Search - Nina Hagen :: Nina Hagen Band / Unbehagen

Nina!

C. M. Barnhart | Seattle, WA | 09/25/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"An excellent opportunity to get Nina Hagen's first two albums together in one set. Musically challenging, extremely offbeat and just downright weird, Nina Hagen has been setting stages and recording studios on fire for about 25 years now... hard to believe.



With tracks like "Alptraum", "Hermann Hiess Er" and "Auf'm Friedhof", Nina is definitely more palatable to those who understand German, however an understanding of the lyrics is hardly necessary to appreciate the music she and her band crafted in the late 70's and early 80's.



As a rule, I tend to prefer the earlier efforts of musicians, and Nina is no exception. Outside of "Nunsexmonkrock", which is much more polished, this double album set is her best work to date. Much more hard hitting than her later, more dance oriented works. The cover of The Tubes classic "White Punks on Dope" ("TV Glotzer" when Nina does it) is better than the original, in my opinion.



Nina Hagen remains one of the most unique characters in the history of rock and roll. These albums prove why."

Weird but good

Reno Kristiansen | Denmark | 10/27/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This is the seckond album by Nina Hagen.
Highlights on this album is African Reggae I love the way she screams on this song, Alptraum, Wir Leben Immer...Noch ( Lucky Number ). This album is very good but it's weird.
If you like Nina you should also try Nunsexmonkrock is maybe her best, and her new album Return Of The Mother and at least Street."

Oooooh Smithers.... The Germans!

Steven W. Cooper | Perigueux, FRANCE | 12/03/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I thought this was some of the coolest music around when it came out. Sounding like a disturbed Rheinmaiden on acid (or a crazy witch, as an African-American friend once called her when he told me to: "Turn off that f****** crazy-a** witch!"); Nina manages to do to us what Mr. Burns only pretended was done to him: make us scared of the Germans. And somehow, in this exhilarating music, that's a good thing. It may even be that what we're really scared of is enjoying the songs because they might be politically incorrect.



The music accompanying Nina is not always raw (we can only imagine the full-on effect of a band like the Pixies backing her); but even the well-produced, Rocky Horror Picture Show-sounding songs work for me. People can argue that Nina's a poseur, but she demonstrates here that campy humor was the only thing saving punk from unbearable self-importance.



If Rupert Everett became convinced that Sharon Stone was a little crazy when she expounded her acting-as-possession theory, what would he make of Nina after hearing the orgiastic "Wer Leden Immer...Noch": a song where devils and angels are not only channeled, but also appear to be phoning and shooting at each other? Listening to these records I can imagine Nina leaping all around the studio like an angry little monkey. Is this anger that of a revenant spirit bemoaning the lost decadence of Weimar Berlin? I prefer to thing she's angry with the future knowledge that these performances would never receive anything like the recognition Sharon Stone did for her turn in Casino."