Alles ist gut explained

Alles ist gut
Type:studio
Artist:Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft
Cover:Alles Ist Gut.jpg
Released:1981
Recorded:December 1980 – January 1981
Studio:Conny Plank's Studio, Neunkirchen, Germany
Length:34:44
Label:Virgin
Producer:Konrad "Conny" Plank
Prev Title:Die Kleinen und die Bösen
Prev Year:1980
Next Title:Gold und Liebe
Next Year:1981

Alles ist gut (Everything Is Fine) is the third album by German electropunk band Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft. It was released in 1981 and was the band's first album on the Virgin Records label. It includes the hit single "Der Mussolini". The album was a massive hit in Germany, where it charted for 46 weeks.

The album was reissued by Mute Records in 1998.

Recording

The album was the first recorded with the band reduced to the duo of Gabi Delgado and Robert Görl.

Commercial performance

Alles ist gut was on the German charts for 46 weeks, peaking at No. 15, and the Austrian charts for eight weeks, peaking at No. 16.[1] It received the Schallplattenpreis award from the Deutsche Phono-Akademie, an association of the German recording industry.

Critical reception

Reviewing the album for NME, Paul Morley characterised Alles ist gut as "slimy, steamy sex music", an evocation of "the rubbing, juices, pounding, striving, belching, stickiness ... the smells, the rhythms, the passions, the secretions, the darkness, the tears of S.E.X."[2] It was ranked the eighth best album of 1981 by NME.[3] Simon Reynolds, in Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978–1984 (2006), notes the influence the album had on Morley's later marketing and image for Frankie Goes to Hollywood, a band signed to Morley's label ZTT Records.[2]

In the All Music Guide to Electronica, Ned Raggett describes how Alles ist gut worked musically: "...keeping the electronic brutality that characterized them, but stripped down to nothing but Görl's massive drumming, electronic bass and synth tones, and Delgado's deep, commanding singing."[4] Trouser Press observed that "typical funk rhythms are replaced by industrial pulses (trains, etc.)" and noted the more pop-oriented vocal styles on the album.[5]

Track listing

Side 1

  1. "Sato-Sato" ("Sato-Sato") – 2:43
  2. "Der Mussolini" ("The Mussolini") – 3:50
  3. "Rote Lippen" ("Red lips") – 2:41
  4. "Mein Herz macht Bum" ("My heart goes boom") – 4:26
  5. "Der Räuber und der Prinz" ("The robber and the prince") – 3:27

Side 2

  1. "Ich und die Wirklichkeit" ("Me and the reality") – 3:05
  2. "Als wär's das letzte Mal" ("As if it were the last time") – 3:24
  3. "Verlier' nicht den Kopf" ("Don't lose your head") – 3:17
  4. "Alle gegen Alle" ("Everyone against everyone") – 3:55
  5. "Alles ist gut" ("Everything is fine") – 3:25

Charts

Year-end charts

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft (DAF) – Alles ist gut. hitparade.ch. 6 March 2014.
  2. Book: Reynolds, Simon. Simon Reynolds. Raiding the Twentieth Century: ZTT, The Art of Noise, and Frankie Goes to Hollywood. Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978–1984. Rip It Up and Start Again. Penguin Books. paperback. US. 2006. 1-4295-2667-X.
  3. Web site: 1981 Best Albums And Tracks Of The Year. NME. 10 October 2016. 14 February 2018.
  4. Book: Raggett, Ned. Bogdanov. Vladimir. Woodstra. Chris. Bush. John. Erlewine. Stephen Thomas. Stephen Thomas Erlewine. DAF. All Music Guide to Electronica: The Definitive Guide to Electronic Music. Backbeat Books. 2001. 0-87930-628-9. 114.
  5. Web site: Grant. Steven. Robbins. Ira. Deutsche Amerikanische Freundschaft. Trouser Press. 2 March 2014.
  6. Web site: Top 100 Album-Jahrescharts. 1981. GfK Entertainment Charts. de. 3 April 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20211019142750/https://www.offiziellecharts.de/charts/album-jahr/for-date-1981. 19 October 2021.