Day 258: Modern Talking – The 1st Album
It’s Friday night, I’m raring to go, I’m keen to start my weekend with a little bit of disco-flavoured Europop. I am nothing if not eurotrash and an aspiring disco diva, but my euro-disco enjoyment hasn’t really reached the levels I would like yet. But that’s an easy problem to fix, let’s listen to some Modern Talking.
Album cover courtesy of Hansa Records
Modern Talking was a German duo consisting of songwriter and producer Dieter Bohlen with singer Thomas Anders. Bohlen had produced some German-speaking schlager songs for Anders, after which he suggested they form a Eurodisco-duo, with Anders singing songs that Bohlen wrote and produced. They were originally going to call themselves Modernes Gesprach, before settling on the slightly more globally appealing version of the name.
As you may be able to guess if you’re incredibly intelligent, The 1st Album is the duo’s debut studio album. The first song of the their 1st Album is “You’re My Heart, You’re My Soul”, which turned the duo into an overnight success after they performed it on German television. The album went platinum in Germany, selling more than 500,000 copies.
I thought the duo would sustain the elegant euro-disco vibes of the opener “You’re My Heart, You’re My Soul” throughout the album, but unfortunately I can smell whiffs of schlager within the first few songs, which I am unfortunately too sober to enjoy. It is also very much aged and you can tell from every single note that it’s from the 1980s. But is it fun? Eh. Kind of? There’s no other immediate floor-fillers than the aforementioned track, the rest are mainly just fine.
There’s a certain charm to the group’s funky ‘80s style and synthy disco pop, but I think Modern Talking is a band that’s best enjoyed on a dance floor, or maybe on a best of-compilation. At least to me, they just don’t have enough appeal to listen to a whole album. It just sounds a bit too much like what would be playing in a bar somewhere in central-northern Europe in 1990 while a man in a mullet tries to talk about the hockey world cup to you on the dance floor. It’s just not good enough to transcend how much the sound has aged.
I kind of liked it. Granted, I didn’t like it enough to ever listen to it again, but nevertheless. Both the songs and the lyrics are simple and universally appealing, but there aren’t enough bangers to successfully carry the album to 2026. It’s a 5.5/10. I think I enjoyed the fake guitar playing in the performance below more than the album itself.