Customer Reviews

Naive (Edited Version / +5 Bonus Tracks)

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

 

 

I own the original pressing of this cd and to preserve it, I'll most definitely purchase this one. Sascha and En Esch hold true and create probably one of their best albums to date. I've been a fan of them for years and own several of their albums, but this one is up on my top faves by them. Industrial roots come together and shine through this album and is worth the purchase. Liebeslied, Godlike and Go to Hell are intense tracks to listen to.

The original version of 'Naive' had to be yanked from the shelves due to an uncleared sample of Carl Orff's "Carmina Burana" being used in "Liebeslied." A subsequent "cleaned" version, 'Naive - Hell to Go,' was released, and both eventually went out of print. Now, we have a compilation of sorts - the entirety of the original 'Naive' MINUS the Orff sample (ergo the "edit" designation on "Liebeslied") and the unique tracks from the 'Naive - Hell to Go' album. Still, this reissue sounds great, although I'm still holding onto my previous version of 'Naive,' if only to give the Orff people a middle-finger salute.

KMFDM is rereleasing all their back catalog... with bonus tracks. This has 5 extra tracks compared to the original Naive, and they are the remixes from the Naive/Hell to Go album. I like that in this album, the continuity and flow of the tracks is incredible, same as the old one. The sample on Liebeslied isn't there, and it's a shame, because I think the sample added so much. It can probably be found on eBay or something... just look around!

Definitely a must have for any KMFDM fan, with great tracks like "Naive" "Go to Hell" "Virus" "Godlike" and "Liebeslied".

If you even like indusrial music period, buy this. You won't be disappointed.

Though all of KMFDM's records before this contained a decent handful of good songs and some interesting experiments, this is where the band started to put it all together and gel into something substantial. NAIVE is one of the crown jewels in the early catalog of KMFDM, and certainly indispensable to fans of industrial dance/rock. From the dancey Naive/Die Now - Live Later to the blistering metallic version of Godlike and underrated gems like Piggybank, the album is chock full of strong tracks that make picking and choosing favorites incredibly difficult.

A note for new listeners:
As to why the album is called the 'edited version', this actually has nothing to do with any censoring of explicit lyrics. Rather, the issue is with Liebeslied; originally, this song featured a sample of Carl Orff's O Fortuna, but whoever retains the rights to the piece rejected to KMFDM's sampling of it. At the time, the original version of Naive was pulled and a new version titled Naive/Hell to Go replaced it, featuring recolored artwork and a handful of bonus remixes. The version of Naive reviewed here is the remaster; sadly, the rights to O Fortuna could still not be obtained, so the song is featured here without the sample. However, the remaster is still very worth obtaining; the sound quality has been improved, and the remixes featured on Naive/Hell to Go(Which are quite good, I might add - the F*** MTV mix of Go to Hell actually surpasses the original) have been appended onto the album.

So this original album was taken off of the shelves due to copyright infringement. The follow up "safe" re-release version, "Hell To Go" was clever, because it remixed almost all of the songs from the original Naive version, keeping the out of print version unique. That album went out of print as well because the label that it was released under decided to take on a parent company, TVT, who then decided to completely neglect all of the legendary material on the Wax Trax! Catalog shortly after.

As a side note, long time on and off KMFDM member Raymond Watts put out an album around the same time under his performance name, "PIG" called "A Poke In The Eye... ... With A Sharp Stick", which used the same Carl Orff sample that buried NAIVE. That album is out of print as well. I'll leave it up to you to figure out why. I would strongly suggest that one too, if you can find it, for KMFDM fans.

Here, we have the next logical step in trying to have a justified product free of copyright infringement charges from someone who wants money where it shouldn't be due: The original Naive missing the illegal Carl Orff sample on "Liebeslied" along with the highlights from Hell To Go as a bonus. If you ask me, Liebeslied is certainly not the strongest song on the album, so this formal re-release is welcome as far as I'm concerned. I still have both NAIVE the original release on Wax Trax and the Hell To Go remix album, and I prefer those because I'm always weary of albums that are "Remastered" but if you can't acquire those, the mastering isn't that inhibiting on this one.

