synthesizer sound for over 10 years with their "comeback" album Salvation (probably my second favorite AV album) in 1996. I don't think that Alphaville was ever able to top this first effort - despite some other excellent work since then - and they never produced another album as consistent as this one is. From start to finish, it's an extremely satisfying listen. There are few albums I can recommend as highly as Forever Young - this is synth-pop at it's absolute best.

I received this album from a friend in 1989 and could not stop listening to it all summer long. It's full of these fast paced synthesizer songs, and has that cool 80s European new wave sound to it. Big In Japan will always be one of my most favorite songs. Other favorites a include Victory of Love, In the Mood, Sounds Like a Melody, and Lies. My only complaint is that Forever Young is in the slow version. I wish that they had included the faster version instead. Guess I have to get the Singles Collection for that.

If you like A-ha, you'll love Alphaville.

Now each time I put this on it's 1989 again.

I just bought this album for the first time (Feb 2002). I knew Alphaville's two radio hits, "Big in Japan" and "Forever Young" like everyone else. Although I am a fan of 1980s New Wave having come of age in that period, I was never moved to buy anything from Alphaville before. Now that I've listened to the full CD, I've uncovered a gem of an album! The music and lyrics are very consistent; I actually like every song on the CD. You can really feel alot of heart and soul in this CD, which is what I look for. I am so impressed that I just purchased two more Alphaville CDs and am awaiting delivery. If you are a fan of 1980s New Wave, this is a great CD to own. Highly recommended!

I first heard this album while in high school in the late 80's. I was living in Japan at the time (an Air Force brat) so naturally Big In Japan hit a cord. Nothing prepared me though for what is a completely awsome album. I love every track but Sounds Like a Melody is my favorite. I could listen to it over and over again.

The other reviewers have it right so I won't repeat their praises. This is one of the seminal 80's albums, much overlooked which is a shame. Their later releases are all great in their own right, but newcomers to Alphaville should get this one first. It will lay the groundwork for what will hopefully be a fanatic love of this German group. It cooled my teen angst with its hopefull melodies and is ear candy to my now mature ear. Get this, get all the Alphaville albums you can, I doubt you'll regret it. They are still around and cranking out the good stuff. Prostitute is the only one I've had trouble getting into, but as with all there stuff after Forever Young, the more you listen to it, the better it gets. This album gets my highest reccomendation.

There are very few classic New Wave/ Synth/ Pop/ Pop-Rock bands coming from 80s squeezed through the ever-shape-shifting landspace of 90s reaching to stomach-churningly despisable 2000s...IMHO Pet Shop Boys, Depeche Mode and New Order are the untouchables of those bands, in the very same order of talent and musical genius.

Likewise there are some great debut albums that have a special place in my heart from that magical era. One of them is PSB's Please, a magical journey through the eye of a disappointed but cultured materialistic yuppie. Another is, though much more efervescant pop, is AHA's Hunting High and Low...and there is also Alphaville, the creators of that smash worldwide hit Big In Japan. Their debut, Forever Young is a small-scaled masterpiece.

If you were not living in a cave in 80s, you should have already known about Big In Japan, Sounds Like a Melody and the heaven-like Forever Young. They were on air play, on TV, in discos, almost omnipresent songs that shook the hearts and brains of mid-80 youth and teenages. They are simply gorgeous pop songs and will remain so forever.

Two opening songs of the album are also suberp, Summer in Berlin being the outstanding of them. That said, the album slightly loses steam in the middle, only to raise above the clouds with that saintly Forever Young and then the rest flows like a smooth river until it reaches the sea.

Alphaville's debut once more points out that though 80s music might sound cheesy and date, the best of the New Wave/ Pop bands working in that era were doing the music with their hearts in it, with love and passion, to express their worldly feelings, with sophisticated, highly ambigious, but clever intellectual lyrics backed by grandiose and lush synth arrangements...a sharp contrast to current fake, insincere and manufactured musical landscape of today. What a pity!

