Fans [Import]

Malcolm McLaren | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 15, 1985)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: EMI Europe Generic
• ASIN: B000024A7O
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #32,728 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Certainly one of the more bizarre major label releases of 1984, Malcolm McLaren's FANS has proven to be remarkably influential in ways that possibly not even its creator could have expected. On FANS, McLaren--who plays no instruments and sings even less than he did on his groundbreaking debut DUCK ROCK--combines opera, soul, and hip-hop in an entirely new (at the time) blend. Storylines and arias from CARMEN, TURANDOT, and MADAME BUTTERFLY are melded to slinky electronics. Oddly enough, the combination works. The singers, some of whom are operatic, and some of whom sound more like divas ofthe Whitney Houston variety, put over the material completely straight. There's not a trace of camp here, and the music, with its slow beats, woozy string samples and oddball accents, prefigures the rise of trip-hop by close to a decade. Put FANS beside a Moby album and you might have trouble telling them apart.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 80's Pop Opera still sings it's Arias in 2003, May 26, 2003, May 26, 2003

By 

Patrick Wayne Hayes (Greater Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fans (Audio CD)

I remember living in San Diego and listening to the very popular pop rock/punk station 91X, when I heard McLaren's "Madam Butterfly" for the first time, almost 20 years ago. This beautiful 1st track song has haunted me ever since and ultimately remained a favorite. All of the tracks creatively fuse opera with pop music melodically. For anyone who is familiar with opera or not, McLaren offers a pleasurable listening lesson on this CD and is a must for eclectic 80's music connoisseurs. This CD proved to be very valuable in a Music couse taken today, in comparison of classical and modern composers. McLaren deserves 5 stars for "Fans."

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Still a fan!, September 4, 2000

By 

"simondo" (Co. Kildare Ireland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fans (Audio CD)

I love this disc. I bought Fans on vinyl 16 years ago and still play it today. It mixes popular opera and electronic music effortlessly, complementing rather than interfering with the integrity of the original works. A precursor to Moby's `Play', the pure vocal placed in a modern setting, only more lush and seductive.

The album has two louder, rockier songs that annoyingly sit in the middle of the other more trancelike pieces, for this reason I deducted a star. All songs are gems, when I buy the CD I'll reprogram the play list and give it five stars.

Unless you find opera offensive, you will like this CD. The album sits comfortably with Beck, Moby, and Gorecki as neighbors.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Madam Butterfly, September 4, 2005

By 

Deke McClelland (Boulder, CO) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fans (Audio CD)

This is the only CD I've ever purchased for a single song. And I consider myself well compensated.

The lead track, Madam Butterfly (Un Bel Di Vedremo), is the kind of tune I can listen to anywhere, anytime. McLaren sets Puccini's operatic arrangement against the stumbling introduction of a self-admitted bounder and the faithful boastings of his concubine, a woman with whom he will never settle. This is the only pop song that absolutely breaks by heart. "Softly kissing my eyelashes. Call me fool, call me stupid. My white honky's here to stay." She is twice his equal. And it comes from the producer of the Sex Pistols. Experience perhaps.

Worth it.