Alphaville Album: “Salvation”

Although not as great as their groundbreaking releases "Forever Young" and "Prostitute," "Salvation," like all other Alphaville albums, only improves with age. A great, harder-edged sound is presented by Alphaville with this album, a little more techno than usual. Overall, this is a must have for any Alphaville, Pet Shop Boys, or Erasure fan.

Finding "Flame" on this album is an excellent surprise, like the first time I heard Depeche Mode's "Somebody to love", but "Flame" puts DM to shame. It will make you wish they did more songs in this style.

Speaking of wishes, both versions of this album's "Wishful Thinking" are fast-tempo masterpieces.

The other song that has two versions on this album is "Monkey on the Moon", and gladly so since both are excellent. This song in many ways reminds me of Corsten's Remix of Apoptygmia Berzerk's "Kathy's Song", truly excellent!

Excellent update from the Synth-pop masters. Try it out

There is no discussion as to divinity of the first two albums. And we all know that the later works were somewhat 'uneven'.

Salvation is a swing back to the days of glory (in a kind of 'if it works why f**k with it?' way). While not quite there yet, this album is quite 'playable' (so it will grow on you... in a good sense). You will not find here any smash hits, yet if those songs were released in days of Forever Young or Afternoons In Utopia they could serve as great B-Sides. So as you make your own 'The Best Of' compilation you will be able to use a few of the songs featured here, as not to loose your breath in between 'Sounds Like A Melody' and 'Universal Daddy'.

Please note that this is actually a 1999/2000 re-release for the US market of the original 1997 Salvation album - same stuff + a few new remixes + new artwork.

Bottom Line:

It's good to see the Metropolis label branching out and embracing other genres of music besides darkwave and EBM. It was surprising when I found out that Alphaville would be releasing Salvation stateside through the industrial superlabel. Upon the first listen, I knew that Salvation was going to be a good album. The songs that struck me the most was "Monkey In The Moon", "Guarding Angel" and "Soul Messiah." For those of you who lived and loved the 80's, this album is definately for you.