AUGENBLICKE

After I wrote my review for this I got somewhat more into Novalis mood and have in the meantime listened to their music much more, including this one and its successor Neumond. This leads me to something of a re-assessment. Particularly I now think that the instrumental Danmark, which I didn't really mention before, is a delight with its dreamy Camel-like melody, and the folky, lyrical Herbstwind has caught up somewhat more in my appreciation. So now we have 3 1/2 really good songs ("Mit den Zugvoegeln" and "Ich hab noch nicht gelernt..." being the other ones) out of 9, and the remaining ones are rather unremarkable than really bad. I think I'd rate both this one and Neumond now as 2 1/2 stars with this one slightly better (as opposed to what I initially wrote), and round it to three here.

Here's what I originally wrote, with some edits: I'm a bit surprised by the fact that the ratings for this one are clearly higher than for the following Neumond and Sterntaucher, of which at least the second one is better in my view. Augenblicke has its moments ("Augenblicke" means moments) and a tasteful cover, but I don't find much of a spark in most of these songs. The best ones for me are the calm instrumental "Mit den Zugvoegeln" that creates a really nice romantic atmosphere, and "Ich hab noch nicht gelernt zu lieben", which continues a sequence of songs with almost painfully authentic, self-critical lyrics by Muehlboeck, started by "Vielleicht bin ich ein Clown". It is a fairly straight and catchy rock song about difficulties and troubles in a relationship. I think I came across this album at the age of 16 or 17 and a man reflecting on his behaviour in a relationship like this was certainly a good influence. Several songs with such down to earth, emotional and direct lyrics can be found on Novalis albums of that era, and I learned to prefer these to lyrics on spaceships, esoteric or historical eruptions of Vesuvius. At the time, when my relationship broke down, I could also connect very well to the romantic and sad "Herbstwind", but this one hasn't aged so well. Detlev Job's voice sounds somewhat tedious here; he had done better on earlier albums voice-wise, although he contributes some good melodic guitar once more to Augenblicke.

There are three further instrumentals that don't hurt much, but aren't any special either (I revise this view regarding Danmark, see above). Three further songs have vocals, "Als kleiner Junge" and "Begegnungen" are rather romantic and tender, and "Magie einer Nacht" is a bit more on the rock-side, but ultimately none of these stuck in my ears and made me want to listen to it more often. None of the songs is particularly complex either; it's all quite straight and not all too surprising.