Afternoons in Utopia
| Afternoons in Utopia | |||||||||||
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| Studio album from Alphaville | |||||||||||
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Publication |
June 5, 1986 |
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admission |
September 1985 - May 1986 |
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| Label (s) | Warner , Atlantic | ||||||||||
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Format (s) |
CD, LP, MC |
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Title (number) |
13 |
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Wolfgang Loos , Peter Walsh , Steve Thompson , Michael Barbiero |
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Afternoons in Utopia is Alphaville's second studio album . It was released by Warner Music in June 1986 . The album was recorded between September 1985 and May 1986 with about 30 guest musicians and singers.
Style and content
The synth pop of the first album is broken up in some places by elements of other musical styles. The lyrics of the album, which some reviewers have brought close to a concept album , contain several references to cosmic beings, including comets, the planet Mars and its landscape, and a spaceship. In the booklet, the word “smile” in the songs Afternoons in Utopia , Lassie Come Home and Red Rose is printed as “SMI².LE”, a reference to Timothy Leary . The abbreviation stands for "Space Migration, Increased Intelligence, [and] Life Extension". ("Space migration, increased intelligence [and] life extension").
Marian Gold , singer of the band, wrote in a commentary on the song Sensations in the booklet of the compilation First Harvest 1984-92 from 1992 that the message of the music was different from her previous album:
“Sometimes people would say, 'Are you crazy now? Talk to dolphins and all that !! ' But I think once we have learned the dolphin language - this mutual approach - this could be the moment of significant changes in our disrupted civilization. "
Track list
All songs were written by Ricky Echolette, Marian Gold and Bernhard Lloyd , except where noted.
| No. | title | Songwriter | length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | ILO | 0:42 | |
| 2. | Fantastic dream | 3:56 | |
| 3. | Jerusalem | 4:09 | |
| 4th | Dance with Me | 3:59 | |
| 5. | Afternoons in Utopia | 3:08 | |
| 6th | Sensations | 4:24 | |
| 7th | 20th Century | 1:25 | |
| 8th. | The Voyager | 4:37 | |
| 9. | Carol Masters | 4:32 | |
| 10. | Universal daddy | 3:57 | |
| 11. | Lassie Come Home | 6:59 | |
| 12. | Red rose | 4:05 | |
| 13. | Lady Bright | Albert & The Heart of Gold | 0:43 |
reception
The reviews for the album have been generally positive. Allmusic wrote: “At points things are just bad yup-funk for wine bars, but a couple of misfires aside, Afternoons in Utopia holds up well.” (“In some places the material is just bad yuppie - funk for wine bars, but, Apart from a few dropouts, Afternoons in Utopia is holding up well. ") The website summarized:" While at the time Afternoons in Utopia got lost in a welter of mid-'80s Euro releases with airbrushing and bad synth playing galore, in retrospect it's Actually a successful endeavor, perfectly evocative of a mainstream style long vanished while Containing its own artistic worth. "(" While at the time Afternoons in Utopia lost in a mass of mid-eighties euro publications with an airbrush and a lot of bad synthesizer playing, it is in retrospect actually a successful venture, perfectly avoiding the long-drained mainstream style while retaining its own artistic value. ")
In Germany, Afternoons in Utopia reached number 13 in the album charts and was in the charts for 13 weeks. In the Swiss charts , the album reached its highest chart listing in seven chart weeks with position twelve, in the United States with position 174 within six chart weeks. In all three countries Alphaville reached the album charts for the second time with Afternoons in Utopia .
| Charts | Top ranking | Weeks |
|---|---|---|
| Chart placements | ||
 Germany (GfK)
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13 (13 weeks) | 13 |
 Switzerland (IFPI)
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12 (7 weeks) | 7th |
 United States (Billboard)
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174 (6 weeks) | 6th |