This album remains one of my all-time favorites, and stands as one of the greatest synth-pop albums ever recorded. Many of Alphaville's biggest and best songs are here - "A Victory of Love", "Big In Japan", "Sounds Like A Melody", "The Jet Set" and (of course) the title track. The rest of the album is excellent as well, especially "Summer In Berlin" and "Fallen Angel". Alphaville would not return to an all-synthesizer sound for over 10 years with their "comeback" album Salvation (probably my second favorite AV album) in 1996. I don't think that Alphaville was ever able to top this first effort - despite some other excellent work since then - and they never produced another album as consistent as this one is. From start to finish, it's an extremely satisfying listen. There are few albums I can recommend as highly as Forever Young - this is synth-pop at it's absolute best.

I received this album from a friend in 1989 and could not stop listening to it all summer long. It's full of these fast paced synthesizer songs, and has that cool 80s European new wave sound to it. Big In Japan will always be one of my most favorite songs. Other favorites a include Victory of Love, In the Mood, Sounds Like a Melody, and Lies. My only complaint is that Forever Young is in the slow version. I wish that they had included the faster version instead. Guess I have to get the Singles Collection for that.
If you like A-ha, you'll love Alphaville.
Now each time I put this on it's 1989 again.

I first heard this album while in high school in the late 80's. I was living in Japan at the time (an Air Force brat) so naturally Big In Japan hit a cord. Nothing prepared me though for what is a completely awsome album. I love every track but Sounds Like a Melody is my favorite. I could listen to it over and over again.

The other reviewers have it right so I won't repeat their praises. This is one of the seminal 80's albums, much overlooked which is a shame. Their later releases are all great in their own right, but newcomers to Alphaville should get this one first. It will lay the groundwork for what will hopefully be a fanatic love of this German group. It cooled my teen angst with its hopefull melodies and is ear candy to my now mature ear. Get this, get all the Alphaville albums you can, I doubt you'll regret it. They are still around and cranking out the good stuff. Prostitute is the only one I've had trouble getting into, but as with all there stuff after Forever Young, the more you listen to it, the better it gets. This album gets my highest reccomendation.

I just bought this album for the first time (Feb 2002). I knew Alphaville's two radio hits, "Big in Japan" and "Forever Young" like everyone else. Although I am a fan of 1980s New Wave having come of age in that period, I was never moved to buy anything from Alphaville before. Now that I've listened to the full CD, I've uncovered a gem of an album! The music and lyrics are very consistent; I actually like every song on the CD. You can really feel alot of heart and soul in this CD, which is what I look for. I am so impressed that I just purchased two more Alphaville CDs and am awaiting delivery. If you are a fan of 1980s New Wave, this is a great CD to own. Highly recommended!

There are very few classic New Wave/ Synth/ Pop/ Pop-Rock bands coming from 80s squeezed through the ever-shape-shifting landspace of 90s reaching to stomach-churningly despisable 2000s...IMHO Pet Shop Boys, Depeche Mode and New Order are the untouchables of those bands, in the very same order of talent and musical genius.

Likewise there are some great debut albums that have a special place in my heart from that magical era. One of them is PSB's Please, a magical journey through the eye of a disappointed but cultured materialistic yuppie. Another is, though much more efervescant pop, is AHA's Hunting High and Low...and there is also Alphaville, the creators of that smash worldwide hit Big In Japan. Their debut, Forever Young is a small-scaled masterpiece.

If you were not living in a cave in 80s, you should have already known about Big In Japan, Sounds Like a Melody and the heaven-like Forever Young. They were on air play, on TV, in discos, almost omnipresent songs that shook the hearts and brains of mid-80 youth and teenages. They are simply gorgeous pop songs and will remain so forever.

Two opening songs of the album are also suberp, Summer in Berlin being the outstanding of them. That said, the album slightly loses steam in the middle, only to raise above the clouds with that saintly Forever Young and then the rest flows like a smooth river until it reaches the sea.

Alphaville's debut once more points out that though 80s music might sound cheesy and date, the best of the New Wave/ Pop bands working in that era were doing the music with their hearts in it, with love and passion, to express their worldly feelings, with sophisticated, highly ambigious, but clever intellectual lyrics backed by grandiose and lush synth arrangements...a sharp contrast to current fake, insincere and manufactured musical landscape of today. What a pity!

A bit Bowie, a bit Ultravox, a bit Depeche Mode, a bit of everything 80s, you must enjoy this debut album...It is at your peril if you don't...