For the first time since the 2022 EP The Blues, Ewald Kegel releases fresh, new vocal tracks on The Golden Years. The album contains 7 vocal tracks as well as 6 new, instrumental tracks. The intriguing cover of the album -picturing an elderly couple in their golden years sunbathing on the deck of a cruise ship while approaching an iceberg- is a give away that is album is not only a lighthearted entertainment affair.
It is also a contrast to Ewald’s earlier album The Adolescent Years which deals with the songs he wrote in his adolsecent period during the early 80s. Those songs then dealt mainly with themes of love and relationships.
The Golden Years on the other hand breathes both 1970s with soulful tracks like Possibilities and Unfinished Business, while And So it Goes and Paradox with their computerised drums have a much more 1980s flavour. But the song’s lyrics are much more dark than on The Adolescent Years.
The original idea was to record a number of singles back to back and then finally wrap them up in an album. Due to the many songs recorded in a relatively short time span this idea was abandoned and only the previous released singles Cry Or Shy and Alla Marcia ended up on the album. The Golden Years explores on the A-side darker themes with a strong social context. The days where people in the ‘First World’ would see an ever increasing growth of wealth are long over. Instead people are locked more and more into social uncertainty and personal problems.
And So It Goes describes this uncertain feeling many are experiencing in the 2020’s. The opening lines are:
And so it goes
And so it stays the same
When you think
You’ve got it made
They change their game
And those lyrics are set against a compulsive beat with a heavy synths arrangement.
Long Long Gone also has a somber mood where Ewald Kegel deals with being cut from people and experiences from the past while ageing. Actually the song (without the lyrics) was already written around 1981, so this is the oldest song on the album.
After this traditional track, Paradox is relying on a synth based arrangement and reminding of early 1980s bands like The Human League.
The remainder of side-A closes with two instrumental tracks: Traveller In The Mist and Possibilities. Side-B opens with the only ballad on the album, You Made Me So Happy. A composition that Kegel wrote around 1990, partially inspired by Sinead o’Connors’ Nothing Compares To U. The song also was featured on his 2024 album Spiritual Journey as the instrumental track Make U So Happy.
Alla Marcia started as an attempt to catch the essence of Rachmaninof’s Opus 23 No. 5, but as work progressed something new and very different emerged. Cry or Shy was in hindsight the start of the album, being recorded in July 2025 as the first track of the album. It is an intriguing song with different variations and a vocoder lead that knows to capture the emotional atmosphere of the development of a relationship between man and woman.
After a short interlude with a short phrase from Beethoven’s sonata Pathetique another highlight of the album is certainly the soulful, tongue in cheek song Unfinished Business. The track combines a Stevie Wonder inspired basic track with soulful back ground vocals gerenated with help of AI.
The End is the beautiful instrumental piano closer. The ethereal atmosphere is being followed by a short addition, Thank You But No. Although it looks like a simple effective ending of the album it is actually a complex songs that constantly is changing in chords (C-G, F-A-D, B-E, Am7-Gm7-F#7-B-Bsus4 to be precise).