Picked this up recently to fill out my TD collection a bit with the more obscure stuff. I was not expecting much. As most, I'm a fan of TD's Franke years. Not as most, I also like a fair bit of their post-Franke years. But I'm no longer a "rabid TD fan". Heartbreakers is quite a find. First, it has all the feel of an early 80's TD soundtrack, but there is almost zero rehash of studio songs, as there is on most others. That alone makes this required listening. Second, the music is interesting, beautiful, upbeat, with plenty of Franke-isms, haunting Froese & Schmoelling melodies and, of course, intricate TD sequences. The production quality is superb for 1984. Your interest will be piqued by the middle of track 1, at which point you suspect this short album may not be the waste of time you had pegged it as. Some of the most energetic Franke-era TD can be found in Gemini, with its overarching electric melody peaks mingling with rich, low synth valleys. Like Le Parc, but more so! Wow! Then over to the bass-riff laden funk of Thorny Affair. Alternately, some of the songs are haunting and strongly emotional (1,2,8). I can only guess at how brilliant they would be in a movie context. Lastly, the extremely fun and cheery Daybreak, which makes me feel like I did the first time I heard Poland. Brilliant! On the downside, Froese starts to lose me a bit in the guitar-heavy 6 & 7. And being an 80's soundtrack album, everything is way too short. It would have been nice to see some of the ideas expanded into 15 minute TD journeys. Overall, one of the best TD soundtracks ever.

tcordes - I very much agree with your assessment of this recording. At the time I was a buyer in music store (remember them?). Since TD put out a lot of music, I wasn't expecting a whole lot. I was very pleasantly surprised. In fact when I was putting together a TD compilation for my car, I made sure to squeeze in two pieces from Heartbreakers (trks 5 and 8). Glad to see someone else has spotted this under-valued release.