Customer Reviews

14 Friendly Abductions: Best of

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is, of course, great compilation. Nevertheless, I feel i must warn you that many of the tracks on the CD are U.S. versions of songs that are even better (MUCH better, actually) when Nina sings them in German. And I don't even think you have to understand the German lyrics in order to appreciate the difference. I can only interpret fragments of them, and for me the difference between the U.S. and German versions of, for example, New York, New York, is HUGE.

A great listen if you're in the mood for punk rock, high energetic music. And Nina truly delivers! I enjoy this when I just want to get down and get damn crazy in my apartment. My personal favorites are "Zarah";starts off with a slow cabaret style vocal ala MARLENE DIETRICH, but really a tribute to 1930's german singer ZARAH LENDER, which progresses into GIORGIO MORODER'S frenetic dance beats;"COSMA SHIVA" which has a nice groove, yet ethereal and outworldly sounding. Cosma Shiva by the way is the name of her daughter. Other tracks that are noteworthy are AFRICAN REGGAE, SPIRIT IN THE SKY, WHITE PUNKS ON DOPE(don't know the german title off hand), UNIVERSAL RADIO and NEW YORK,NEW YORK.

Julius-Allan

Nina Hagen.
This compilation covers her career from 78-85.
Her ferious debut back in 1978, made Nina a major star in Germany and nothern Europe.
Her first english lp, Nunsexmonkrock was released in 82'and the American critics reeled in horror. They couldn't take her honest opinion about how the world was evolving back then.
She continued to be successful, she scored a top ten dance hit with, New York New York and got a number #1 dance hit with, Universal Radio. Nina uses every aspects of communicating, she screams, joddles, talks and she even sings.
If you're looking for something different and unique, then pick up this album, hate or love her, it's doesn't make a difference, because she will get your full attention.

These 14 tracks encompass some of Nina Hagen's timeless songs but they do not represent her best by any means. The best tracks here are TV Glotzer (White Punks On Dope, originally by The Tubes), African Reggae, her German version of Lene Lovich's Lucky Number which is titled Wir Leben Immer Noch and her interpretation of Norman Greenbaum's gospel song Spirit In The Sky. These capture the essence of the early Nina Hagen from the first two albums Nina Hagen Band and Unbehagen.

Other memorable tracks are New York New York, Universal Radio and her weird take on My Way. The song Zarah appears in three different mixes: the original, the dance mix and the dub. The CD booklet offers informative liner notes, photographs and info on the songs. Her early music was original and exceptional, an inspired blend of rock, punk and operatic vocals, whilst the later stuff became a little formulaic or did not live up to the high standard of the first two albums.

There are two other compilations that offer more of the early innovative songs like Naturtraene, Unbeschreiblich Weiblich, Auf'm Bahnhof Zoo and Heiss. These are the Definitive Collection and Very Best Of. But this one, 14 Friendly Abductions is a great introduction for the casual fan. Nina Hagen is an exceptional vocalist who made some of the most intriguing music of the late 1970s and early 1980s.

I have followed Nina Hagens music for almost two decades, and I must admit that this is one of the best compilations yet. The manner in which the album is structured is almost ethereal. Unrealistic. But solid, and with its feet firmly planted on the ground. It gave me the sensation that life is but a dream, and then you wake up.

Nina was one of my early favorites-all the gay DJ's who taught me how to spin records introduced me to the former porn star and I've been hooked ever since. This best of is certainly a good cross-section of her always quirky, often noisy, brand of new wave. For a real treat, hunt down a copy of the Smack Jack video. Classic.

This is one of the most outgoing best-of CDs ever. Usually they are simply a few of the band's most radio-friendly songs stuck onto a CD, barely using half of the 80 alloted minutes. Nina Hagen is different.

This CD features a diverse arrangement of tracks spanning the artist's career. It is also not completely limited to english versions, and features a substancial amount of the original German recordings.

Many people may be appauled by Nina's unique sound. For one, she dosen't sing all the time. Besides singing, her vocals also include talking and even vocal noises. As her long time friend Lene Lovich has said, "Sometimes you can't express an emotion with words. This is when small vocally expressed sounds come in." Nina is truly an original artist.

The only imporvement I can think of would to invent a CD that can hold an extra 5 minutes of music, just for Nina's duet with Lene Lovich, "Don't Kill The Animals".

The Best of Nina Hagen - 14 Friendly Abductions is terribly distorted, and does not have her best songs! If you look at it on Sound Studio (or any other sound editing software) you will see why every song sounds distorted. They cranked up the volume during the re-mastering and almost every note in every song is "clipped" really badly. That's when the curved peaks are cut off and literally missing their tops, because there was no place for them to go, which does result in distortion. Instead of nice wavy lines, it looks like someone spilled a lot of ink in a rectangular box.

Plus, "14 Friendly Abductions" is an interesting title considering that it's missing Flying Saucers and UFO, two of her best songs! It's missing a Lot of her best songs, actually.

So, get Fearless and Nunsexmonkrock. That would be hugely better than The Best of Nina Hagen, a distorted mess that is missing so much of her best!!

NOTES ON OTHER ALBUMS:

I discovered Nina Hagen when a friend loaned me Nunsexmonkrock in the early 80s. I loved Cosma Shiva and UFO so much, I put them on a cassette to play in the car over and over. Nunsexmonkrock is one of her very best albums. She actually never did do very many albums in the New Wave/Dance/Pop style with metaphysical lyrics that some of us love so much...

The Fearless LP is about the only other really great album she ever did (if you prefer her early style). I was so excited when Fearless was finally released on CD. It is truly one of my all time favorite Pop Albums!

After listening to Fearless off and on for many years, I have never gotten tired of it at all. It's Timeless. It's sweet. It's fun. It's Enlightening. Because I do enjoy it so much, I think Nina is at her best here, and the music itself - the arrangements, the instrumentations, the "sound" and sound quality... It's all just awesome.

The Best of Nina Hagen - 14 Friendly Abductions is terribly distorted, and does not have her best songs! If you look at it on Sound Studio (or any other sound editing software) you will see why every song sounds distorted. They cranked up the volume during the re-mastering and almost every note in every song is "clipped" really badly. That's when the curved peaks are cut off and literally missing their tops, because there was no place for them to go, which does result in distortion. Instead of nice wavy lines, it looks like someone spilled a lot of ink in a rectangular box.

Plus, "14 Friendly Abductions" is an interesting title considering that it's missing Flying Saucers and UFO, two of her best songs! It's missing a Lot of her best songs, actually.

So, get Fearless and Nunsexmonkrock. That would be hugely better than The Best of Nina Hagen, a distorted mess that is missing so much of her best!!

This was the best!! It's so hard to find good collections of Nina anywhere, and when I found this one I was truely happy!!

A must have for any Nina fan!!

Not for every one Cd, and people who don't know what's ahead might get frightened (see some former reviews), but if you are open minded and like energetic punk-rock music, than you wont stop smiling. Nina is an excellent performer and her music is a complex although melodic. I enjoy listening even tough the German language is the worst, but with NH serving it doesn't matter (still, a few tracks are in English).
this CD is a good place to start knowing Nina Hagen great voice, every track is a pleasure. the only bad thing about it is that you'll end up wanting more of her.