Du bist gut is a studio album by German pop singerNena. The album was recorded in Iceland and released on 2 November 2012 by The Laugh and Peas Company, the record label run by Nena and her partner Philipp Palm. The cover artwork is designed by Nena's daughter Larissa, and her son Sakias duets with her on a couple of tracks. The album peaked at #2 in the German album charts.
Content
Du bist gut comprises one CD of 15 songs, and the “de luxe bonus edition” has a second CD comprising studio reworkings and live performances of earlier recordings. The album covers many of the themes running through Nena's previous work, “Freiheit” and “Frieden” being obvious examples. However it differs from many of its predecessors in that there are fewer fast songs and in “Ich habe dich verloren” Nena writes an unremittingly bleak lyric, which is unusual for one so accustomed to put a positive spin on all sorts of setbacks and misfortune. As ever, Nena experiments with stylistic variations including the 7-minute synthpop title track and the acoustic guitar backed “Lautlos” which intimately showcases her voice and carefully crafted enunciation like few others have in her 30-year career. Throughout her career, Nena's lyrics have evoked imagery of flying as a sign of well being and so it is with “Deine Flügel brechen nicht”. Its lyrics are written from the perspective of someone struggling for inspiration. It culminates in the despairing, “Hilf mir Gott, wo ist mein Licht” before Nena's son takes over the vocals repeating the reassuring song title, "your wings aren’t broken”.
Reception
Du bist gut received a mixed reception. Reviewing the album for Radio Berg, Claudia Nitsche described it as, “Rarely fresh, rather slow and sometimes sad.... Nevertheless, accepting that Du bist gut is an eclectic affair, the songs are unmistakably Nena, a fact which will very much suit the fans. And as mentioned, sometimes it really sounds good, the electronic title track being amongst the bravest compositions.". Ulf Kubanke of laut.de however, could see little positive in the album, describing Nena as, "past her artistic zenith," and the album as, "a collection of half-baked suggestions and ideas mutilated from the outset. All integrated nicely in Nena's shopping channel presentation of sweet awakening spirituality." Du bist gut was released whilst Nena was enjoying regular exposure on German national television as a juror on The Voice of Germany. However, a month after the album's release, she made two TV consecutive appearances which tarnished her reputation. Firstly she attracted criticism for her appearance on the chat show “Wetten Dass...?” by refusing to answer questions about the past and being implausibly positive about the present. Less than a week later she was thought to be unduly brusque as a juror on The Voice of Germany in dismissing an act that were not to her taste.
Singles
Two tracks were released as singles from the album. Firstly at the time of the album's release “Das ist nicht alles”, which had been amongst the tracks from Du bist gut which Nena had been performing live in her 2012 concerts preceding the album's release. The promotional video features various Nena family members as well as the singer herself, at the age of 52, making one of her rare appearances in a short skirt. The single scraped into the German top 40. The second and final single to be released was “Besser geht’s nicht”, the video to which features an appearance by the Austrian actor Helmut Berger. The single failed to chart, her first such failure since 2007 and only the second since her 2002 comeback..
Aftermath
In 2014 Nena seemed to move on from Du bist gut and the not entirely helpful national exposure surrounding its release. In March 2014 she announced her withdrawal from The Voice of Germany, saying that she was going to concentrate on her own projects, including a new book. She grew her hair longer and released her first album of children's songs for 6 years. Nena also absented herself from national TV appearances for most of the year, her longest period away from the screens since the death of her son in 1989, eventually emerging in December 2014 to appear on a programme in aid of a poverty relief charity. Despite her withdrawal from the national limelight, Nena was as active as ever in connecting with her fanbase, including via her social media output and by maintaining her schedule of live concerts which has been more or less constant since 1997. Only one track from Du bist gut survived onto the set list of her 2014 concerts, by which time she was already trailing a handful of songs from her next album, Oldschool, which was released on 27 February 2015.
