STERNTAUCHER

The once beautiful butterfly of NOVALIS is now a drab grey moth, only of scientific or historical interest. The group had clearly decided to join the masses, but failed to propose much to distinguish themselves. Hence we have a second rate new wave band on most of "Sterntaucher"; in fairness, there really were very few first rate bands of this ilk.

I can live with the mildly edgy rockers like "Fährmann" and "Ich will hier 'raus" far better than I can with the dismal power ballads "Abschied" and the disingenuous epic "Keiner kann gewinnen". One could always count on Novalis for a few instrumentals of reasonable or better quality, but "Sterntaucher" has only one, which is the closing cut "Sinus", a spacey and slowly unravelling tune that ultimately resurrects the listener. The title track is a decent UB40-styled number and the other long song "Grenzen" shows the group could still take on the emotional ballad, even if our gratitude is largely due to the sinisterly caterwauling guitars.

"Star Diver" plumbs bathymetric depths yet unexplored by NOVALIS, and offers little beyond surface pleasure.