Customer Reviews

Stella

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This cd is like holding gold in your hands. Once it is put in your cd, your mind will drift to a place where dreams can come freely and joyfully. I remember buying this in 85 and thinking how great it was. Sixteen years later -- I am still thinking the same thing. How many bands can you name like that? Not many. The synths on this cd are great, and the singing matches the greatness. Hardly anything can match a song like "Let Me Cry." One can try in vain to find something, but it will take a lifetime. Priceless.

OH YEAH!!! It was THIS album that made me love Yello so much. Listen to it at night in your car, (hopefully you have Infinity speakers), and crank it up. It's a great driving CD. FIVE STARS! OH YEAH! :)

In 1985, if you wanted the best and most amazing production available the choices were Trevor Horn and Quincy Jones. I was a devoted follower of Horn and in some ways a bit snobbish about things he produced. I didn't think anyone else could capture the magic on vinyl (c.d.s were still too expensive then...), could summon all the angels and demons that lay within the musical spectrum, or could make me feel like I was living in the very present and moving quickly toward the future.

I also was just beginning to realize that darkness in music was a thing to celebrate (if for no other reason than to relieve the grinding boredom of everyday life). That is the exact state of mind in which I discovered Yello and, lo-and-behold, the magical keys to musical magic no longer lay in the hands of one or two producers, but were in fact distributed by God to a vast assortment of clever minds hiding in undiscovered places. Think of Quincy Jones as Windows, Trevor Horn as Mac, and Boris Blank (of Yello) as Linux...

Later I would do the back-research and come to fully appreciate the full importance of this group. If you hear ANYONE in pop music using a synthesizer in such a way that you can't tell it's a synthesizer, it is a direct result of Boris Blank's contributions and it's extremely hard to argue otherwise. Jean Michel Jarre was making great strides simultaneously, but his foundation was firmly established in the same obvious vein of contemporaries Kraftwerk, and he wouldn't stray outside that mold until 1985's "Zoolook". Also, he wasn't aiming at a pop/rock audience. The aforementioned Trevor Horn and company were pushing the limits of the Fairlight and the Synclavier as early as 1982 and the first ABC album, but it was "supplemental" to the established method of instrumentation. Also in that year Kate Bush delivered what many feel to be her most important (though not penulitmate) work with "the Dreaming" and it's relentless manipulation of the Fairlight (that can move and disturb with the same intensity today as when it came out twenty three years ago). It should be noted that synths had obviously been around a long time and Giorgio Moroder had established during the 70*s the "legitimacy" (read "marketability") of using synthesizers in pop, but again, one could always tell what they were when one listened...

Mr. Blank was inventing his own sounds and loops and using them exclusive of "normal" instruments before even having a group to work with (this would place in the mid 70*s somewhere) and Yello's career begins in 1979 with obvious inventiveness and mischievous part-swapping between organic instrumentation and machine-made mayhem: all fully-formed and ready for public consumption. Blank arranged music fundamentally from found and manipulated sounds, using live instruments as a "garnish": exactly the opposite of others who would use the synthesized sounds to pepper their classically arranged instrumentation, often with a purist attitude that kept the synth "in it's place".

1985's "Stella" was the notable highpoint in the group's evolution, but from the very beginning Mr. Blank had a joyful (and economical!) irreverence for the source of a sound; a fact proven by the delightful "belch" that quickly became a Yello trademark. We may even be hearing sounds from the "other end" of Mr. Blank and not even know it. The only thing that matters is the sheer musical, dramatic, and artistic scope of an amazing record. I haven't even described the tracks for you, nor have I mentioned (Yello lyricist and vocalist) Dieter Meier's twisted storytelling and unabashed "arty" approach to pop, or the sensual and soulful elegance found in the guest vocals of Rush Winters . For that matter I won't.

Just imagine the possibilities...

Nine Inch Nails?!? I don't think so! How anyone could come up with that is beyond me. Either he's never heard NIN, or he didn't really listen to this album. NIN is far more loud and abrasive than this. This, along with One Second and You Gotta Say Yes To Another Excess, is one of Yello's top 3 releases (possibly the best) in my opinion. The sound is unique in an early European quirky techno kind of way... it takes some getting used to. In places it's tribal, in others it's heady, and quite a lot of it sounds theatrical. On the whole, it is candy for the ears and mind. My favorites are tracks 7 through 9. The guitar part at the end of "Let Me Cry" could have gone on easily for another minute. After this period, Yello became rather hard edged with Flag and Zebra (my least favorite Yello releases). Lately, they have recovered some of the creative beauty they displayed on Stella.

This a solid recording but most of the songs can be found on 'The New Mix In One Go, Yello 1980-1985' which I consider a better purchase and certainly a better introduction to Yello. However, the track 'Desert Inn' is excellent and is not included in 'The New Mix..'

