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Berlin - Love Life

Ah, the '80s. Right about '84, things were hitting the sweet spot for me musically. I remember a buddy playing me a mixtape that had "No More Words" on it, and I asked, "Who is that?"

I liked synth-pop with the big guitars and all that, but I never got around to getting this album. Of course, a couple of years later, after Top Gun came out, everyone knew "Take My Breath Away," a song that put the band in the upper echelons for a little while.

Sadly, it was also a song written for the band by Giorgio Moroder, who had a killer touch with soundtracks in particular, and it pretty much overshadowed anything they did before and after.

The other day I was bin rummaging, and there, in between the ever-present badly scratched Rod Stewart albums (I think people do it on purpose), was a decent-looking copy of Berlin's Love Life.

"Ooooh," I said to myself.

I took out the vinyl, and it was just dusty and covered in fingerprints, but otherwise looked salvageable. The insert was there too, which was a nice surprise.

I'd buy that for a dollar.

The other thing was this was on Geffen, and while people either love or hate David Geffen, I have to admit the hit-to-miss ratio for his label was pretty impressive. Based on that alone, I'd have picked it up.

Musically, this is really strong. All the way through, there isn't a dud or a misfire. One of the reasons I think this still holds up so well was the choice to use real musicians. Real bass, real guitar, real drums (oh, I'm sure there was some programming in there, but it's not the Simmons sound that was cool until it wasn't).

A lot of the stuff around the same time suffers now from a lack of organic tension. Having solid songs helps too. It really should have been huge.

If they'd been bigger, the albatross song from Top Gun wouldn't have been seen as a one-off, and the band wouldn't have had to hold its breath waiting for another hit.



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