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Afternoons in Utopia is the second album released by Alphaville in 1986, by Warner Music. The album was recorded between September 1985 and May 1986, and Alphaville employed no less than 27 guest musicians and singers to record the songs. 500,000 copies of the album have been sold.
Reviews for this album were again generally positive, with one reviewer saying "at points things are just bad yup-funk for wine bars, but a couple of misfires aside, Afternoons in Utopia holds up well" and "in retrospect it's actually a successful endeavour, perfectly evocative of a mainstream style." The album finished in the Top 20 in five European countries, and while its #174 placement on the US charts may be considered a disappointment, that was actually better than its arguably better-well-known predecessor, Forever Young fared. Another reviewer points out that "by the time of this album's 1986 release, synth-pop was no longer a chart concern," which may explain Alphaville's poor showing in the charts from that point forward in their careers.
Album notes:
The album's lyrics make several references to cosmic entities ("sci fi" as one reviewer called it), including comets (in general), the planet Mars and its landscape, and a starship. When the word "smile" is used in the songs "Afternoons in Utopia," "Lassie Come Home," and "Red Rose," it's printed in the liner notes as the acronym S.M.I².L.E., a reference to Timothy Leary, which stands for "Space Migration, Increased Intelligence, [and] Life Extension."
Marian Gold, singer and songwriter for the band, acknowledged that the message of their music was different from their previous album with this comment, which accompanied the song "Sensations" in the liner notes for the 1992 release First Harvest 1984-92:
“ Sometimes people used to say, "Have they gone crazy now? Talking with dolphins and all that!!" But I think that once we've learned the language of the dolphins - this mutual approach - that could be the moment of significant change in our messed up civilization.
The first song, "IAO" (which stands for International Aquarian Opera) begins with the word "night," which fades until the short IAO chorus is sung (which itself is just a lyric from the song "Afternoons in Utopia"). This word is the last word of the song "Lady Bright," which ends the album. "Lady Bright" is a limerick about relativity, wherein the lady Bright leaves one day and returns the night before.
The song "Afternoons in Utopia" is dedicated "For Inka" in the liner notes for the album.
Reviews for this album were again generally positive, with one reviewer saying "at points things are just bad yup-funk for wine bars, but a couple of misfires aside, Afternoons in Utopia holds up well" and "in retrospect it's actually a successful endeavour, perfectly evocative of a mainstream style." The album finished in the Top 20 in five European countries, and while its #174 placement on the US charts may be considered a disappointment, that was actually better than its arguably better-well-known predecessor, Forever Young fared. Another reviewer points out that "by the time of this album's 1986 release, synth-pop was no longer a chart concern," which may explain Alphaville's poor showing in the charts from that point forward in their careers.
Album notes:
The album's lyrics make several references to cosmic entities ("sci fi" as one reviewer called it), including comets (in general), the planet Mars and its landscape, and a starship. When the word "smile" is used in the songs "Afternoons in Utopia," "Lassie Come Home," and "Red Rose," it's printed in the liner notes as the acronym S.M.I².L.E., a reference to Timothy Leary, which stands for "Space Migration, Increased Intelligence, [and] Life Extension."
Marian Gold, singer and songwriter for the band, acknowledged that the message of their music was different from their previous album with this comment, which accompanied the song "Sensations" in the liner notes for the 1992 release First Harvest 1984-92:
“ Sometimes people used to say, "Have they gone crazy now? Talking with dolphins and all that!!" But I think that once we've learned the language of the dolphins - this mutual approach - that could be the moment of significant change in our messed up civilization.
The first song, "IAO" (which stands for International Aquarian Opera) begins with the word "night," which fades until the short IAO chorus is sung (which itself is just a lyric from the song "Afternoons in Utopia"). This word is the last word of the song "Lady Bright," which ends the album. "Lady Bright" is a limerick about relativity, wherein the lady Bright leaves one day and returns the night before.
The song "Afternoons in Utopia" is dedicated "For Inka" in the liner notes for the album.