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Paulina Wagner – Vielleicht verliebt

Florian Buechting Media Review No Comments

Paulina Wagner - Vielleicht verliebt

Paulina Wagner - Vielleicht verliebt
3.6

Rating

 3.6/5

Flyctory.com Pros

  • Straight and good modern schlager album
  • Very good voice
  • Three nice cover songs

Flyctory.com Cons

  • Very similar songs
  • No character or personal touch

From TV talent show to her debut album – some one and a half year she became well-known to the German public, she is releasing her debut album Vielleicht verliebt (“Maybe in love”). I was really curious about this album. Here is my review. Release date is 15th October 2021

 

Paulina Wagner – About The Artist

Paulina Wagner was born on 2nd May 1997 in Kamp-Bornhofen right at the River Rhine, South of Koblenz, in Germany. In 2020, she was a candidate of the German TV talent show Deutschland sucht den Superstar, the equivalent to American Idol. She finished fourth, majorly concentrating on German schlager and German pop songs. She is nowadays living in Cologne.

 

Paulina Wagner – Vielleicht verliebt – Track by Track

The fourteen song album lasts 48 minutes.

1. Liebe Liebe

The album starts with a classic schlager track: name the disco fox triple meter, the electronic pop background sounds or the ease of thy lyrics about being loved. Schlager stereotype perfection – but an actually nice listen, which is also due to the vocal skills of the album novice.

2. Vielleicht verliebt

Like Liebe Liebe (“Dear love”), the title track Vielleicht verliebt (“Maybe in love”) has been released before the album. The song comes with a nice melody and good vocals – but overall in a very straight modern schlager arrangement. The only reason why I struggle with it is that by that Paulina Wagner feels to be a bit of random. Can she really brand herself with songs like this? Good production, indeed.

3. Mädchen Mädchen

That’s the first song I really appreciated on this album. In the list of authors: Gerd Grabowski, who is better known as G.G. Anderson in Germany. Paulina Wagner covers his 1980’s classic, partially replaces the verses to modern topics and adds an even more jiggy background melody to the sound. A bit of bold – but Mr. Grabowski will enjoy the royalties of this well-done upgrade of his song.

4. Lila Himmel

Ain’t the chorus have a strong touch of To France by Mike Oldfield? At least I feel this link… and it makes me smile. Paulina Wagner feels to have gathered a good team around her. Song like this definitely come with increased memorability.

5. Alles in mir

Einfach alles in mir will alles mit Dir – “Simply anything in me wants to do anything with you”. Love feels to be the must-do topic in schlager tracks. Bad luck that this limits the range of songs so much. Albums like Anders ist gut by Michelle show that there can be so much more. The song itself is good, but after five tracks of happy and unhappy love I would just learn about some other aspect around Paulina Wagner.

6. Leuchtfeuer

The slow Leuchtfeuer is a nice contrast to the electro-pop-ish songs before. Even though the “Beacon Fire” is of course just another synonym for love, the song just feels to have more intimacy, more depth. And it gives a clearer showcase of Paulina Wagner’s vocal qualities. Thus, this track is very welcome in my point of view.

7. Einfach nur geträumt

Paulina Wagner “simply dreamed” in this song. Again, taken as an individual track, it is a good listen – the longest song on the album just does not feel to add too much to songs before.

8. 1000 Wunder

I could really copy and paste my thoughts about this song from too many tracks on the album: while I praised the team around Wagner for some more characterful songs in the first part of the album, I completely miss the courage to showcase a young artist. The album does contain only few weak schlager tracks – but also no special ones. No surprises. Paulina Wagner delivers, but is that already sufficient to create a profile, a brand as a young, emerging artist?

9. Engel sind nicht gern allein

On top from the silly, (intended?) reference to Münchener Freiheit’s Ohne Dich (Schlaf ich heut’ Nacht nicht ein), the song feels to be the thinnest and weakest track on the album. A song without personality which could finally be performed by any artist

10. Nein Nein Nein

The tenth song is about struggling to finally do the break-up in an unhappy relationship. The song is at least much better than its predecessor – the first one after quite a while which has the potential to really stay in your mind.

11. Wenn du mich wirklich liebst

A very interesting track. While right before the first chorus, there is the verse

Du siehst mich nur im Licht,
doch wer ich wirklich bin, das weisst Du nicht

(“You just see me in the light,
but you don’t know who I am really”)

There is the chorus

Wenn Du mich wirklich liebst
dann sieh mich so
wie mich noch niemand vorher sah
Wenn Du mich wirklich liebst
dann sei der Mensch
der meine Fehler überlacht

(“If you really love me
than see me
as nobody else saw me before.
If you really love me
then be the person
you gives a laugh about my mistakes.”)

Well arranged song again, straight modern schlager sound – and this time, with catching elements.

12. Gefühlt perfekt

I have to give in – I am more happy that there is not another characterless production after this song than really being happy about listening to Gefühlt perfekt – even though it is one of the better songs in the second half of the album.

13. Kribbeln im Bauch

And there we go, a special song, a characterful track – even though it is a love song as well. Kribbeln im Bauch is a highlight of the album. Bad luck for Paulina Wagner: it is a German pop/rock classic released by Pe Werner 1991. An amazing artist, an amazing song. Paulina Wagner does a good interpretation of it – even though I just like Pe Werner’s original with the harder, more direct sound more.

14. Ich liebe das Leben

This song is even sixteen years older than Kribbeln im Bauch: in the mid-1970’s, it has been one of the most successful songs by German-Greek artist Vicky Leandros. Wagner’s version comes with a more modern style arrangement, but is overall comparably close to the original.

 

Paulina Wagner – Vielleicht verliebt – Spotify

This is Vielleicht verliebt on Spotify:

 

Paulina Wagner – Vielleicht verliebt – Track by Track

Paulina Wagner is a beautiful young artist with an amazing voice. Unfortunately, anything we know from her, we know from Deutschland sucht den Superstar. According to this album, including the cover songs, she is a young girl fully dependent on love. Either she is happy or in break-up. I am sure that is not Paulina Wagner in real life. Especially when you listen to songs like Wenn Du mich wirklich liebst, she is losing credibility for me.

Not in a single song, she is in the credits, worked on the lyrics or sound of the song. This is so sad to me. Vielleicht verliebt is not the first showcase of a young talent, but a good collection of songs – which finally could have been sung by a lot of other artists. Maybe not as good and as talented. I just would have loved her team would have dared to show more about her – or at least a wider range of sounds. The album stays a good schlager album, but it is also a missed opportunity in my point of view.

 

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