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Nena Like No American Would Recognize !

Jonathan E Justice | 04/11/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I was a kid when Nena first hit the shores of the U.S. with the mega-pop hit, 99 Luftballons. An amazing feat considering Nena sang the original in German! Unfortunately, that's the only song that Americans recognize of Nena's long career. But I've recently rediscovered Nena through this CD. I actually prefer the new versions on this CD to the originals. Best tracks for me are "Fragezeichen", "Leuchtturm", and "Irgendwie, Irgendwo, Irgendwann". The remake of 99 Luftballons is great too, but you'll find songs even better than her signature song (in U.S., at least), and the fact that it's in German does not make any difference. The German language never sounded so sweet even though I don't understand a word of it."

Review By a Philippine Nena Fan Who Understands German

Glenn Garfield Ang | San Juan, Metropolitan Manila Philippines | 11/18/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is the latest Nena Pop Music cd album in the market and is really one of the most wonderful ways to celebrate Nena's 20th year anniversary as a German pop artist! This album is not just another one of those Nena compilations released by Sony Music or Polydor, which just re-release Nena's songs found in earlier Nena albums, but is an album in which Nena covers her popular songs in very unique ways! The first track is a ballad version of "99 Luftballons", which is unique in its own way, for it captures the sense of narrating a story which the lyrics of "99 Luftballons" actually have. The original version is magnificent by itself, but one might lose the sense of story narration because of the various music directions it contains. Hence, this new "ballad" version of "99 Luftballons" is quite wonderful in its own way. Nena had performed both this ballad and the original versions in her 2001 and 2002 live concerts and now it is available here for everyone to listen to. The second track is a duet between Nena and the British pop music singer Kim Wilde, who also happens to be a good friend of Nena, combining the English-language counterpart of the popular Nena hit "Irgendwie, irgendwo, irgendwann" sung by Kim Wilde with the original German-language lyrics of "Irgendwie, irgendwo, irgendwann". Hence, although it is entitled "Anyplace, Anywhere, Anytime", it is, in reality, more of "Anyplace, Anywhere, Anytime/Irgendwie, irgendwo, irgendwann". Kim Wilde and Nena blend together very well in this new version of both songs and this track is really a thrill to enjoy! The third track is a new version of "Nur getraeumt" and it includes a few additional lyrics as well as some deleted ones. I really like this version a lot because it has its own definitive uniqueness within, yet also captures part of what the original offered before. The fourth track is a real gem, for the new version of "Leuchtturm" introduces a whole new set of lyrics and tunes, discarding nearly all of the old lyrics except for the original first stanza, which is only first introduced as the fourth stanza. For those of you who are familiar with the new version of "Leuchtturm" from Nena's CHOKMAH album, I wish to inform you that Nena completely remakes this newer version and I can really appreciate her romantic sense in this newer version, far more than in the original and "Soehne Mannheims" CHOKMAH version. This newer version is absolutely magnificent and Warner Strategic Marketing recognizes this, because it is scheduled to release a second cd single linked to this album, which is entitled LEUCHTTURM( NEU ), on 9 December 2002( the first being 99 LUFTBALLONS( NEU, which was released before this album )! Although there are no new lyrics found in the fifth track, namely the new version of "?( Fragezeichen )", Nena's performance of this new version is also quite wonderful. The sixth track presents another duet, this time between Nena and Joachim Witt, which gave me the first impression of being an audio "Beauty and the Beast" duet, in the sense that Nena's beautiful voice was paired with Witt's beastly one. Although I had to get used to Witt's voice, the resulting duet of the beautiful and beastly voices shows how complementary they are to each other in this new version of "Wunder gescheh'n". Hence, I do like this new version as well. The seventh track, "Jetzt bist du weg", features yet another duet, this time between Nena and her former secret lover, Udo Lindenberg, who also happens to be a German pop/rock music legend. Once again, this another wonderful duet in which the two complement one another. It is also the last duet track in this album. "Lass mich dein Pirat sein", "Es regnet", and "Ich haeng' an dir"( i.e. the 8th, 9th, and 13th tracks, respectively ) are also very nice covers by Nena in the same spirit as the version of "?( Fragezeichen". It just so happens that the original versions of all these four tracks are found in one album ?( FRAGEZEICHEN ), which first came out in 1984. The new version of "Lichtarbeiter" is not only very wonderful in itself, but I also consider it far superior to the original version found in Nena's CHOKMAH album because it is not as disjointed as the original one and can consequently be better appreciated. The new version of "Vollmond" also captures the sense of the original song much better, because one senses the "full moon"( i.e. "Vollmond" in German ) more in this new version than in the original one. The original one has a more attractive tune to it, while this new version complements it by better capturing the sense behind the lyrics, as the new versions of "99 Luftballons" and "Leuchtturm" have also managed to do. Then comes the wonderful new version of "Irgendwie, irgendwo, irgendwann", which is an extremely enjoyable complement to the original version. One can also view this as the complete German-language version of the second track "Anyplace, Anywhere, Anytime" sung by Nena alone. Finally, there is the bonus track, the Soehne Mannheims Ragga Mix of "Carpe Diem". Different Nena fans may have differing opinions about the inclusion of this track, because, if they did purchase the cd single CARPE DIEM, then they already have this track. If not, then it is indeed a bonus. The way I see it, there is no need to be disappointed, for it is, after all, just a "bonus" track. Therefore, I recommend this album very highly not only to Nena fans, but also to other non-Nena fans who really appreciate very good German pop music."