A bit Bowie, a bit Ultravox, a bit Depeche Mode, a bit of everything 80s, you must enjoy this debut album...It is at your peril if you don't...

Alphaville's 1984 debut, Forever Young, deserves to be viewed as a classic Pop genre album. This is the German group that sings in English. The Alphaville arose in West Berlin in 1982. The album's name was taken from the title of movie made by Jean-Luc Godard from 1965 where Alphaville was a metropolis of a galaxy far away from "external countries" for millions of illuminated years. The countries were dominated by a totalitarian regime and the supercomputer Alpha 60 governed (Amazon.com). The creators of this group are Martin Golden, Bernard Lloyd and Ricky Echolette. Forever Young, their first album, shot to number one on the music lists around the whole world, with ten singles on the track; each of them completely different. Most of the songs are fast paced lyrical and cause a listener to nostalgically reflect on life and loss seen through the eyes of a West German young person. "...Oh, we're moving, we're falling, we step into the fire"("Sounds Like a Melody").

When I heard about that album while I was in high school it became the best one, which I could listen to non-stop. Today, the songs still sound simultaneously old and wonderfully fresh to me. The very first track which I bought was never hidden in archives of live recordings; it always played on radio stations or in my CD recorder when I was driving my car. Martin Golden, the vocalist, indeed has a gold voice- extremely clear, deep in a few moments, very lyrically superb and joined with these marvelous songs. Everything is framed with splendid sounds, which are simply made for each other. Everything goes smooth; composed music sentences, dialogues, conversations which I can listen to forever. Every piece on this track is a small masterpiece of art. Trying to think of a well-known comparison is hard. I remember tuneful creations from the 80's such as Eurythmics, Culture Club, A-ha, and Depeche Mode. These sounds, which are great in their own, did not catch me as strong as Alphaville did. On the other side, the text helps to understand the difficult situation of young people in Europe struggling with unstable future. "...Everything is an interview/And nothing is really new...". The price is not high- just $11.99, which is very fair considering the powerful melody and emotions.

My favorite songs with amazing sounds, beats, lyrics and great vocals are "Forever Young", and " Big in Japan", but also very pleasantly I can listen to " Fallen Angel," " Sounds Like a Melody," " Lies," "The Germany with Love," "Summer in Berlin," " In the Mood." " The Jet Set" and "Victory of Love". The release starts out with "A Victory of Love" which creates interesting and imagined feelings about heaven, angels and hope." Summer in Berlin" has a nostalgic aftertaste of living in Germany. "Big in Japan," with its fast paced, awesome electronic music was really a big hit and together with a great single "Forever Young" raced up the charts in multiple continents. In "Forever Young," a very interesting stanza is:" Hoping for the best /But expecting the worst /Are you going to drop the bomb or not???" where we can see insecurity and fear in the eyes not only in a German young person, but we can also refer to us, living in the world full of hate and unsteady "tomorrows," because the war still exists. "The Germany with Love" has a message of an emigrant person to his country, which was divided into two parts that wanted peace. With really great bass is "Fallen Angel," a song about being in love with an angel. The two songs that follow," In the Mood" and "Lies," are powerful ballads about life full of emotion and power. The music in "Sounds Like a Melody" reminds me a Jean Michael Jarre with electronic, distinct and original melodies. And the last song "The Jet Set" is fast paced and invites the young man to be protagonist of sorts in life. "We are on the run, we know where to go, we got ticket for the midnight show..."

However, one small gripe I have is that the sound quality of the CD is not great. This is because it is one of the early CD's and the sound is perhaps not quite as clear and resonant as one would desire. While listening to the "Victory of Love," we have to adjust the volume, and then deal with the hiss on the speakers. Also some verses are super fast and often hard to understand but the chorus will cause to sing along very quickly. Moreover, I am disappointed because Alphaville's music is not played on American radio as often as it should be.

In brief, the best example of the album, Forever Young is the fact that it has never gone away and secondly it is astounding that the fans are from 15 to 50 years old; according to what one of the fans said: "...This is the album which I heard on the CD recorder of my mother and I can not imagine myself without those marvelous songs...".

