Southern Lands by Cetu Javu

Southern Lands, the 1990 debut from German synth-pop outfit Cetu Javu, came out on ZYX Music with most of its cards already on the table: the singles had been trickling out since 1988, and the album gathers them up in fresh clothes. "Situations" and "Have in Mind" turn up in new remixes, "So Strange" in a trimmed edit, and "A Dónde", first issued as a single in Spain, rounds out the set.

Singer Javier Revilla Diez, born in Germany to parents who had emigrated from Spain, sings mostly in English but slips into Spanish on several songs, and that switch gives the cool new wave backing from keyboard player Chris Demere and Stefan and Torsten Engelke a warmer accent. "Situations", "Have in Mind" and "A Dónde" all became dance hits, with "Have in Mind" the pick, all pulse and yearning. The Mexican band Sentidos Opuestos later covered "A Dónde". Where Is Where followed, the second and last album the band made.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.