I will readily admit that I discovered Ideal’s debut self-titled album Ideal while researching German electronic music pioneer Klaus Schulze. In 1978, Schulze co-founded the label Innovative Communication and Ideal’s self-titled album was one of the label’s first successes.
The band consists of four members: Annette Humpe, Ernst Ulrich Deuker, Frank Jürgen “Eff Jott” Krüger and Hans-Joachim “Hansi” Behrendt.
The best way to describe the overall “sound” of this album is punk (real punk, not the over-produced kind of punk) meets electronic with a dash of pop; or more simply, NDW or Neue Deutsche Welle (translated as “New German Wave”).
Humpe was the lead vocalist (although by no means the only vocalist), which gave this punk-esque album an uncharacteristically feminine sound on some tracks. I guess that I should also point out that the album is entirely in German! I didn’t bother to translate all of the lyrics, so I can’t comment on the lyricism overall, but I will say that I enjoyed Humpe’s overall vocal performance.
Despite this album being on a Klaus Schulze label and having some synth/electronic sounds sprinkled throughout its tracks, most of the heavy lifting is done by good ol’ fashioned bass, drums, and guitar as well as Humpe’s vocals. The instrumentation as well as Humpe’s raw, almost unpolished, delivery definitely gives a more punk vibe than electronic or pop vibes.
There are moments where Ideal gets a bit more daring. The track “Da leg ich mich doch lieber hin” starts off cheery and upbeat but it’s interspersed with breakdowns including spoken (male) lyrics about depressing West Berlin life featuring cigarettes, joyless coffee, no job, no money, and disappointing nightclubs. It’s almost indistinguishable from the kind of pretentious shit a hipster college student would recite at a poetry jam. I like it.
The most “poppy” track is, unsurprisingly, the most palatable and most popular track: Blaue Augen. Everything about the track is “catchy” from the instrumentals to hook and chorus. It’s as close as you’ll get to a straightforward “pop single” track on the album, but that doesn’t necessarily take anything away from it; it succeeds at being very catchy.
Overall, Ideal is a great German-language album, especially if you go into it fully expecting some punk vibes.
