Eisbrecher (Nena album)

The Eisbrecher album came out when the fortunes of the band were decidedly on the wane.{{cite web|title=Nena Eisbrecher review by Alan Severa|url=http://www.allmusic.com/album/eisbrecher-mw0000535686|website=AllMusic.com|accessdate=6 November 2014}} The concert tour to promote its predecessor, Feuer und Flamme, had been poorly attended{{cite web|title=Nena biography|url=http://www.shazam.com/discover/artist/18372|website=Shazam.com|accessdate=6 November 2014}} and the band had parted company with their manager Jim Rakete.{{cite web|title=Nena-biographie|url=http://www.laut.de/Nena|website=Laut.de|accessdate=5 November 2014}} In his 2014 memoirs, the band's drummer Rolf Brendel described the idea behind the album: {{quote|text=We wanted to remember our beginnings, what had made us great. Eisbrecher was meant to be a clear, uncompromising album, without technical bombast. ... He [Klaus Voormann, the album's producer] had to tear it out, to inspire Nena's new old life and to tap into the success of the first two albums.{{cite book|last1=Brendel|first1=Rolf|title=Geschichte einer Band|date=2014|publisher=Aufbau Verlag GmbH & Co|location=Berlin|isbn=9783351050153|page=200}}}}

The album was recorded in studios at Castello di Carimate in Italy. Brendel wrote of the recording sessions, "There was throughout a real melancholy about us, the recordings and the castle. Without it ever being said, each of us felt that another Nena album would not follow this one."Brendel p203 In contrast to the three previous albums (two {{nobr|No.{{space|hair}}1s}} and one {{nobr|No.{{space|thin}}2}} in the German charts), Eisbrecher only managed {{nobr|No.{{space|thin}}45}} in the German charts.{{cite web|title=Official German charts|url=http://www.officialcharts.de/suche.asp?search=nena&page=2&country=de&bereich=&chart=no&music=no&interpret=&titel=&release=&peak=&einstieg=&wochen=&kategorie=|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141023234459/http://www.officialcharts.de/suche.asp?search=nena&page=2&country=de&bereich=&chart=no&music=no&interpret=&titel=&release=&peak=&einstieg=&wochen=&kategorie=|url-status=dead|archive-date=23 October 2014|website=Charts.de|publisher=GfK Entertainment|accessdate=5 November 2014}}

The first single to be released from the album was "Mondsong" which reached {{nobr|No.{{space|thin}}37}} in the German charts. The follow-up, "Engel der Nacht",{{cite web|title=Lyrics and credits for "Engel der Nacht"|url=http://www.nena.de/de/engel-der-nacht|website=Nena.de|date=11 May 2013|accessdate=28 September 2016|archive-date=5 October 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221005093446/https://www.nena.de/de/engel-der-nacht|url-status=dead}} failed to chart, meaning that three of the band's four last releases had failed to do so, a sharp decline in fortune from the band's previous track record. (See Nena/Diskografie).

The commercial failure of these two singles, one a Nena penned ballad,{{cite web|title=Lyrics and credits for "Mondsong"|url=http://www.nena.de/de/mondsong|website=Nena.de|date=11 May 2013|accessdate=28 September 2016|archive-date=26 August 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220826203221/https://www.nena.de/de/mondsong|url-status=dead}} the other a catchy, rock tune written by Jörn-Uwe Fahrenkrog-Petersen and Carlo Karges (the duo responsible for the band's best known songs, "99 Luftballons" and "Irgendwie, irgendwo, irgendwann") provided evidence that formulae that had worked in the past would no longer reap the same rewards.

In the event and over time, it was two other tracks from the album which were to prove to be the most enduring.

"Jetzt bist du weg" ("Now You Are Gone") was written by Nena Kerner from the perspective of a jilted lover wrestling with the accompanying emotions: not knowing whether to blame herself nor how to behave – remaining friends or getting out of the way.{{cite web|title=Lyrics and credits for "Jetzt bist du weg"|url=http://www.nena.de/de/jetzt-bist-du-weg|website=Nena.de|date=11 May 2013|accessdate=28 September 2016|archive-date=26 August 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220826203251/https://www.nena.de/de/jetzt-bist-du-weg|url-status=dead}} The song's tempo briefly quickens when she speculates about the couple potentially getting back together before slowing down again to conclude with the line, "I wish that I will finally be able to forget you." It is widely believed to be Nena's description of the split with her boyfriend, the band's drummer Rolf Brendel.Per Youtube comments and various fan sites/blogs, e.g. http://ilovenena99luftballons.blogspot.co.uk/ The timing of events, however, do not conclusively support this belief since Eisbrecher was released in late 1986, prior to the end of Nena and Brendel's 8-year relationship in 1987.{{cite web|title=Wir stritten uns bis aufs Blut|url=http://www.bunte.de/stars/nena-wir-stritten-bis-aufs-blut-106093.html|website=Bunte.de|date=20 October 2014 |accessdate=5 November 2014}} However, if the song's lyrics were autobiographical, then some of the lines (for example, "We both always wanted to be together ... but I feel so abandoned because so little remains from these years") can only reflect Nena's feelings for Brendel.

