This is really GOOD.I mean, I knew he was talented, but this is entertaining, versatile, and relatively sophisticated.
― The GZeus (The GZeus), Saturday, 4 November 2006 15:30 (seventeen years ago) link
Einzelhaft is probably the best, and fits in nicely with that whole NDW scene.
― Grell (Grell), Saturday, 4 November 2006 18:06 (seventeen years ago) link
In the case of Falco, I would say some of the singles were great, but he was hardly an album act of note.
― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Saturday, 4 November 2006 18:53 (seventeen years ago) link
― The GZeus (The GZeus), Sunday, 5 November 2006 16:02 (seventeen years ago) link
Hadn't seen this before, some mean Wien shit:
― jim, Thursday, 9 October 2008 00:44 (fifteen years ago) link
Einzelhaft is such a great album. Fits in nicely with the whole Depeche Mode/Yaz/Duran Duran spectrum of New Wave
― frogbs, Monday, 3 October 2011 19:08 (twelve years ago) link
Not to mention the Nena/Trio/Alphaville/Peter Schilling spectrum of New Wave
http://www.emusic.com/listen/#/music-news/spotlight/new-wave-uber-alles-nena-falco-trio-and-the-80s-german-invasion/
― xhuxk, Monday, 3 October 2011 19:51 (twelve years ago) link
when i started out as a college radio DJ, at age 17, the older guys at the station forced me to play the extended remix of 'rock me amadeus' to 'test the speakers,' as a sort of hazing ritual
― geeta, Monday, 3 October 2011 19:53 (twelve years ago) link
Damn, had no idea that Nena stuck it out so long. IIRC Falco was in the scene for about 20 years but yeah I didn't even think that he was part of that scene with Trio and Schilling. I still remember George Kranz well.
― frogbs, Monday, 3 October 2011 20:07 (twelve years ago) link
Jeanny is absolutely chilling.
― Mohombi Khush Hua (ShariVari), Monday, 3 October 2011 20:11 (twelve years ago) link
so is the song sung from the view of the murderer/rapist? my rudimentary German only can translate so much but I know there's a lot of "you and me, we need each other, they will find us"
― frogbs, Friday, 7 October 2011 15:51 (twelve years ago) link
Indeed it is.
― Siegbran, Saturday, 8 October 2011 20:51 (twelve years ago) link
Yes, it's often thought to have been inspired by Austrian serial killer Jack Unterweger, although i think Falco always denied it.
I have a bangin' Eurodance cover by Polish glamour model Mandaryna somewhere. Doesn't really convey the same sense of menace.
― Mohombi Khush Hua (ShariVari), Saturday, 8 October 2011 21:05 (twelve years ago) link
Just picked up the "Falco Symphonic" release and it's really, really good! essentially it's a live album with a medium-sized orchestra playing all the keyboard/synth parts, though apparently there was a bunch of reconstruction involved. Outside of a few orchestral bits to kick off the tunes, the arrangements are pretty faithful to the original bits, they're still pop songs, just with a bigger sound. IMO Falco's never really worked with a great producer or arranger, all his stuff sounds very much of its time. So hearing these songs done with more inscrutable instrumentation highlights the fact that hey, these tunes were actually quite good!
― Estimate the percent chance that a whale has ever been to the moon? (frogbs), Tuesday, 10 April 2012 16:13 (twelve years ago) link
oh shit i had forgotten this guy was dead
― DJ Mooncup (NickB), Friday, 5 October 2012 21:44 (eleven years ago) link
please can a mod add RIP to the thread title?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HE576lQb6w
― Three Word Username, Friday, 5 October 2012 22:01 (eleven years ago) link
i enjoyed that, thank you!
― Superphysical Resurrection (NickB), Friday, 5 October 2012 22:06 (eleven years ago) link
It's a pretty amazing song, and the only thing in his solo career that makes it at all plausible that he came out of the art rock scene. The lyrics are amazing.
― Three Word Username, Friday, 5 October 2012 22:17 (eleven years ago) link
He goes into the streetwon't say where he's headedHis brain is full of heavy metaland his liver is fucked upHis veins are openand he stinks of formaldehydebut that doesn't bother himbecause he's in Vienna
All of Viennais on heroin todayAll of Viennais dreaming on QuaaludesAll of Viennareaches for the Cocaine(especially in the Ball season)You can tell all of Viennais so beautifully fucked up.
