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LaFee – Zurück In Die Zukunft

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LaFee - Zurück In Die Zukunft

LaFee - Zurück In Die Zukunft
3.6

Rating

 3.6/5

Flyctory.com Pros

  • First LaFee album since ten years
  • Entertaining trip with German covers of 1980's song
  • Overall very entertaining album (also due to the originals)
  • Some good new songs / originals

Flyctory.com Cons

  • Some songs are just a bit of thin

The first album by LaFee since ten years – and in fact this one is heading back some more decades. In her Zurück In Die Zukunft (“Back To The Future”), the German pop and schlager artist is (musically) heading back to the 1980’s and creates German lyric schlager pop covers of global hits. On top of that, there are four new songs by the artist. She released the album on 20th August 2021.

 

LaFee – About The Artist

LaFee’s civil name is Christina Klein. She was born on 9th December 1990 in Stolberg in the Rhineland region of Germany. She got her first contract after competing at the Kiddy Contest, an Austrian talent show. Already at the age of 15, she released her debut single Virus. Pushed by teenage magazine Bravo and a German TV station, the song made it to the Top 15 in Germany and Austria. The following single, Prinzesschen, even just made it into the Austrian Top 10. These two songs also boosted the self-titled debut album, which topped the charts in both countries, being a triple-golden record album in Germany and a platinum one in Austria.

Heul Doch was the key single of the 2007 album Jetzt erst Recht. Again, LaFee topped the charts with the album. In 2009, Ring Frei was #6 in Germany and placed fifth in Austria. Frei (2011) was her last record until 2021. She did release singles in the meantime, though, some of them presented by her alter ego in TV series, as LaFee is also active as an actress.

LaFee – Zurück In Die Zukunft – Track By Track

The fifteen song album lasts 54 minutes.

1. Zurück in die Zukunft

The song starts with a LaFee original, which references and honors a huge list of 1980’s tracks by teasing titles and short text passages. A very good song, a nice track which is also a good intro to the album. LaFee definitely makes me smile in the opener – here is, for example, the second stanza as an example for the song:

Bist mein Hеrz und meine Seele, wenn Amadeus rockt
(Amadeus, Amadeus)
Voyage, Voyage nach Afrika, just can’t get enough
Willst du mich echt verletzen, fühl’ mich wie Billie Jean
Weck mich auf bevor du gehst, oh this is it

“You’re my heart and my soul, when Amadeus rocks
(Amadeus, Amadeus)
Voyage, Voyage to Africa, just can’t get enough
Do you really want to hurt me, I feel like Billie Jean
Wake me up before you go, oh this is it.”

2. (Ich bin ein) Material Girl

I am quite amazed how LaFee got all the permissions for the cover versions. This Madonna cover (you guess it from the German title already…) is much more schlager-alike, while the opener came with a pop feeling. Cool track.

3. Rock me Amadeus (feat. Falco)

No doubt from my side: this is the highlight of the album. This is not just a cover of the Falco classic, it is really a LaFee featuring Falco song – they sampled the original vocals of the Austrian legend into this track. Rock Me Amadeus, LaFee style becomes a duet with Falco. Even though there are some weaker parts in the song, that’s one of the highlights of the year 2021 in music already. Love it.

4. Zeit heilt die Zeit

Zeit heilt die Zeit literally translates to Time is healing the time. In fact, this fourth song is a cover of Time after Time by Cyndi Lauper. That’s something I definitely like about the album: where it is necessary, LaFee is diverting from the original lyrics and doing the Cyndi Lauper giant in her style. That’s the chorus with the minor adoptions (but still with the same message):

Schau nach vorn, keine Angst,
ich geh hinter Dir
Zeit heilt die Zeit
Wenn fällst, lass Dich fall’n
ich steh hinter Dir
Zeit heilt die Zeit

“Look forward, don’t be angry
I am behind you
Time heals the time
When you fall, just let yourself fall
I stand behind you
Time heals the time”

5. Japan ist weit

German speakers, who haven’t listened to the album yet, might do some sort of original track guessing. Japan ist weit means something like “Japan is far away” – and thus quite a bit different than the original song, Big In Japan. Also with the very special arrangement, this song is having a lot of LaFee character. Cool track.

6. Halt mich fest

The music video is giving an easier guess which song is covered in here than the title, I guess – Halt mich fest (“Hold me close”) takes us to Norwegian music legends: LaFee is doing Take on Me by A-Ha. A bit too schlager-alike in my point of view, but overall, I like the song. I wonder a bit why they took it as a single – maybe as it is diverting quite much in the lyrics from the original.

7. Für immer jung

Okay, after some tricky ones, this one is an easy guess – even if you are limited in German. Forever Young is definitely one of the very big hits of the biggest decade in music (in my point of view, at least…). Good one.

8. 1985

Okay, don’t guess the original here – it is the second original on the album. A cool pop track which is honoring the 1980’s (and especially 1985). The song feels to share personal experiences, which feels a bit of difficult – 1985 was five years before LaFee was born. The song has some potential, but overall, I rather go for other songs on the album.

9. Wenn der Regen auf uns fällt (feat. Lucas Cordalis)

When the rain begins to fall was a great hit in Germany and Switzerland in 1984, topping the charts in both countries. Costa Cordalis covered this song in the same year (in German) with Lena Valaitis, calling the song Wenn der Regen auf uns fällt. Ain’t that a beautiful story that Costa’s son Lucas is now doing the same story with LaFee? I enjoy the duet for sure.

10. La Isla Bonita

Madonna, the second song: the amazing pop artist had global success with this song in 1987. The cover version is one of the weakest of the album, but thinking of the original while listening still makes me smile (ain’t that the good thing about the concept of the album? 🙂 )

11. Heißkalter Engel

Real Life singing Send Me An Angel // Right Now in 1989 is a bit different from a “Hot and Cold Angel”, what this track title would mean literally. I love the vocal performance by LaFee in this song, but overall, I would love to have some more special moments in here.

12. Neonlicht

Another original – and this time, I really like it. A song describing dancing in the neon light. Not really a deep recording, but it is entertaining and makes you feel like dancing – which is the perfect warm-up to the next one.

13. Ich will mit jemandem tanzen

LaFee is not shy of trying to cover the really big names and their big song – Ich will mit jemandem tanzen means “I want to dance with somebody”. She is really doing the 1987 Whitney Houston song. Houston is just such an outstanding vocalist, you just sound too thin any time you cover her (unless you are a real genius). That happens to LaFee as well – the song thus gets the touch of these cheap schlager covers the genre (too often) produced in the 1980’s as well.

14. Herz aus Glas

Covering Blondie’s Heart Of Glass works surprisingly well. The second last track does definitely not create this strong “Nice try – but a fail” when you listen to it.

15. Drei Millionen Likes

The album is closing with a song which LaFee and her team wrote for Zurück In Die Zukunft. A ballad-alike song, which is motivating, energizing, but also reflecting about the impact of social media. The second really great original on this album.

 

LaFee – Zurück In Die Zukunft – Spotify

Below, you can travel “Back To The Future” with LaFee on Spotify:

 

LaFee – Zurück In Die Zukunft – My View

LaFee took a big challenge. She selected huge hits of the decade and arranged some of them their very own way. Partially, this works out very well. Some covers are close to a fail. Some originals show her great potential in doing own stuff. The good thing about this album: I don’t care too much if there is a weaker cover. You just listen, party, think about all the memories you had with these songs. Even where the album is not top notch, it is entertaining. Because the originals were so good. Thus, I absolutely loved to listen to Zurück In Die Zukunft.

 

German Schlager

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