Falco
Verdammt Wir Leben Noch

THE REVIEW

How strange: "Verdammt Wir Leben Noch" is a posthumous album. Luck may be blind, but misfortune sees all too well; I would say, bitterly noting how many artists particularly dear to me like Freddie Mercury, Kirsty MacColl, Rio Reiser, Jobriath, and indeed Falco, were taken prematurely from a life they nonetheless managed to make the most of with their art. In theory, this should be the classic attempt by the record label to scrape together a bit of money by exploiting the emotional impact of the recent passing of the Viennese musician, however, "Verdammt Wir Leben Noch" is so beautiful, so full of talent, life, and style that it is effectively the worthy musical conclusion to the wonderful career of Johannes "Falco" Holzel.

After his last successful album, the sparkling "Nachtflug" from 1992, an album that alone could serve as a greatest hits, Falco self-exiles in the Dominican Republic. When "Out Of The Dark (Into The Light)" finally sees the light of day, he is no longer among us. This album, released less than a month after that damned car accident, showcases Falco as a sly pop star with carefree, danceable, and sunny sounds. The refined Neue Welle Bowie-like style and his personal synth-hop are part of the past, but not the desire to experiment with new styles and write beautiful songs, ranging from techno to straightforward rap, including funky-disco sounds, summer-like reggae, and alluring and charming electronics. "Out Of The Dark" was still a good work, but many of the latest recordings, the most significant and interesting of Falco's later period, were still waiting to be released, and so the following year, in 1999, comes this collection titled "Verdammt Wir Leben Noch," meaning "damn, we're still alive" in Italian. It’s a title that, when you reflect on it a bit, brings a lump to your throat, but Falco was very much alive in these nine songs.

The title track starts, and there’s already a pleasant sense of deja vu: same voice, same female choruses, and same unmistakable style, but the sound has changed. There's a lot of electric guitar that transforms "Verdammt Wir Leben Noch" into a synth-rock with a particularly anthemic and compelling chorus. However, this "twilight" Falco does not just innovate his old stylisms but also manages to create new ones with ambitious songs like "Die Konigin Von Eschnapur", a crossover experiment that combines the ascetic atmospheres of the Far East with sharp guitars and distinct rap vocals, or the minimalism of the electronic beats in "Ecce Machina", a sort of slowed-down electronic R'n'B with elegant and seductive jazzy turns, and the evocative grandeur of the triumphant ballad "Europa", made theatrical and almost bombastic by the choir's opera-like chorus.

"Verdammt Wir Leben Noch" also presents an unreleased Falco in a Rio carnival version with the frenetic and hilarious samba of "Que Pasa Hombre", and it’s the cherry on top that gives that extra touch of campy liveliness to an album excellently completed by "We Live For The Night", which stands out for a beautiful flamenco-style acoustic guitar loop that adds a nice melancholic touch to this song, more reflective and deep than it might appear superficially, by the rock-rap-like, fun, varied, and contamination-rich "From The North To The South", by the electro-R'n'B duo "Fascinating Man"-"Poison", and by "Krise", his last recording and to be honest the least significant of this collection. It turns out to be a slightly more aggressive and less atmospheric copy of his last hit, "Mutter, Der Mann Mit Dem Koks Ist Da."

This album is a demonstration of how Falco still had so much to say and a rare ability to experiment and innovate his own style while still remaining true to himself. Highly recommended to anyone who thinks this artist is only "Der Kommissar," "Rock Me Amadeus," and "Jeanny," "Verdammt Wir Leben Noch" is indeed his "Made In Heaven," even better because, unlike the Queen's posthumous album, this record effectively adds value and new styles to Falco's work. It was a truly necessary and dutiful operation to bring to light some pearls from this brilliant artist that would otherwise have been lost.