Tausend Sterne

Album Review

For her sixth album of songs for children, Nena chose a classic concept: a collection of lullabies in traditional arrangements (as opposed to the rock songs of her last children's album, Rabatz). The songs range from the world-renowned ("Guten Abend Gute Nacht" as popularized by Brahms) through to songs well known in Germany (including "Der Mond Ist Aufgegangen," which has the distinction of being the specific song that first inspired Nena to actually take up the task of recording albums especially for children, as it was one of her own childhood favorites). That and a small number of other songs on this record can also be found on her earlier albums, but these versions are all new recordings.

This album also serves as the "overture" to Nena's works on her own Nena Kids label. Later in 2002, stories about a little boy named Madou (the label's first focal point) were released in the form of a book and an album. For grown-up Nena fans, the Tausend Sterne album also provides the bonus of her first official recording of the song "Kleine Taschenlampe Brenn" ("Shine On Little Flashlight"), a very nice innocent love song that she had sung in the movie Gib Gas Ich Will Spass as a duet with German singer Markus in 1983, but which had never been released in that version on record. It fits in well on this album, even though many of the songs have their origins in previous centuries, and is therefore consciously intended to be an album of "timeless" songs.