Legend for a Moment
When Elke and I talk about old music favorites, the Neue Deutsche Welle (NDW) always comes up. This was an exciting moment in German music when local bands with German lyrics adopted new wave and post-punk from Britain. Before that, the 60s and 70s-style Schlager Musik (Hit Music) ruled the airwaves – a genre that did not resonate with young people anymore.
In my memory, the entire 80s were dominated by the NDW. In reality, the core NDW lasted only a few years and was quickly superseded by music industry-sponsored German-language pop and rock music. In fact, I bought most of my NDW records when the original bands were not active anymore.
One band, in particular, epitomizes the real NDW: Ideal. The four-piece of Annette Humpe, Ernst Ulrich Deuker, Eff Jott Krüger, and Hansi Behrendt from Berlin was innovative in many ways. They had multiple lead singers, even though keyboarder Annette sings the best-known songs. The sound was guitar-heavy post-punk with lots of keys and pop elements – something that became the blueprint of the more commercial NDW later in the decade.
A big part of the appreciation for the NDW came from hearing fresh German songs, so it may be hard to grasp the complete picture if you don’t speak the language. However, even from the music alone, it is fascinating how Ideal crafted songs at the crossroads of Schlager, post-punk, and synth-pop.
Check out the playlists on Spotify, Apple Music, or YouTube with 10 Ideal songs from 1980 to 1982.
Berlin: Nobody misses the Cold War, but listening to this song induces a certain nostalgia for life in divided Berlin and establishes the city as the center of the NDW. (In reality, the acts came from various regions all over Germany.)
Eiszeit (Ice Age): I have already written about Eiszeit, and Elke put it last week into the glamglare favorite playlist two weeks ago. It is a defining song of the NDW.
Monotonie: This song refers to the German pastime of flying to a beach resort for a few weeks in summer and doing pretty much nothing. The lyrics are mostly nonsensical, but the slow vibe and the call-and-answer pattern between Anette and the rest of the band are infectious.
Hundsgemein (Dirt Cheap Mean): Ideal’s first self-titled album was recorded at 45 RPM to improve sound quality. That caused confusion. On a ski camp in 7th grade, someone taped the record at 33 RPM. When a friend listened and did not know better, so the first line Du bist im Ritz gesessen und hast Lachs gegessen (“You sat in The Ritz and ate salmon”), sung in a slurry, down-pitched voice, became a catch-phrase between us for years.
Erschiessen (Shoot Dead): This is one of the darker, punkier songs that reflects some of the zeitgeist of the early 80s.
Blaue Augen (Blue Eyes): Ideal turns around a common Schlager trope: a woman obsesses over a particular body feature of her lover.
Ich kann nicht schlafen (I cannot sleep): A suffocating song about insomnia that makes you appreciate your next night of sleep.
Rote Liebe (Red Love): Ideal’s exuberant, queer love song.
Immer Frei (Always Free): This super catchy song is about solving every problem with a pill. Yes, it was written in the 80s.
Keine Heimat (No Homeland): This was the lead single of Ideal’s third and last record Bi Nuu. I heard it first on the radio and was immediately obsessed with it. However, public radio stations – the only ones available then – refused to play it because of the America-disparaging lyrics. So, I did not hear it again until the record became available on streaming services many years later. In general, the album did not spark new interest in Ideal, and the band quit a few months after the release.
glamglare favorites
Listen to glamglare favorites on Spotify or below on YouTube.
Five Acts Announced for The Great Escape 2025
It’s especially exciting to check out the first announcement of a music festival, with the event still being firmly out in the future. There comes a time when the announcements get too frequent, or the announced acts too many, and with (too much) time always a luxury, the process of keeping up too hard. But with only 24 featured bands so far, it was easy to pick five acts I am really excited about to see live. One of them, Chloe Quish, is even a Song Pick of the Day holder, featured by Oliver two months ago. The other four are:
- mudi sama with “end of the world”
- Betty with “Mum Says”
- urika’s bedroom with “XTC” and
- Rubii with “Manifest”
Song Pick of the Day
Listen to/watch all seven songs on YouTube. Follow our daily updated playlists on YouTube and Spotify for the 50 latest Song Pick of the Day features or subscribe here to receive them into your mailbox in real-time. Thank you for following us and sharing the excitement.
- Courteeners - Sweet Surrender (feat. Brooke Combe)
- Moniah - Sweet Escape
- Juanita Stein - Mother Natures Scorn
- La Force - protection
New Albums Out This Week
Dreamstate is the third album by Welsh producer Kelly Lee Owens. We only know four songs so far, but the title seems perfect for an album of shimmering, danceable tracks that put your mind into a state of bliss.
Also out tomorrow (and not last Friday as previously stated) is the new album Every Inch of Earth Pulsates by W.H. Lung.
Nine Photos of Post-Birthday Glow
Following the nine photos of my actual birthday, last week are impressions of the Wednesday and Saturday thereafter. Oliver and I took Wednesday off, too, and enjoyed a ferry ride over to the Williamsburg Waterfront and back again. In between, we strolled Bedford Avenue, Williamsburg’s still inviting shopping filled with the more eclectic chain stores like Apple, Sephora, Dr. Martens, and Whole Foods, but mainly little mom-and-pop shops, many there already for a decade or longer. Among the newer ones is Copper Mug Cafe, where we treated ourselves to Pasteis de Nata, Lisbon’s famous pastries. They were decent. The sunset, on the other hand, was spectacular, as it usually is the case with Manhattan in the starring role. The last two photos are scenes from our building’s rooftop, with the music venue Pier 17 in the mix. British indie rockers Nothing But Thieves were playing that night, whom we saw years ago performing in the modestly-sized Baby’s All Right. We missed them this time around, though.
Photos: Elke Nominikat