Not bad, not great
Rutabaga | 03/11/2009
(3 out of 5 stars)
"Released one year after his untimely death, the somewhat questionably-titled "Falco Live Forever" captures Johann "Falco" Hölzel and his tight touring band at the height of his European popularity on the 1986 "Emotional" tour, in front of an amped and adoring Berlin audience (while "Emotional" didn't dent the US charts, this album followed the massive worldwide hit "Falco 3"-- the one with "Rock Me Amadeus"-- and went #1 in both Austria and Germany, and top-10 in 2 other European countries, with singles that charted in an impressive 13 European countries (including a couple of #1's). I really wanted to love this-- Falco was a showman, and his concerts were always entertaining-- but I'm giving this album a qualified thumbs-up for a couple reasons, only some of which are performance related:
1. My biggest beef is that the quality of the live recording is merely so-so. While the liner notes indicate that it has been "sweetened" afterwards in the studio, it still sounds slightly murky and distant.
2. The packaging screams "cheap" and "rush job," and its release date of 1999 would indicate that the record company was trying to cash in on Falco's posthumous popularity. Come on Warner Bros., the man sold over 40 million albums, maybe you could spend more than $20 on an intern with Photoshop to create the album cover?
3. While kudos should be given for a fairly equal representation of songs from all of his releases to date, the fact remains that by this point Falco had only released 4 albums... count this as a plus and add a half-star if you're someone who cares only for early period ("Der Kommissar," "Amadeus") Falco though.
4. The band puts in a workmanlike performance, Falco seems to be having fun, and the arrangements are all quite good-- but the spark is definitely missing on this one. This isn't necessarily a slight, as Falco and his fine band on an off night were good enough to upstage most groups... but I wish that another concert had been recorded and put to disk instead of this one. This lack of oomph _may_ simply be a function of the so-so live recording however.
In the end, there are other, better vehicles which capture the live Falco experience out there, the gimmicky but good "Symphonic" DVD (released in 2008) which has all of Falco's hits played by his band AND the Vienna Orchestra (note that the CD of the same name has only a few of these live cuts from that particular concert, the rest are re-creations in the studio). That concert film/CD is an excellent, clear live recording and was captured in 1994, so there are songs from his later albums included on it. The 2009 release "Donauinsel Live" (available on both CD and DVD) is the best of the bunch though-- great recording, songs from his entire catalog to date (recorded in 1993), hot hometown Vienna crowd (100,000 or so) and a backing band that's totally in the zone. Still, for Falco fans longing for another taste of this quirky and talented performer, any new material (including concerts) is always appreciated-- and "Live Forever" qualifies as "good enough.""
Track Listings (13) - Disc #1