In a further twist to the question of the song's origins, in 2002 "Jetzt bist du weg" was reprised by Nena, this time with an orchestral accompaniment, as a duet with the German singer Udo Lindenberg for the Nena feat. Nena album which spectacularly rekindled her solo career in the German-speaking countries. The ostensibly curious decision to make a duet with Lindenberg out of a song with so clearly one-sided a lyric became all the more tangled when, shortly before Nena and Lindenberg performed the song live at the concert in Frankfurt marking 20 years since the band's debut release, it emerged that they had had a 6-month secret affair, when she was still going out with Brendel.{{cite news|title=Vor 20 Jahren im Flugzeug: Nena und Udo Lindenberg liebten sich|url=http://www.spiegel.de/panorama/vor-20-jahren-im-flugzeug-nena-und-udo-lindenberg-liebten-sich-a-217952.html|newspaper=Der Spiegel|date=12 October 2002 |publisher=Spiegel online|accessdate=5 November 2014}}{{cite web|title=Das Geheimnis meines Hutes|url=http://www.bild.de/leute/2006/serie-lindenberg-hut-419652.bild.html|website=Bild.de|date=15 May 2006 |accessdate=5 November 2014}}

Whatever its provenance, the 2002 version of the song was the only track from Eisbrecher included in the 2010 Best of Nena album which Nena holds out as being her only compilation album comprising tracks which she, as opposed to her record company, has selected.{{cite web|title=Best of Nena description and credits|url=http://www.nena.de/de/discografie/best-nena|website=Nena.de|date=17 June 2013 |accessdate=28 September 2016}}

Following the death of the band's guitarist Carlo Karges in early 2002, Nena included the Eisbrecher track "Zusammen", which he had written, in her live concert setlists in 2002–2004 and again in the period since 2014, invariably as part of the finale.{{cite web|title=2015 Clubtour setlist|url=http://www.nena.de/en/tour/clubtour-2015|website=Nena.de|publisher=Nena Official website|accessdate=25 February 2016}}{{cite web|title=Nena Chokmah tour set list|url=http://www.nena.de/tour/chokmah-tour-2001-2002|website=Nena.de|accessdate=5 November 2014}}{{cite web|title=Nena set list 2003–2004|url=http://www.nena.de/tour/live-2003-2004|website=Nena.de|accessdate=5 November 2014}}Per Paderborn concert 27 August 2014 setlist, "Zusammen" was final song A live version recorded in 2015 appears on Nena's 2016 album Live at SO36. Aptly for a performer ending a concert, the theme of the song is that the singer knows nothing about the person she is singing to ("where you live ... who you are ... what you do ... who you kiss") except that she and they belong "zusammen" (together).{{cite web|title=Lyrics and credits for "Zusammen"|url=http://www.nena.de/de/zusammen|website=Nena.de|date=11 May 2013 |accessdate=28 September 2016}}

{{Track listing

| title1 = Engel der Nacht

| note1 = Angels of the Night

| writer1 = Jörn-Uwe Fahrenkrog-Petersen, Carlo Karges

| length1 = 3:51

| title2 = Mondsong

| note2 = Moon Song

| writer2 = Nena Kerner

| length2 = 3:47

| title3 = Frei wie der Wind

| note3 = Free as the Wind

| writer3 = Jürgen Dehmel, Kerner

| length3 = 4:38

| title4 = Schön wär es doch

| note4 = Wouldn't It Be Nice

| writer4 = Rolf Brendel, Karges

| length4 = 4:08

| title5 = Tokyo

| writer5 = Kerner

| length5 = 4:28

| title6 = Jetzt bist du weg

| note6 = Now You Are Gone

| writer6 = Fahrenkrog, Kerner

| length6 = 4:53

| title7 = Sonnenaufgang

| note7 = Sunrise

| writer7 = Fahrenkrog, Kerner

| length7 = 3:41

| title8 = Ring frei

| note8 = Seconds Out (For the Next Round)

| writer8 = Karges

| length8 = 3:56

| title9 = Zusammen

| note9 = Together

| writer9 = Karges

| length9 = 3:36

| title10 = Eisbrecher

| note10 = Icebreaker

| writer10 = Karges

| length10 = 4:39

}}

• Rolf Brendel – drums
• Jörn-Uwe Fahrenkrog-Petersen – keyboards, backing vocals
• Jürgen Dehmel – bass
• Carlo Karges – guitar
• Nena – vocals

{{Reflist}}

• [http://www.nena.de/de/discografie/eisbrecher Eisbrecher] at the official Nena website
• {{Discogs master|144630|Eisbrecher}}

{{Nena|top=yes}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:1986 albums

Category:CBS Records albums

Category:1980s German-language albums

Category:Nena (band) albums