STERN MEISSEN - NÄCHTE

Same as "Taufrisch" (Fresh One), the only reason I enjoy listening to this album is because I find it entertaining, but it is not prog at all and for that reason it gets a two star rating.

It seems Stern Meissen wanted to reach a bigger audience and as a result caved in to the popularity of Neue Deutsche Welle and probably lost a good chunk of their earlier fans in the process. Perhaps one could also call this album Taufrisch Teil 2 (Part 2).... Here they are basically doubling down on their popness so to speak. The song "Ich bin frei" (I Am Free), which became a temporary hit, is a great example of that. Besides the fact that the only person left from the early Stern (Combo) Meissen period is Martin Schreier who does not even write, play or sing anything on the album and is only credited as a producer alongside ex-keyboardist Lothar Kramer. It's almost as if it's a different band at this point.

After this, the band would split up a couple of years later and not put out another studio album full of original music until 2011's "Lebensuhr" (Clock of Life) when they added "Combo" back into their name and somewhat returned to their prog roots.