For them very important are not only music but emotions and feelings, too. I have no doubt that everyone who listens to this CD will be pleased, because this album fascinates the listener with music, simplicity, wisdom and light language. "...Any of fans of 80's synthesizer-based music are likely to enjoy this album...".So, everyone who will listen to this album, will start to like it, because it is still, like in eighties, explain the meaningful life and deserves the highest recommendations. Nowadays, I notice that Alphaville has been forgotten a little bit, but I am sure that after reading my CD review someone, someday will buy, will listen to and will like it forever.

What can I say? This is exactly the kind of music I know I've loved my whole life, and now that I've found it, I can't stop playing it.

I'm always looking for more New Wave to add to my collection, and for some reason, I always overlooked Alphaville. Honestly, I never liked 'Forever Young' enough to pick up the whole album. And then Napoleon Dynamite came out, and I couldn't desociate Alphaville from that movie. But then I discovered that one of the primary influences of Alphaville is Ultravox. I was intrigued, because I love Ultravox.

So then I picked up Forever Young and I entered the most fabulous musical high I have ever experienced, and I still haven't come down. Everything I love in music is present, enticing and beautiful melodies, lush synthesizers, gorgeous vocals, and a general sense of absolutely infectious epic melodrama. It's like Ultravox with frosting and then some... It's the kind of music that you want to blast over the stereo when you're alone at home, to sing to as loud as you can when you're driving, to listen to endlessly on your headphones before you go to bed, the kind of music you don't want anyone else to know you love, which makes you love it even more.

As for individual tracks, my personal favorite is 'A Victory of Love,' a hauntingly whimsical New Romantic song. Brilliant. Other favorites include 'Summer in Berlin,' which seems particularly Ultravox-esque to me, smooth and enchanting, another great New Romantic track, then 'Sounds Like Melody,' 'Big in Japan,' . . . Well, there's really no point in naming off every track on the album.

Anyhow, you will not be disappointed. Get this album, and then all the other ones too. All great. It's rather sad that when people remember eighties music, they always overlook Alphaville. It's a shame because they're freaking incredible.

Most people only know Big In Japan, but this debut album by a little known band from Germany contained far better songs than this - although that's not to say BIJ was bad in any way.

I first came across Alphaville by fluke whilst living in Germany. I used to go down to the local record shop and just look around and buy whatever took my fancy, normally whatever was in the UK charts at the time. At No.1 that week was a Group dreesed in typical New Romantic snoody things. I still hadn't heard the music, but the single cover sold me and I was not disappointed. Whilst hiking down the river Weser later that summer I heard Sounds Like A Melody on a number of juke boxes, and that was that. SLAM easily surpassed BIJ and the album contained more gems.

Standout tracks are A Victory Of Love, Forever Young (of course), Summer In Berlin, To Germany With Love and Fallen Angel.

Despite the comment in the editorial, Alphaville never went away and have released a number of outstanding albums, notably Prostitute (my all-time favourite) and Salvation.

This band is one of the Internets best-kept secrets.

The album received huge airplay in Singapore when i was about 18 years old and at the time i was amazed at how all its tracks were perfect! Each track is a once in a lifetime musical composition that has intelligent lyrics and crazily brilliant performances. Alphaville certainly made their mark and one has to buy this record! Oh the poignancy of "Forever Young " And the intrigue of "Summer In Berlin".

I have loved this album (now CD) since i was about 15 years old so it goes without saying how passionate I am about it. But what is funny is how I had became really close friends with a co-worker of mine about 5 years ago and we had a big discussion on music one night, he is a product of the "Hip-Hop" revolution and was intent on standing firm in his "hoodness" UNTIL I played him this CD. we sat and "partook" and listened to the whole thing from beginning to end. He was in complete shock that there was ever music made that sounded like this. Now of course that CD has become a must listen to which he claims that even though he has absolutely no idea what they are talking about, it makes him feel like a thinker. It's the same with me, this CD has the ability to make me feel like a smarter person. AMAZING ! ! !