"This is an excellent CD. Picture Depeche Mode with Peter Murphy on lead vocals. Admittedly, my introduction to this group was hearing "Once in a Lifetime" at a club off their most recent album. POPKILLER was the only one I could find. Even here in NYC, I only found one record store, Generation Records that had any of their CDs. The music is reminiscent of Murphy's early work on "If the World Should Fail to Fall Apart" and "Love Hysteria." They also have Depeche Mode's penchant for disturbing lyrics set to a dark but sometimes playful synthpop style. They've been around for a while but I think they're only just coming into their own and may be a force to reckon with in the first decade of the year 2000."
Excelent synth-pop music
Vinicio Valencia | MIAMI, FLORIDA United States | 03/29/2000
(4 out of 5 stars)
"This is a good synth-pop album. The overall style is not really "modern" (another bands like Alphaville and Depeche Mode had almost same kind of music at their begining), but as I can see, their music style is very, very distinctive from any other band, specially for the leading vocal. My favorite song is "Tender days"."
Great! but this band is hard to come by
Dan Brida | 08/13/1999
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I heard this band in a club in Gainesville and decided to check out one of their cds. This is the one I found and it is a great cd. It would be a good one to check out if you want to check this band out for the first time. I just wish this band's cds wouldn't be so hard to find."
Can they do no wrong?
Kaiti Sukai | Arizona | 01/08/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
"*insert any positive adjective here*
Let's go through it track-by-track, shall we?
Note: I am not wrong on the titles. In the lyrics booklet as well as on their homepage, they are not capitalised on every word.
1. For you I'm bleeding
A haunting intro to an amazing CD. "For I have seen my future, my crying face, no cure I'm longing for... and no healer heals the evil, I sought truth for you, condemned to fail... for you, for you I'm bleeding..." Not my favourite track on the album, but still by no means a "miss".
2. Tender days
Upbeat music, meloncholic lyrics. Catchy tune with unhappy lyrics (hmm, sounds like a lot of their other songs...!). Typical of them, but not necessarily of this album (if that makes any sense). "All the merry dreams we lose... we will never know the truth... no shade of doubt, no need for proof... you're my queen and I'm your fool... remember tender days of youth." I keep hearing new things, every time I play this track... and, of course, singer Peter Heppner shines. But if I start saying that -now-, I'll have to say it on every review.... The longest song on the album.
3. Lovesong
AMAZING. This track is one of my all-time favourite songs. The lyrics capture the emotion perfectly, and his voice does them no disservice... "Wait my dear... no jealousies! Silly thing, you can't know how I feel... come take my hand, I will show you the flame... Burning secrets, burning wishes... your name!" Captivating, addictive melody, lyrics, (voice,) and arrangement. One of the few songs that didn't have to "grow" on me, it was love at first sight, er, listen!
4. Kaufraush
This one hypnotises me. It's very different from any of their other songs (then again, which two are alike?). He even sounds different here... not badly, either (could he sound bad?). "Strange ideas you have been taught, and false prophets got you caught, no way out... this cage is made of thoughts, get more and more."
5. Entropy
I must admit, this one is hardly a favourite of mine. Interestingly enough, it IS a favourite of one of my best friends. Lyrical, it is OUTSTANDING. The words are very poetic and beautiful, but the tune is slow, lacking the hypnotic melody of their better songs. His voice makes up for it, but still I'm not partial to the listen (is that grammatical?). "Cover me, oh noonday sun, so my heart can carry on... a morning new is soon to come, serenity is yet begun"
6. No happy view
Instrumental. Meloncholy, but a pretty good, haunting soundscape. Markus knows what he's doing.
7. Now I fall
This.. is an angry song. He sings deeper than normal (and pulls it off quite nicely..). The vocals are a bit too subdued for my liking, especially when they sound as good as this (yes, I'm female.) "Sometimes I feel so ashamed, to be mercilessly framed, idle hands and eyes that stare, but no escape that I would dare"
8. (The obvious fact that) scars remain (and how to cope with it)
I. Love. This. Song! It has fantastic (as in, like fantasy) music, which fit with the lyrics quite nicely - the refrain is "Mirror mirror, on the wall". I had my laptop at school over the summer, and my roommates fell in love with this song. At the end of the summer, I asked what they would like on a CD, and their first response was "that mirror song! It says mirror mirror on the wall!". "Grapes of wrate are fruits of passion, fulsome hands don't feel repentance, seek the reason, find an answer, why do only scars remain? Mirror, mirror, on the wall..." Probably my favourite on the album, tied with if not higher than Lovesong.
9. Childhood cruel
I'll admit it, this song made me cry the first time I heard it. It bluntly and without endornment evokes bad images from childhood. Some of them are normal childhood experiences that many have experienced ("smoking your first cigarette", "many too expensive drugs", "every morning bed is wet"), some of them, not so much ("wicked father's touch so new", "lazy daddy unemployed", being hit by a car). "Lazy daddy unemployed, drunken tyrant killing time, painful laurel is your gain, childhood cruel".
10. Gates
Self-contradicting, unhappy lyrics set to upbeat, happyish (don't care if it's a word) music. The words are up to your own interpretation, and every time I hear it they mean something completely different. "Alone... but you're feeling right... It's a lie, you're just feeling good because strange men want you to... easy way to run away from yourself... it's a lie, no one gets out of here alive"
11. Auf ein Wort...
Here we go, finally some of their native German! He sings this strongly and forcefully. Note: the lyric book does mess up the end of this song, which might cause confusion if you're trying to sing along, especially if you don't understand German. The line is "In meinem Namen heilige Hure wirst du keine Lügen sprechen" (In my name you holy whore won't tell no lies", but it is written as "In meinem Name wirst du heilige Hure kein Lügen sprechen". "Da ist kein Mensch der nie verdibt, da ist kein Strom der nie versiegt, und Dunkelheit läßt Licht am Horizont zersplittern" ("There is no human who will never be depraved, there is no stream that will never cease to flow, and darkness makes light split on the horizon")
12. Faith
Such a pretty song! The shortest track on the album, it's really just an outro. They include a short track at the end of every album. Of those, this one is probably the best. "I won't care if I must leave today, this world was mine, sometimes, moments blue, and moments true, with you". Short and sweet. Always an easy listen.
- The booklet and art
Thanks for giving us the lyrics this time, guys, I appreciate it, really I do. Especially since you didn't include them with No happy view. But please, please, PLEASE don't try to be cool. The lyrics are all there, with only minor typographical errors (unnecessary capitalisations of nouns, switching of words in "Auf ein Wort"), but they are not in any order, and they are flipped all around. Sideways, upside-down, and a couple right-side up. A pain to work with. The album art is consistent with the "image" of Peter that we get from his lyrics (he painted it). The flip side of the booklet has a picture of the duo with... flowers. For some reason. The CD itself is flashy, overly showy, and in my opinion, downright ugly. Its exterior is completely at odds with the music it hold, so do not be alarmed.
All in all, this is nothing short of yet another masterpiece. Buy this or any other works by Wolfsheim, you will not be disappointed."
Track Listings (12) - Disc #1