For the interest of one of the other reviewers - the bonus track 'Oh Yeah - Indian Summer Version' has been put on CD before. Yello issued a limited edition CD singles box set of 3000 copies back in 1988. The five singles were:

Let Me Cry (4.15)/ Haunted House (4.28)

Oh Yeah (Dance Mix)(6.25)/ La Habanera (5.10)/ Oh Yeah (Indian Summer Version)(5.30)

Goldrush I (6.31) / Goldrush II (6.12) / She's Got A Gun (Live at the Palladium N.Y.)(4.20)

Tied Up In Red (8.28)/ Wall Street Bongo (3.05) / Tied Up (6.05)

The Race (13.22)/ Another Race (Magician's Version for Tempest + Cottet)(3.42)

This is the best Yello cd besides New Mix In One Go 1980-1985. This cd is the cd that made them a smash hit, and if you haven't checked Yello out yet, this is the cd that is characteristic of their style. Try it! You'll never go back!

My favorite Yello song to date is "Viscious Games", which is on here. It is a nice pulsiating 80s dance song with kind of a dark, insecure edge. A lamentful woman's voice singing with yello's techno track chugging in the background. Also included is "Oh Yeah", which I find tiresome. There are some really great strange sounds on this album. It's one of the blueprints used to create the structure of "electronica" (rrrrgg...I hate that word!)

This is the best Yello CD in my opinion. It has the hit "Oh Yeah" which if you are old enough to remember was used in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off." "Oh Yeah" is probably the single that most identifies this group like the way you identify "Satisfaction" with the Rolling Stones.

Yello is just two guys doing electronics sometimes augmented by other singers and/or performers. Yello is a sound, but they can sound like anyone. You might hear the song "Vicious Games" and think "Oh no, not disco!" But then comes along a song like Domingo with a hard hitting rock guitar sound. It's like one reviewer said they made syntheisizers not sound like syntheisizers. I had a friend once ask me who was once into Bon Jovi saying "Yah, but what kind of group are they?" Yello is for people who like a wide range of pop music. They aren't for the narrow-minded or intolerant.

So if you haven't tried Yello this is a good place to start. If you already have some of their other stuff I think you will agree with me that this is the good stuff.

Note: That "Oh Yeah" is also featured on the CD "One Second" this version is slightly superior because is a DDD mastering instead of an ADD mastering which is the only drawback to this CD that I can think of.

For me this was the real break-out album for Yello, introducing the highly polished Electro/Techno/Latin-flavored style of crazy that only Yello can do & Oh My God just how much airplay did `Oh Yeah' get, I just wish I could commission on that song. Used in innumerable films I'm sure most folks probably think of `Yello' as being a One-Hit wonder, but they were so much more than that. The most innovative Dance band of the 80's this album really jumps about all over the place from the smooth Disco of Vicious Games to the insistent beat of `Oh Yeah'. Crazy samples, Shouts & innovative squeaks and bleeps & let us not forget the either love-him or hate-him voice of Dieter Meier But for me the most impressive thing on this album are the arrangements of the songs and the unbridled musical brilliance and unrivaled enthusiasm for fun and inventiveness shown by Mr. Boris Blank. A completely quirky combination these two made and the music certainly reflects that. European to the core. Smooth and bright and hard, dancing to its own unique sound. Each beat and musical note is placed with precision and humor to lively lyrics that really make no sense, but are actually audible and pulsate with a wonderful humm-alongablenessness (Yes, poor English) `Ciel Ouvert' has a wonderfully disjointed rhythm with lovely echoey vocal accompaniment. `Desire' & `Vicious Games' contain female vocals which `Yello' toyed with back in the 80's and it really shows a willingness to experiment and veer away from sticking to the deep growly electronically affected vocals of Mr. Meier. The critics never really knew if it was cool to love them or hate them since they straddled the main-stream and produced slightly out-of-favor synthesized music aimed for people with great Stereo-equipment. Unfairly grouped into the New Wave genre Yello cut their own brand of music. Familiar, easily identifiable but in the age of New Wave deadbeats and Metal-Hair bands this was one of the most imaginative bands on the planet. This album has more memorable tracks for me than some of their later works & I recommend it highly.

On this 1985 release things changed very abruptly for Yello. Before this the group were a trio and had a mildly DIY oriented sound that baught in many different rhythmic and vocal influences. This album changed all that. Most of the music on Yello's first trio of albums didn't have any commercial potential,even as novelties and somehow or other they felt they needed to change that part of their sound now that it was just Boris and Deiter doing most of the work. The result is an album that is produced more slickly,with more pop style vocals as opposed to raps,screams,grunts and slogans of older Yello vocal numbers. Actually the best known song on this album "Oh Yeah" is vocally the more typical of their older sound. On strong mid 80's dance/pop such as "Vicious Games",the funkier "Angel No" and the slinky "Sometimes (Dr.Hirsch)",featuring the vocals of Rush Winters the music has a far more contemporary and far less experimental flavor to it.

On "Stalakdrama","Koladi-ola" and "Domingo",the latter with it's preacher style lyrical chants there is a concerted effort to reconcille their sound with this obscure spiritual oriented lyrics. I am not sure if they are just there to sound exotic or not-they might be dead serious for all I know but it again adds a new flavor to this music considering the more radio friendly nature of some of the rest of the music. "Let Me Cry" and "Ciel Ouvert" featured layered,cinematic electronic soundscapes ala early 80's Tangerine Dream that sould like part of an 80's film score that never was. Again not something totally new for Yello but done in the same more poppy and contemporary way. Basically this album didn't change Yello's musical approch much but smoothed the production on every level to bring more people into their sound. Considering they got their first (and to many people only) huge hit with this album I'd say they pretty much succeeded all around.