Our Songs is the eighth studio album by American singer Anastacia. It was released on September 22, 2023, through German-based recording label Stars by Edel.[1] Entirely produced by Christian Geller, the album marked Anastacia's first album release since Evolution (2017).[1] Conceptually, Our Songs is a cover album that features a compilation of mostly translated interpretations of German rock songs, involving material that was originated by Scorpions, Tokio Hotel, Die Toten Hosen, Unheilig, and others.[2]
Upon its release, the album earned largely mixed reviews from music critics who praised the singer's vocal performance but felt that her versions were for inferior to the original songs. Our Songs debuted at number two on the German Albums Chart, becoming Anastacia's highest-charting album in nearly two decades. It further reached the top ten in Austria and Switzerland and reached number 16 on the UK Album Downloads Chart. A reissue of Our Songs, the Gold deluxe edition, was released on June 21, 2024.[3][4]
Background
The project originated when German producer Christian Geller approached Anastacia and her manager with the idea of covering German songs.[5] Initially confused, as she neither sang nor spoke German fluently, Anastcia soon learned that Geller intended for her to perform German hits translated into English.[5] He introduced her to German artists who had previously recorded English-language songs, such as The Scorpions and Alphaville, helping her understand the concept, though she remained uncertain about the feasibility of translating major German hits.[5] The project gained momentum when Campino, lead singer of Die Toten Hosen, expressed interest and offered one of his songs, "Tage wie diese", which was adapted into English as "Best Days".[5] The song became her first translated release and inspired the vision of creating a full album of English-language versions of German songs.[5]
On November 8, 2022, during her I'm Outta Lockdown Tour, Anastacia revealed to UK channel ITV News that she was working on a yet-undisclosed project for a 2023 release, saying: "It's a different project than I've ever done. I'm not doing music I wrote, I'm doing music other people wrote but from a different language". In April 2023, media outlets announced that Our Songs will feature interpretations of German songs, which have been translated to English.[5] On Anastacia's website the album is described as: "From 100% pop to stadium-sized rock radio anthems, the album brings together classics from different genres and decades, presenting these highlights of German music history to an international audience for the first time."[1] In adition to "Best Days", Anastacia also recorded versions of "Monsoon" by Tokio Hotel, "Forever Young" by Alphaville and "Still Loving You" by Scorpions.[1][6][7]
Promotion
In promotion of the album Stars by Edel released "Best Days" on April 28, 2023 as the album's first single.[1] On July 14, second single,"Supergirl," a cover of the 2000 Reamonn song, was released.[8][9] *A third single, "Now or Never", a cover of Johannes Oerding's 2019 song "An guten Tagen", was released on August 25.[10] A music video was released on the same day.[11] The song "Just You", was released on September 21 alongside its music video, directed by Marcel Brell.[12] The song features the original artist, Peter Maffay and is a cover of his own "So Bist du", released in 1979. A fifth single, "Highs & Lows", taken from the deluxe version of the album, was released on June 7, 2024.[13]
The album drew a range of responses from critics, who lauded her singing but considered her versions less compelling than the original tracks. Renowned for Sound editor Ryan Bulbeck called Our Songs a "mid-paced, but sweet album, chocked full of ballads and sing-along moments. While there are no stand-out uptempo tunes to dance to, listeners will be pleasantly surprised by Anastacia’s versatility. Her voice, also, is as powerful as ever, and that alone makes this an album to listen to."[16] UK-based popular culture website Culturefix noted that: "It is certainly a unique concept for an album and it is likely that many of the tracks will feel original and fresh to listeners outside Germany."[17]
Antenne Brandenburg critic Tina Knop remarked that "new interpretations fit Anastacia so well that when you listen to them you're suddenly no longer sure whether it's an Anastacia original or a cover."[18]RetroPop magazine felt that as "an album, Our Songs is a fine collection of material [...] with a vocalist as adept as Anastacia taking command over the project, they couldn't be in safer hands. What's less convincing is the overall concept, which despite being perhaps her most international work at times feels more of a passion project than the return of one of the most successful pop acts of the 2000s after more than half a decade."[15]Der Spiegel felt that "despite [Anastacia's] recognizable voice, some of the songs lack the feeling of the original, such as Sarah Connor's ballad "Wie schön du bist" ("Beautiful") or the Lindenberg classic "Cello". The instruments recorded sound more like loveless instrumental versions. This may not bother die-hard Anastacia fans from Germany."[19] Sven Kabelitz from Laut.de dismissed the album as "calculated." He found that "every single one of these twelve songs is better in the original than here."[14]
Commercial performance
Our Songs debuted at number two on the German Albums Chart in the week of September 29, 2023.[20] This marked Anastacia's highest-charting album since Anastacia (2004) and first top ten album since 2014's Resurrection.[21] In the United Kingdom, the album debuted at number 16 on the UK Albums Downloads Chart.[22] It also placed on three other charts in that country.[23]
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
