Eisbrecher | ||||
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Studio album by Nena | ||||
Released | 24 November 1986 | |||
Recorded | 1985–1986 | |||
Genre | Neue Deutsche Welle, pop rock, pop | |||
Length | 41:41 | |||
Language | German | |||
Label | CBS | |||
Producer | Nena, Klaus Voormann | |||
Nena (band) chronology | ||||
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Nena chronology | ||||
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Singles from Eisbrecher | ||||
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Eisbrecher (German for "Icebreaker") is the fourth and final album by German pop rock band Nena and the fifth studio album of its singer, Gabriele "Nena" Kerner. After the band split the following year, Kerner went on to a solo career. "Mondsong" and the remix of "Engel der Nacht" were released as singles.
The Eisbrecher album came out when the fortunes of the band were decidedly on the wane. The concert tour to promote its predecessor, Feuer und Flamme, had been poorly attended and the band had parted company with their manager Jim Rakete. In his 2014 memoirs, the band’s drummer Rolf Brendel described the idea behind the album, “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.”
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.” In contrast to the three previous albums (two number ones and one number 2 in the German charts), Eisbrecher only managed number 45 in the German charts.
The first single to be released from the album was "Mondsong" which reached #37 in the German charts. The follow-up, "Engel der Nacht", 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 ).
The commercial failure of these two singles, one a Nena penned ballad, 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.