NEUMOND

When "Neumond" came out I was quite a fan of this band and I actually liked it a lot. Despite the music becoming less and less progressive and complex, I was happy that the band showed some fresh development and was willing to try out something new. My favourites were the catchy anti-war/military hymn "Kein Frieden" and the energetic and fast "Fruehsport im Sachsenwald". There are three other songs with lyrics on "Neumond". "Nachttraum" follows up on "Der Geigenspieler" and "Herbstwind" from "Clown" and "Augenblicke" as longer calm poetic song with some development, sung by Detlef Job's thinner and less dramatic folky voice, compared to Muehlboeck. Unfortunately it doesn't work that well. It feels less organic than "Herbstwind", and like a second rate imitation of "Geigenspieler". "Du bist schoen" und "Oft sagt man mehr wenn man schweigt" are melodic and somewhat sentimental pop songs the music of which I find rather uninteresting. On the positive side, all five songs with vocals combine the music very suitably with the lyrics, which offer a nice range of real life topics, if you're interested in German lyrics, that is. Then there are four instrumentals, which are all nice to listen to and which show some variety in mood and speed (and somewhat outdated 80s sound), although none of them stands out for me and I wouldn't put any of these on to listen to it outside the context of the whole album (as I'd do with Zugvoegel, Danmark, Sinus or City Nord from surrounding Novalis albums).

Overall I have to say that after all the years I don't find too much anymore in this album that really draws me in. It is not bad, nice to listen to from beginning to end, I can appreciate that the band avoided standing still and the taste in combining lyrics and music, but highlights are scarce and can't compete with what the band delivered elsewhere. 2 1/2 stars, this time rounded down so that Augenblicke and Neumond have 5 stars combined, which seems about right.