Customer Reviews

Baby

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I saw their Jungle Bill video and was amazed by the music I heard: I bought the album. But the version of Jungle Bill on the record is not nearly the same as the video version. Still, the version on here is fanastic, as well as the rest of this record. Yello are musical and studio geniuses. When "One Second" came out, I couldn't believe the value of production on the record - even though I truly hated "computer music" at the time. Soon, I found nearly all Yello to be of this same high standard. The richness, clarity and depth of each & every sound in Yello's music leaves a deep mark in your memory. Each song painting a vivid picture and leaving a lasting impression. This record stacks up well against their others and any fan of Yello could not be displeased. Maintains a tribal tom-tom beat which recurs through various points in the CD. Boris and Dieter bring us the famous Billy Mackenzie, drummer Beat Ash and guitarist Marco Colombo - as well as a host of other fine musicians for yet another masterpiece from the most well-produced band of all time. WARNING: This band's impact on my idea of music changed me from an 80's punk rocker into a "computer musician".

Many of Yello's CD's sound simply fantastic and Baby is no exception. If you are already a Yello fan, Pick this up - no questions asked - it's absolutely worth $40 (the going price as I wrote this)

It's interesting to me that every Yello Album(cd?) seems to have a sonic theme to it. Baby is pretty consistant throughout, yet much different than most of thier other work. It's easy to think of it as a few revisions past the 'one second' album, much of what made that one great is here.

Homage to the Mountain is an instrumental track, and it's just fantastic, so clear, so dynamic - you'd think it was a SACD, or DVD-Audio. It alone would be worth having the CD for...
(I will stipulate that my enjoyment of most yello CD's has come through a decent stereo system at pretty good volumes. This is a CD that will not receive justice if it's played through a boom box (much in the way many sci-fi films would not be as exiting on a 13" TV vs a big screen))

One of my favorates was always the song Blender partially because of the music and the way the drums kick in, but also because of the downright goofy lyrics. (about a blender salesperson who sells door to door, and the blender also happens to convert in to the worlds most powerfull vacuume cleaner)

Anyhow I suppose I've written enough. Can't go wrong with this one or pretty much any of the CD's starting with 'one second' The first 3 CD's were good too but they had more of a home grown low-fidelity sound to them, so the music on them doesn't shine through like it does on the CD's starting with one second. Though I read on www.yello.ch that they've remastered and re-released the originals. So those too might be sonically worthwhile now too.

A true Yello classic. Includes solid hits like Rubberbandman, Jungle Bill, Who's Gone, as well as the quick and decidedly Latin On the Run which also appeared in the movie Ford Fairlane. But it is another track that is the real crowd puller - Blender - which seems to be composed with the objective of putting the dynamics and base register of loudspeakers to the test. The base is unbelievably deep and snappy and current hits like the Warp Brother's Phat Base and We will Survive are nothing but fiddly baroqe in comparison. Homage to the Mountain is short but intense, and as one Swedish Yello fan put it: "turn Homage to the Mountain on really loud and I guarantee that no one will leave the room unaffected!"

One track is missing from this excellent collection though, namely Unbelievable, released 1990, which was specificially written as the main theme to the motion picture Ford Fairlane. Had Unbelievable been included this album would have scored a clean five stars and entered the all time top 10 chart of outstanding albums! Possibly Electra or TCF kept exclusive publishing rights to the track (it is sad when business goes before pleasure). Scoring four stars Baby is still a top record and if you enjoy experimental music that goes a step further from `A Teen' and main stream and like to feel a heavy base, then Baby can not go wrong!

// J. Silvennoinen

If you are going to only get one Yello album, get "One Second". If you are going to get two, get "One Second" and "Baby". I have got all their CD's and I have to say "Baby" has really revived that "One Second" musical art. Every track on "Baby" is unique and moving. Get it.

When I first got this CD, I was kind of sceptic, but after some days of listening everything was clear. Baby is, together with Essentials and Flag, Yello's best album. Homage to the mountain is good, Rubberbandman is funny, but at the same time exellent composed and Jungle Bill as well. Ocean Club is somewhat boring to listen to (because I'm not so fond of songs with just talking), Who's Gone is just GREAT! and Capri Calling is, together with Drive Driven, extremely good and nice to listen when you want relaxing music. On the Run is good (and I mean really good) and Blender is just...divine. Sweet Thunder is exellent too.

I must admit that this album made me fall in love with "Yello", extravagance, style and taste of sounds make your heart pound, and "Capri is Calling" is one of those songs that flows trough your soul and makes you whant to close your eyes and cry out loud just to hear it again.

Baby (1991) was, in my opinion, Yello's last definitive album, before the duo switched gears and headed off in a more mechanically beat-driven, less grand-like direction with the release of Zebra (1994).

Yello hit their pinnacle with Stella and One Second. Baby (with its far-out, surreal sleeve design) is almost on par with those two, except that I have deducted a star from my rating of this CD, due to the inclusion of the anecdotal Ocean Club, a narrative by a fictional private eye that doesn't quite work for me; in fact, I think it drags the album down, sticking out like a bit of a sore thumb. I always end up pressing the skip button whenever its turn is up.

One other minor flaw of Baby is its meager running length; the album contains 10 tracks, but it only clocks in at 39:38.

Dieter Meier and Boris Blank are practically geriatrics and they're still churning out dance albums. Now that's cool!

The offbeat, basso profundo Rubberbandman (whose title brings to mind Kate Bush's Rubberband Girl) and the driving, uptempo Who's Gone? are my favorites. Both contain Meier munching on delicious mumbo-jumbo: the former, a giocoso, humoresque ditty that seems to be about the quality of resilience (the buffa video has Meier clad in a caveman costume?), and the latter, some skimble-scamble verses, a half patter song, that features my favorite of all Yello choruses - mystically sung, numinously themed.

The sensual vocals of Billy Mackenzie are back on Capri Calling (with lyrics by the singer), an ultra-romantic love song as equally as seductive as his earlier Moon On Ice, off the One Second album. This track is followed up nicely by Meier's distinguished crooner, on the reciprocal Drive/Driven.

Sweet Thunder is a perfect ender. Just as the haunting L'Hotel closed out the One Second album, Sweet Thunder, another spooky, atmospheric instrumental, is the icing on the cake here - a recording that would make for some apt mood music on Halloween night!

On a good system, On The Run will blow you away with it's low end, Ocean Club will have you hearing "Norman, Lou Norman" for days, and Sweet Thunder is just plain Kickass.

if you only get one yello cd, get '1980-85 : The New Mix All In One Go', but if you get two, get it and Baby.

This is Yello's best cd. enough said.

But like all Yello, if your system sucks, you wont get full enjoyment out of this. Save your money.

Yello has to be one of the most underrated bands, at least in the US. Throughout the years they have consistently produced unique, quirky techno mixed with acid jazz with a theatrical feel. This is not an exception here. Great work.