Falco was also visually imbued with his admiration for David Bowie.
Photo: imago/Sven Simon
The zeitgeist magazine “Wiener” found Falco’s album “Junge Roemer” to be “simply sensational” when it was finally released in April 1984. This judgment is still valid today. It’s his best album. A reissue was released last week that more than does this masterpiece justice.
Work on the album began in 1983. It wasn’t just supposed to be a copy of the already very good first album “Einzelhaft”, which Falco still very much positioned as a Viennese underground product. This time everything should be more international and noble. Falco, whose real name was Johann Hölzel, worked out a concept for the album, which he titled “cool to hypothermic”. He had elegant black and white photos taken by the then popular photographer Rudy Molacek. The “commissioner” can no longer be seen in these pictures. Falco has transformed himself into a neatly coiffed 1920s beau who wears suits by fashion designer Helmut Lang. The designers Lo Breier and Michael Beran refined the artwork with gold-pressed lettering and fine graphics.
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The producer Robert Ponger was once again responsible for the compositions and arrangements. For the previous album he delivered very rocky, guitar-heavy songs. This time he oriented himself towards the synth-influenced New Objectivity of the late New Wave. When guitars appear, they are funky and percussive. Every single instrument can be heard crystal clear. Falco’s precise, clean singing reigns supreme above all. Songs like “Hoch wie nie”, “ Steuermann ” and “Brillantin Brutal” are among the best that Falco has ever produced. The band Opus, who would have their biggest hit in 1985 with “Live is Life,” sings along on the title track “Junge Roemer,” which was released as a single.
The entire album is permeated by Falco’s admiration for David Bowie. The title “Junge Roemer” already refers to Bowie’s “Young Americans”. In the title song, Falco varies a line of lyrics from Bowie’s song “Fantastic Voyage.” In addition, the song by Ferne Bowie’s hit “Let’s Dance” sounds through in the arrangement.
How carefully Falco thought about his brilliant lyrics for this album can be seen in the handwritten notes featured in the reissue booklet. For the collage-like song “Tut-Ench-Amon (Tutankhamen),” Falco apparently first sketched out a story that it should be about before he started writing the lyrics. The texts are explained by Michael Rager, who runs the omniscient Falco online encyclopedia “Falco Compendium”.
The original album tracks remastered by Robert Ponger are supplemented by all the remixes that were released for the album at the time. Including the single “Can it be love?”. A curious duet with Desiree Nosbusch that was supposed to save the album in the summer of ’84.
Because when the album was released with a big party and the big TV show “Heroes of Today”, it quickly turned out to be a flop. The single “Junge Roemer” barely reached the top 10 in Austria. The album climbed to number 1 in the charts, but quickly disappeared from it again. It was ignored everywhere else in the world, and in West Germany it reached number 76. When the follow-up singles no longer reached the charts at all, “Can it be love?” was supposed to be the turning point. But in the single version the song seems like a late NDW hit by mediocre Nena and Markus imitators. Falco was in danger of becoming a flash in the pan who had failed in his artistic ambitions. He later distanced himself from the album, blaming Ponger for supposedly providing bad songs for his great lyrics. He was certainly aware that that wasn’t true, because “Junge Roemer” always had a permanent place in his live program. The new edition of the album also contains a sample of Roemer songs played live (from 1986).
One curiosity is missing, however: the instrumental “Zakadaca” mentioned in the original track listing, which can be heard on the television show “Heroes of Today”. But this loss is bearable. Even forty years later, the “Viennese” is right. The album is simply sensational.
Jens Buchholz is the author of the recently published book: Falco. Popular Fallacies and Other Truths. Plain text, 120 pages, br., €16.95.
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