Review Summary: A comeback in all the right ways. Austria's synth-pop hero is back at his best.
It sucks to be a pop star. Sure, you get the fame, the chicks and an unhealthy amount of money, but the odds are that you'll end up just like Falco in the early 90's. No fame, no chicks and even the almighty dollar is getting out of reach slowly, but surely. In short, you hit rock bottom hard. And Austria's one and only almost world star needed just five years to get there. After his No. 1 hit
Rock Me Amadeus he started an impressive downward spiral, both personally and artistically, leaving his fans with 1990's "Data De Groove", an album hailed by some - a miniscule minority though - as a remarkable return to his roots, the rest saw a failed experiment at best. Ambitious yes, but with a stunning lack of energy or any spark of his heyday. So what he needed was yet another comeback.
Thanks to his ever-growing insecurity, mostly due to his depressed state, and a big hole, where once his flashes of brilliance were placed, this meant a step back to his most successful phase, the mid-80's. For "Nachtflug" Falco teamed up with producers Rob and Ferdi Bolland again, after severe tensions between him and the duo lead to a split five years earlier. How important they were for his success is apparent from the very first minute.
Titanic, opener and lead single, brings back his distinctive vocals, an unbelievably slick production and the well-known combination of drum machine, string-like synthesizers and only a few spatters of simple riffs. While this already makes for an entertaining first impression, the biggest improvement has to be Falco's vocal performance. There is this certain kind of energetic "rap" again, that once made him famous. This perfect blend of unlikeable arrogance and sometimes subtle, sometimes as obvious as possible humour, it's back again. The very definition of comeback, leading to his most balanced work since the title track of "Wiener Blut", probably even his best overall.
Strengthened by this great opening, the LP marks his most consistent since "Falco 3". Songs like the slightly blues-tinged
Psychos or the straight-forward synth-pop track
Skandal, well supported by quite good, if minimalistic guitar work, are in no way new ground, but they showcase Falco's biggest asset, his catchiness. Sing-along tunes that definitely aren't anything revolutionary, actually they aren't really special in any way, but they work wonders for an artist, who completely lost his way two years earlier. Still, while the bigger part of "Nachtflug" could be labelled a re-hash of older material, a slightly harder edge and a musical upgrade, simply giving him a modern sound representing '92 rather than '85, leads to it standing alone and not just as a light-version of his best work.
While this suggests that Falco played it safe, some songs still manage to present new ideas or at the very least, new influences. The 90's saw him moving from Austria to the Dominican Republic and it doesn't seem to be too much of a stretch to say this affected songs like
Propaganda or
Yah-Vibration. The first one a snide remark at Cuba's political leaders in their fight against the US - probably a few years too late, but still -, it features some nice salsa and latin rhythms, well-placed horn sections and background singers. On the other hand we've got his one and only reggae track. A somewhat strange listen at first with a not exactly rhythmic vocal performance, it grows on you with every listen and finally turns out to be a potential summer hit.
All this makes for the most entertaining album by Austria's small version of a superstar. But, as always, he just doesn't hold that level until the very end. Just as it's obvious source of inspiration, "Falco 3", this thing disintegrates suddenly and without any warning with the very first seconds of
Time. Though, not exactly, cause his subtle, rather lukewarm ode to the technological revolution isn't a complete disaster. At first it's just a bog-standard synth-pop track like any other, but it falls apart at the latest when it hits the two-minute mark, simply because of its mind-numbingly monotonous sound and lacklustre presentation. However, Falco wouldn't be Falco, if he didn't try and succeed spectacularly in undercutting this low-point. The abominable piece of…. let's call it music, I'm talking about, is
Cadillac Hotel. An alarmingly cheesy ballad, sung in the most bored way possible and a chorus, which is in no way described sufficiently by the word overstatement. Over the course of his career he always had those crappy outliers - sadly, since it made a truly brilliant record impossible -, songs that are at times just unnerving, at others completely abominable and those five minutes just stumble around somewhere in between these two categories.
Atmospheric closer
Nachtflug is only partly the needed compensation for that; good work, but nothing to be labelled brilliant. It succeeds in its simplicity, based solely on a drum and keyboard loop. Falco is at his best here, somehow bridging the gap between his natural arrogance and the emotional core of the song.
So, happy end at last? Well, Falco is in fact in top form here. Looking at his back catalogue, that doesn't mean too much though. He always provided some sparks of genius, interestingly almost always in the lead singles (same here); on the other hand his artistic blackouts are just as outstanding. "Nachtflug" is a comeback in almost all the right ways, features his trademark sound, fuelled with enough energy to fill most of the offered 38 minutes. But his old problems have survived the years just as good. Even if the error rate is comparatively low, there's no denial these mistakes are there. Therefore 1992 wasn't just rather disappointing commercially - a big step forward still, but America didn't care anymore -, but also another missed opportunity for Falco. A missed opportunity, yes, but nevertheless one of, if not the most entertaining record he put together in his eventful career.
