Customer Reviews

Flag

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I'm a fan of classic/progressive/hard rock stuff (Led Zeppelin, Rush, Pink Floyd etc.) and Yello's 80s albums are the only machine-based music that really impresses me.

Flag isn't exactly like anything else I've heard. It's ridiculously attractive album and "Third of June" is one of the most powerful rock songs I've heard. Yes I said "rock" because this album really rocks. In different kind of way though.

This is also the only album that EVERYONE I have played it loves immediately. It's amazing that this wasn't a HUGE hit when it originally came out. Stella, Flag and You gotta say yes... are Yello in their prime.

Personally, I don't care about the new techno stuff at all, they should never abandon this original and experimental stuff they did in the 80's. This album is amazing, I own about 3000 CD's and this easily goes to my top 10.

Priceless.

This album is a good follow-up to "One Second". Very similar in sound, although this record is more thematic in the concept of a race. Flawless musicianship, perfect mixes, unbelievable clarity and a barrage of well-written, well-contrived material adds up to another great album by a great band.

If they ever make a movie version of 'Speed Racer' this would be the soundtrack. Of all the albums by Yello, this one is the gem that get's played the most. The best cross-country driving CD of all time!

The sixth and final release in the remastered series.
A fine example of Yello and well worth owning along with the rest of the remastered bunch. I always enjoy playing this album.

My first meeting with Yello was through this disk - I've seen The Race's clip on TV when the CD came out, and the second the clip ended I was on my way to the nearest music store to by it.

It was my first foreign (as in not Israely) disk, and in the years that passed since I've bought all of their CDs.

I think this is the band's best record - it has a variety of styles, most tracks are like nothing I've heard before (something like the first Enigma disk in that respect - something new and different), and at almost any time there's a track that would fit my mood.

It's not as electronic / techno as earlier or later disks - though not very strikingly different - so it's the one I like to recommend friends the best.

For some reason this record isnt very well known - most people know Bostich, and identify the band with that song and it's style. I find this somewhat narrow view regretable - Yello is more than just Bostich-like music.

Are there any other men on the face of the planet more super-cool than Dieter Meier and Boris Blank? I think not. Runner-up to Dieter is Christopher Walken, from the movie The Comfort Of Strangers (1991). Both of these urbane, debonair dandies wear a white custom-tailored suit like none other can. Meier's the man!

That aside, Flag (12 tracks; 71:18) is my least-favorite Yello album, but that's by no means a criticism. Even a mediocre Yello CD is better than the majority of recordings out there.

The re-release includes 3 bonus tracks, only one of which is a newbie - the so-so Wall Street Bongo.

The forepart of Flag (its first five tracks) is classic Yello. I just feel that the album kind of tails off and fizzles out after #5, the latter tracks somewhat same-sounding and exhaustingly repetitious.

The Race is the duo's most eurythmic production. The ubiquitous title track (I've heard it countless times throughout my movie travels), with its catchy jazzy riff, is fun and is great music to exercise to. Track 5 is frivolous and wonderfully goofy, a lyric which could easily be about the Autobahn (although it's not). Oh Yeah may be Yello's signature song, but The Race likely gets played more, inside go-go hang-outs. (It allows the flexibly limbed to break out their dance moves.)

The first four tracks are particularly evocative. Tied Up is a festive and jaunty jig, with a rollicking beat. I like the part in the video when Meier wiggles his waist to those squeaky-sounding notes. It's enough to want to give it a whirl, yourself!

3rd Of June is a semi-hip-hoppish recital, recounting the eccentricities of a down-and-out street preacher, who appears, in my mind, as a haggard tatterdemalion.

With Blazing Saddles, the ever-dapper Boris smoothly belts out what is the album's capstone. (Blank's a fabulous songster. The guy should be doing more vocals!) Here I picture him, atop an alfresco, benighted stage, sporting his famous Clark Gable mustache, singing with one eye-brow raised, toasting the love of his life. (The electronic mandolin and the bass drum are its most flavorful ingredients.) Blank makes you want to lip-sync and pretend you're a dashing, irresistible stud, like him. Boris Blank's *the* matinée idol of musical leading men.

Of Course I'm Lying is a delicately sung, graceful serenade, most suited to a glitter ball. I'm not sure what it's entirely about, but my guess is the woman of the song is a fast-living coquette, who drives the same way as she lives. (Is she the same motorist from I Love You?) "Of course I'm lying," the dame tells the man enamored of her, "But I think I love you." (What a line.) Albeit, anyone who has seen the video to the song will maybe derive a different conclusion. "I love it!" (Cue my Meier-like whisper.) It has Dieter in a (circumnavigating?) air balloon amidst what looks to be those sweeping Swiss alps. Is there anything more idyllic than that?

IMO- this is CD is not only one of the best system test CD's I have ever heard but it is also the best Yello CD. The music on this CD goes from progressive jazz to salsa to rock to outright crazy. The car race on this CD is one of the coolest cuts with baritone sax play that will blow your mind. TURN THE VOLUME WAY UP AND ENJOY!

Great sound quality and clarity. If you like Yello's style of music this is an album to own. Downloading it from iTunes is just not the same sound quality.

Yello is a very difficult to catalog in one space. They mix what they want and how they want. To know about them, you MUST hear The Race at high volume in your HiFi equipment. The opposite side is Otto di Catania, a relaxed song. If you're searching something new to hear, don't miss this disk, it's a must have.

If you adore car racing, beautiful women and both smells and sights characteristically for Mediterranean reign this could be album of your life. I prefer listening it everytime when I drive my car through the roads on the eastern Adriatic coast.