Live at SO36
| Live at SO36 | |||||||||||
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| Live album by Nena | |||||||||||
| Released | 4 March 2016[1] | ||||||||||
| Genre | Pop | ||||||||||
| Length | 88:32 | ||||||||||
| Language | German | ||||||||||
| Label | The Laugh and Peas Company | ||||||||||
| Nena chronology | |||||||||||
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| Nena live chronology | |||||||||||
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Live at SO36 is the 6th live album of the German pop singer Nena. It comprises the recording of most of her concert performed at the SO36 club in Berlin on 4 March 2015 and will be released exactly one year later on 4 March 2016.
Background
Nena’s association with the SO36 club goes back to the early 1980s when she lived in Berlin prior to becoming famous. In her 2005 memoirs "Willst du mit mir gehn", she describes it as being one of the three main places where she spent her weekends.[2]
The sold-out concert on 4 March 2015 was part of a "clubtour" of smaller venues for audiences of 500 to 700 people aimed at promoting Nena’s album Oldschool which had been released the previous month.[3] Extracts of the video from the second single released from Oldschool, "Berufsjugendlich", had also been filmed at SO36.[4] Live at SO36 reflects this with 11 of its 21 tracks being from Oldschool, the remainder being mainly Nena’s most well known songs from the 1970s and 1980s and only one track ("Willst Du Mit Mir Gehn) from the intervening quarter of a century. Six tracks performed at the concert (including the other 5 tracks from Oldschool) were not included in the album.
Critical reception
The SO36 concert on 4 March 2015 received generally positive reviews from local media at the time but the reception to the album a year later was more mixed.
Concert reviews
For the Berliner Zeitung, Aleksandar Zivanovic wrote, “When it comes to not getting older, even Madonna can only look up to Nena.…She jumps from left to right, her songs much better live than in any disco. The band play very precisely, Nena matches it and the audience have a good time, some cuddling, some already knowing the lyrics of her new songs.”[5]
Similarly Frank Thiessies for BZ referred to a, “performance combining majesty and grass-roots,” and, “Nena’s winning girlish personality.” He went on to describe how, “The stage set shines in old "Musikladen" TV appearance, the eighties are more present than ever and suddenly SO36 is also again anchored in West Berlin.”[6]
Another positive review by Peter E Müller appeared in Morgenpost.de. “On Wednesday night, the eternal princess of the Neue Deutsche Welle came on stage with her musicians at a packed SO36 in Kreuzberg. And was euphorically celebrated.” Müller found one fault as he described how, “Nena enjoys every minute, is driven by an over excited restlessness, only making a mess - with a smile - of one verse of a new song.”[7]
Another favourable article was published by Der Tagesspiegel under the strapline, “whoever doesn’t sing along has no voice.” Esther Kogelboom wrote that, “The hall shakes with breathless emotion as, for the first time, Nena sings “Bruder” a song about the death of her first son Christopher, who died at eleven months….Scary how Nena recites its lines without choking. You wait for a stumble, a pause. There’s no deviation, but a seamless transition to "Wunder gescheh'n", perhaps to avoid a reaction from the audience.”[8]
Album reviews
Live at SO36 was made “CD of the week” by Alster Radio[9] but was negatively received by the music review website 'Laut.de' which gave it 2 out of 5 stars. Describing Nena concerts in the 21st century as, “nothing more than nostalgia trips,” and referring to her, “unabated artistic decline continuing,” Michael Schuh wrote of the enthusiastic audience, “It’s like staring at the home shopping channel QVC, when you always ask yourself, ‘How can they fall for this?’”[10]
