The Breathtaking Blue (1989)

Reviewers tended to be less enthusiastic about Alphaville's third album than their previous two. One reviewer called the album "somewhat disappointing" compared to their previous releases, and notes that "the production, by Klaus Schulze and Alphaville ... is met with mixed success." In particular the reviewer found that the songs suffered due to the band's "experiments with a somewhat richer instrumentation, adding strings, saxophone, trumpet, double bass, electric and even acoustic guitars." That said, reviewers did like some of the individual tracks on the album, calling "Heaven or Hell" "interesting," and saying that "For a Million" was "as genuine as the band gets."1 A separate reviewer was more positive, calling the album "a highly polished cluster of glimmering technopop" and saying that "the overall effect is accessible and often breathtaking