Yugoslavia

Tonio K | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 30, 1999)
• Original Release Date: September 28, 1999
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Gadfly Records
• ASIN: B00001IVA5
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #317,056 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #86 in Music > Indie Music > Christian & Gospel > Christian Contemporary Music

Track Listings

1. 16 Tons of Monkeys

2. I Know a Place

3. Indians and Aliens

4. Murder My Heart

5. Again

6. I'm Hear

7. Practically Invisible

8. Dangerous Machine

9. Nothing Mysterious

10. Life's Just Hard

11. Student Interviews (With the Third Richest Man in the World)

12. Sure as Gravity

13. Home to You

14. I've Got a Song Anyway

Editorial Reviews

America, your long national nightmare is over! Finally -- a Tonio K. CD of tracks from the '90s! Yugoslavia is a 14-track 65-minute collection of (mostly) recently-recorded Tonio K. material. The song list includes the Austin anthem 16 Tons Of Monkeys, the Peter Case co-write Indians and Aliens (Case performs on the track), Student Interview With The Third Richest Man In The World and three tracks produced by Charlie Sexton (featuring Sexton and his whole band).

Despite receiving massive critical praise for Life in the Foodchain (1978) and Amerika (1980), Tonio K. bounced around from CBS Records, to Arista, to Capitol-EMI (which resulted in the 1983 EP La Bomba), before settling into What?/A&M for his third and fourth albums: Romeo Unchained (1986) and Notes From the Lost Civilization (1988). Since being 'dropped' from A&M;, he has been one of the music industry's most successful songwriters, penning the most played song of 1993 (Love Is, recorded by Vanessa Williams and Brian McKnight), and placing songs with Bonnie Raitt, Aaron Neville, Al Green (from the 'Michael' soundtrack), and many others. A fifth album recorded with an all-star cast (Paul Westerberg, David Hidalgo, Peter Case, Bruce Thomas, and others) was canned by A&M but released by Gadfly Records (Olé) in 1997. A collection of spare tracks and other oddities -- Rodent Weekend '76-'96 (Approximately) -- was released by Gadfly Records in 1998. All four of Tonio K. 's earlier full-length albums are available on CD from Gadfly Records.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful., November 1, 1999

By 

Russell D. Holsopple (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Yugoslavia (Audio CD)

"Yugoslavia" is a hauntingly beautiful addition to the Tonio K catalog. I'm a fan of his late 80's work ("lost civilization..."), and this album revives a lot of the same tone and feeling. My favorite tracks, (Practically Invisible (!!!), I Know A Place) reveal a solemn introspection and spiritual tenderness that you don't often hear in pop music. This is good stuff! If you appreciate thoughtful, tenderly delivered music, with serious thematic content, you'll love the album.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Solid Collection of K, June 30, 2004

By 

Cletus J. "Bubba" Huckabee Jr. "Bubba" (Chesterfield County) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Yugoslavia (Audio CD)

Unfortunately, a lot of current Tonio K fans discovered him only after his mid 80s foray in to CCM and didn't know his blistering earlier work, nor that he has continued to turn out the music at a steady clip over the years since then.

Yugoslavia is a wonderful core sample of the music he has made post-CCM. Though the production is nowhere near the same quality as that of T Bone Burnett on Romeo Unchained, it holds up nicely under its own weight. The production isn't slick, nor overbearing... maybe the production is simply adequate. This isn't a bad thing, however, because removing the slickness allows the real content of the music to come to the surface and, as always, the real content of Tonio K's work is the lyric.

This album is a nice collection of songs that feel as though the writer knew in advance that the total number of people ever to hear them would be small... and simultaneously it appears that this didn't bother him. He wasn't writing for the masses to begin with. These songs feel very much as if he were writing for himself - for his own pleasure - and if you get to enjoy the songs too at a later date, well, all the more better.

Don't expect this collection of tunes to feel at all like his early work, nor like Romeo Unchained. Yugoslavia stands by itself. Very listenable, very enjoyable, not as erudite as the critics pointed out years ago, but still passionate.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Soundtrack for the New Dark Ages, May 10, 2009

By 

D. Hindle (Terre Haute, IN United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Yugoslavia (Audio CD)

I picked up Tonio K in his foray to CCM "Notes from the Lost Civilization" and he's one of my favorite artists.

Bouncing from tired cynicism to tender naivete the album seems more contemporary now than when it was released. Too subtle for CCM or the top 40. This is the music you crank up to listen to the lyrics, not to rattle the windows.