Cocaine and CodeineHeroin and Quaaludesfuck us upup up upup up up up up.
There will come a daywhen the Danube will rise over its banksThe goldfish fiddle in U4 [the Viennese Club 54]Bruno [Kreisky, the Austrian Chancellor] will have long since made it to dry landSo we'll all learn to swimWe're floating alreadyAll the devils in white robespure as the driven snow.
― Three Word Username, Friday, 5 October 2012 22:46 (eleven years ago) link
Studio 54, translating makes me stupid, sorry.
― Three Word Username, Friday, 5 October 2012 22:47 (eleven years ago) link
had never thought much about this song until I noticed the "Cocaine and Codine" line. givin Einzelhaft another listen now, what an incredible album this is
― frogbs, Friday, 5 October 2012 23:27 (eleven years ago) link
I now think that his follow-up single to Der Kommissar, Junge Römer, is really fantastic, although it is a ridiculously slavish Bowie pastiche, is pretty fantastic too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0ciGOnGy8I
― Three Word Username, Wednesday, 29 October 2014 19:12 (nine years ago) link
fantastic pretty fantasticc beep beep boop syntax error TWU BOT SHUTDOWN.
― Three Word Username, Wednesday, 29 October 2014 19:13 (nine years ago) link
"Data de Groove" - now there was a single
― Abstinence Hawk (frogbs), Wednesday, 29 October 2014 20:06 (nine years ago) link
I had no idea that this guy had such a huge and varied career until last year, while visiting Vienna, my German friend took me through his whole catalogue. Falco seems like kind of a religion in Wien, we visited his grave and everything - I had no idea he was held in such esteem in the Deutsch-speaking world, given he was known for novelty hits in the Anglosphere.
― Branwell with an N, Thursday, 13 August 2020 15:41 (three years ago) link
only discovered this one recently - chorus is a bit shit tbh, but the verses are flipping boss:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPcsuHDkK9E
― Defund the indefensible (NickB), Thursday, 13 August 2020 15:47 (three years ago) link
Aw, I quite liked the chorus, too.
My favourite ones always seem to be the very self-referential ones where he tells us how terrible and corrupt and awful things are in Wien, while making it clear at the same time, that Wien is the most excellent, badass and elegant place in the world?
― Branwell with an N, Thursday, 13 August 2020 16:06 (three years ago) link
the Symphonic album (a reconstructed version of a concert he did with a full orchestra) is really great
I have the first album on vinyl, it's quite good though very Bowie-esque
― frogbs, Thursday, 13 August 2020 16:53 (three years ago) link
The only song that sounds anything like Bowie is Helden von Heute, which is a very conscious, knowing joke.
― Branwell with an N, Thursday, 13 August 2020 17:28 (three years ago) link
maybe I ought to relisten to it then, I remember liking it a lot
― frogbs, Thursday, 13 August 2020 17:44 (three years ago) link
okay I forgot how goofy most of this album is. wish I spoke better German cuz I feel like a lot of these lyrics might be pretty funny
― frogbs, Thursday, 13 August 2020 18:25 (three years ago) link
like Falco's delivery on half these tracks is making me crack up without even knowing what he's saying
― frogbs, Thursday, 13 August 2020 18:32 (three years ago) link
Yeah, the lyrics are often quite witty and urbane. That was definitely kind something that opened up Falco to me, was listening to it with a native German speaker - I have basic tourist German - but she explained a lot of the jokes and references (there’s a bit of Austrian and German politics in places).
Also, apparently Germans find Viennese accents adorable, which was not a thing I’d really considered before!
― Branwell with an N, Thursday, 13 August 2020 18:35 (three years ago) link
ok if "Einzelhaft" means solitary confinement why does the song sound like the Village People
― frogbs, Thursday, 13 August 2020 18:58 (three years ago) link
listening to "Emotional" right now god the title track is so fucking funny
― frogbs, Wednesday, 6 October 2021 01:44 (two years ago) link