KMFDM is one of the few bands who have done industrial dance music type stuff in the 90's that I think pulled it off well with guitars in the mix. In their best moments, they have this empowering yet nonchalant nihilistic march feel to them. "Go To Hell", "Disgust", and "Friede" are good examples of that from this album.

When KMFDM first released the album Naive,it was only in availability for a very short while. Due to copyright issues on the song "Liebeslied", KMFDM used a sample from "O Fortuna" that they, apparently, did not have the right to use. The album was quickly recalled and regurgitated a few years later with approximately 50% remixes and "Hell to Go" added to the title. It's nice to see this disc back in its (almost) original form. "Lieseslied" is still missing the samples from "O Fortuna", but the disc loses no power because of it. It's a solid representation of KMFDM's work in the very middle of their career (to date) before they signed their long-term contracts in '92. You can almost say this represents the Beginning of KMFDM's Wax Trax! era.

As a long time fan of KMFDM, I have pretty much heard most of the band's music but there are a few albums that I have still haven't heard. NAIVE is one of the KMFDM cds I haven't heard until now. I have heard a few tracks from NAIVE from the group's RETRO cd. I hate saying this but no matter how many times I have listened to NAIVE, I just couldn't get into the music as much as I have with the band's other albums (past and present). It is a shame that copywrite issues forced Sascha to remove the "O Fortuna" sample off from "Liebesleid". Thankfully I have the original version on the RETRO cd so not all is totally lost. The few songs that I do enjoy listening is "Go to H*ll", "Godlike", and "Virus". Think in lieu of the current climate in this world, those songs are rather appropo. As for the remixes, I enjoyed the remixes to "Go to H*ll" and "Virus" but wasn't really into the other remixes. As a big KMFDM fan, I wish I could have liked this album more but I just couldn't. There were some good songs but the overall sound just didn't do anything for me.

The Naive (or the better known Naive/Hell to Go) release of yore has been out-of-print for a little while now and the reissue with "5 bonus tracks" comes with a tide of old KMFDM friends. It has been 23 years since KMFDM dropped their first album, after all, and their old albums have been hard to get sometimes - depending on the title. Still, this new marketing campaign is a bit deceptive because 5 tracks indicates new songs and this isn't really the case. New songs wouldn't be that good, either, considering the KMFDM from the late 80's/ early 90's is not the KMFDM of today and the tracks you would be getting wouldn't be anything like the band then. Instead of that awkward thing happening, you get readditions of old songs, a little more "tastes great" while never really being less filling, but that doesn't really give anyone save a collector or someone needing the album something "new" to obtain. So, don't buy it just because you think you are missing out.

That said, Naive/Hell to Go is a good release because it has a rich history (if you want detailed description you can look up the intense drama that happened because of En Esch's creation) and because it has both an En Esch creation AND a Sasha creation built in. En Esch made half the album, had it rejected, and then had it bulked up by a secondary wing of tracks. Maybe it was a fear of a repeat on En Esch's part because he put out the album Cheesy then and it wasn't acclaimed (it was entertaining but was not anything like his new releases with Slick Idiot), or maybe it was a plethora of other cited reasons. Regardless, the additions did strengthen the album and I was actually surprised by the relative aging of the album and how good some of the songs still are.

I'm not going to say that you should or shouldn't buy the album, because this is a matter of taste. Instead, I'll say that this is a good buy IF you like KMFDM of that day AND if you don't have it already. In my opinion it shows KMFDM in their most beautiful days, not really addressing the best releases that were about to come but still showing KMFDM at their finest. You might want to keep to look at the old one if possible because of the old drama AND because you have a song missing from the fray, too, and because the old flow was the intended one. If you want to see if you need it and preview the entire rerelease selection/ hear samples of the album you can go to Metropolis ( website is Metropolis-Records; I would put it all in here BUT it would be edited out of this review so you can add in the rest) and see what you like for yourself.
Regardless, it is great to see the old catalog hitting the virtual shelves again and I recommend it to people who enjoyed the old days of Wax Trax and the refinement of the electronic frontier.