Europe (album)
| Europe | ||||
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| Studio album from Extrabreit | ||||
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Publication |
1983 (original edition) / 1990 (new edition) |
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| Label (s) | Metronome Records | |||
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Format (s) |
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Title (number) |
9 |
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| occupation | ||||
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Extra wide, Kit Woolven, Frank Becking |
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Europa is the title of the fourth studio album by the German rock band Extrabreit , released in 1983 . It was the group's first album to contain both German and English texts.
background
The band released the album Return of Fantastic 5 in 1982 ! released, which, like the subsequent tour , did not bring the commercial success that had been expected with the release. For the tour, the band had worked with 2 screens on the left and right of the stage for the first time. In the end, however, she played in front of “half empty halls”.
In the summer of 1983, guitarist Ulrich Ruhwedel and drummer Rolf Möller left the group and were paid off. The remaining members Kai Havaii , Stefan Kleinkrieg and Wolfgang Jäger decided to change the musical direction of the group and to rely more on electronic elements such as synthesizers and drum computers . In addition, the band deviated from writing only German-language texts for their songs, and now also included English-language texts in their repertoire.
Kit Woolven, who previously worked mainly at Thin Lizzy and Phil Lynott , was hired for the production . Frank Becking also took part in the production, which was otherwise taken over by the band members.
Of the nine songs that were released on the album, five had English lyrics and four were in German. The song Virginia Plain was a cover version of the song written by Bryan Ferry and released in 1972 by Roxy Music .
The song Learning Deutsch was released as the only single , while Das Tier in Dir served as the B-side . Which also published maxi-single of the song contained per a dub version of learning German and after midnight .
| Illustration of the album cover |
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Link to the picture |
Europa was originally released on vinyl only . The cover of the album, photographed by William Wegman , showed a young black Weimaraner with its bandaged right paw slightly pulled up against a black background . Next to the dog was a broken vase containing red tulips . The band name and the album title were at the top of the record sleeve and were raised . The label of the record was not glued on, as is generally the case, but printed directly on the vinyl .
The album was accompanied by a sheet of text on the back of which was advertised for the video cassette The Truth About Extra Wide, released in December 1983 . Buyers of the album were given the opportunity to pre-order the video at a subscription price of DM 98.00 ( adjusted for inflation: € 97.61 in 2020 ), which was offered in Betamax , Video 2000 and VHS playback formats .
In 1990 Europa was re-released, this time on CD .
Track list
| Europe | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| No. | title | Songwriter | length |
| 1. | After midnight | Kai Havaii , Wolfgang Jäger , Stefan Kleinkrieg | 3:37 |
| 2. | Learning German | Havaii, hunter, guerrilla warfare | 3:33 |
| 3. | Do you still want to save your son? | Havaii, hunter, guerrilla warfare | 3:10 |
| 4th | gangster | Havaii, hunter, guerrilla warfare | 4:13 |
| 5. | Virginia Plain | Bryan Ferry | 2:58 |
| 6th | Europe | Havaii, hunter, guerrilla warfare | 4:10 |
| 7th | Want a cigar, Miss Kinski? | Havaii, hunter, guerrilla warfare | 4:51 |
| 8th. | The animal in you | Havaii, hunter, guerrilla warfare | 3:11 |
| 9. | Macho woman | Havaii, hunter, guerrilla warfare | 2:58 |
reception
Willi Andresen awarded four out of six possible points in the Musikexpress and said the “Gentlemen from Hagen” returned “to the scene - older, more mature, reduced to a trio and earlier than expected”. The "exam" had "borne fruit". “Especially in the textual area” the group “went to great lengths”, the pen of Extrabreit was “pointed and sharp”. They have given "more attention to the real environment". “Environment problems and shooting gallery politics” are “on the new list of topics”. It is clear that “with these European ideas one is not philosophizing in the new German language”, English is back in fashion. Musically, on the other hand, it continues where you got out: the album offers “no frills rock and roll,” “individual synthy swaths” crept in, the drums sound “every now and then Linn” (an early programmable drum computer ) - and "The good old guerrilla warfare" rages on.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ discogs.com , accessed February 23, 2020
- ↑ discogs.com , accessed February 23, 2020
- ↑ Review in Musikexpress, issue 12.1983, page 74