A more positive review in 'Leute.de' concludes that the album, “is a fascinating live document… that demonstrates the many facets of the NDW icon who stylistically oscillates here between pop, rock, indie and electro and who, with her outstanding live qualities, knows how to pamper in an intimate setting.”[11]
Chart performance
Live at SO36 entered and peaked at number 43 in the German charts, the second highest position achieved by Nena's six live albums. [12] One of its tracks, "Genau Jetzt (live)", was one of five versions of the song included on the EP which in April 2016 returned Nena to the German Top 30 singles chart for the first time in 6 years.[13]
Track listing
| Vinyl, CD and download[1] | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Studio version album | Length |
| 1. | "Noch Einmal - Live" | Carlo Karges | Nena | 4:32 |
| 2. | "Lieder von früher - Live" | Herr Sorge, Jan van der Toorn, Nena, Jan Gunther | Oldschool | 3:06 |
| 3. | "Ja Das War's - Live" | Sorge, Toorn, Krogh, Nena, Thorsten Haas | Oldschool | 2:44 |
| 4. | "Betonblock - Live" | Sorge, Toorn, Krogh, Nena | Oldschool | 3:07 |
| 5. | "Kreis - Live" | Sorge, Toorn, Krogh, Nena | Oldschool | 3:50 |
| 6. | "Zaubertrick - Live" | Jörn-Uwe Fahrenkrog-Petersen, Rolf Brendel | Oldschool | 4:07 |
| 7. | "Ecstasy - Live" | Frank Becking, Rainer Kitzmann | The Stripes | 3:06 |
| 8. | "Nur geträumt - Live" | Fahrenkrog, Nena, Brendel | Nena | 4:52 |
| 9. | "Willst Du Mit Mir Gehn - Live" | Nena, Fahrenkrog | Willst du mit mir gehn | 4:31 |
| 10. | "Sonnemond - Live" | Sorge, Toorn, Krogh, Nena, Tony Brown | Oldschool | 3:11 |
| 11. | "Leuchtturm - Live" | Fahrenkrog, Nena | Nena | 6:09 |
| 12. | "Berufsjugendlich - Live" | Sorge, Toorn, Krogh, Nena, John Andrews | Oldschool | 3:05 |
| 13. | "99 Luftballons - Live" | Karges, Fahrenkrog | Nena | 4:20 |
| 14. | "Genau Jetzt - Live" | Sorge, Toorn, Krogh, Nena | Oldschool | 4:07 |
| 15. | "Pi Ich Rechne Mit Allem - live" | Toorn, Krogh, Nena, Andrews, Philipp Palm | Oldschool | 5:46 |
| 16. | "Peter Pan - Live" | Sorge, Toorn, Krogh, Nena, Niklas Wildermann | Oldschool | 4:00 |
| 17. | "Bruder - Live" | Sorge, Toorn, Krogh, Nena, Andrews | Oldschool | 3:40 |
| 18. | "Wunder Geschehn - Live" | Nena | Wunder gescheh'n | 5:13 |
| 19. | "Irgendwie, irgendwo, irgendwann - Live" | Karges, Fahrenkrog | Feuer und Flamme | 4:09 |
| 20. | "Schicksal - Live" | Sorge, Toorn, Krogh, Nena | Oldschool | 4:19 |
| 21. | "Zusammen - Live" | Karges | Eisbrecher | 6:38 |
References
- 1 2 "Live at SO36". Nena.de. Official Nena website. Retrieved 24 February 2016.
- ↑ Kerner, Nena; Thesenfitz, Claudia (2005). Willst Du Mit Mir Gehn. Verlagsgruppe Lübbe GmbH & Co KG. p. 18. ISBN 3-7857-2135-8.
- ↑ "Clubtour dates and set list". Nena.de. Official Nena website. Retrieved 25 February 2016.
- ↑ "Perfectprops: Frank Wilde for Nena 'Berufsjugendlich'". Gosee creative news services. Gosee. Retrieved 28 February 2016.
- ↑ Zivanovic, Aleksandar. "Nena: "Is that cool!"". Berliner-zeitung.de. Berliner Zeitung. Retrieved 28 February 2016.
- ↑ Thiessies, Frank. "Nena charms in an intimate setting". bz-berlin.de. Bild. Retrieved 28 February 2016.
- ↑ Müller, Peter E. "Nena within touching distance at Kreuzberg's SO36". Morgenpost.de. Berliner Morgenpost. Retrieved 28 February 2016.
- ↑ Kogelboom, Esther. "Until the end of this world: Nena in SO36". tagesspiegel.de. Der Tagesspiegel. Retrieved 28 February 2016.
- ↑ "CD der Woche". Alsterradio.de. Alster Radio GmbH & Co KG. Retrieved 10 March 2016.
- ↑ Schuh, Michael. "Wo ist das Tauschkonzert, wenn man es braucht?". Laut.de. Retrieved 10 March 2016.
- ↑ "Nena - 'Nena - Live at SO36'". Echte-leute.de. Retrieved 10 March 2016.
- ↑ "Official German charts - Nena (click on "Album")". Offiziellecharts.de. GfK Entertainment. Retrieved 11 March 2016.
- ↑ "Offizielle Deutsche Charts". Offiziellecharts.de [type "Nena" in "Suchen" field]. GfK entertainment. Retrieved 15 April 2016.