LP of the week

LP of the week
Studio album from Extrabreit
Publication (s)	1984 (original edition) / 1990 (new edition)
admission	1984
Label (s)	Metronome Records
Format (s)	LP (original edition), CD (new edition)
Genre (s)	New wave , pop rock
Title (number)	10
occupation	Singing : Kai Havaii Guitar : Stefan Kleinkrieg Bass : Wolfgang Jäger
production	Manfred Praeker , extra wide
Studio (s)	Hansa Studios , Berlin ; Union Studio , Munich
chronology Europe 1983 LP of the week Sex After 3 Years in a Submarine 1987

LP of the week is the title of the fifth studio album by the German rock band Extrabreit , released in 1984 . It was the group's second album after Europe , which contained both German and English texts.

background

After guitarist Ulrich Ruhwedel and drummer Rolf Möller left the club in the summer of 1983, the three remaining members continued with the participation of guest musicians and, with Europe, released a record for the first time that contained both German and English songs and brought about a changed musical direction. Extrabreit increasingly relied on electronic elements such as synthesizers and drum computers . The album received critical acclaim, but it failed to meet commercial expectations. An originally planned tour was not carried out.

Nevertheless, the Extrabreit members stuck to the basic concept. In the Hansa Studios in Berlin and the Union Studio in Munich , the recordings for the follow-up album from Europa took place under the guidance of Manfred Praeker . Since the band no longer had their own drummer, various artists from other bands were hired, including Andy Anderson ( The Cure ), Hans-Joachim Behrendt ( Ideal ), Hans Wallbaum ( Interzone ), Michael Gaßmann, Uwe Hoffmann and Rolf Brendel ( Nena ) belonged. The group employed a total of nine drummers for the recordings.

The Cure had been in contact with The Cure since 1979, when Kai Havaii interviewed Robert Smith for the musician / Music News magazine published by Hartwig Masuch . In 1984 Jörg A. Hoppe made contact with Anderson.

When the album was released, the cover did not show the individual pages of the record as "Page 1" and "Page 2", but as "Page D" and "Page E", which indicated the language in which the texts on the respective record side were identified were held. The texts were printed on the inner cover, the first edition contained scratch cards for a competition in which the main prize was “1 weekend with Kai Havaii”. In addition, "11 extra wide LP boxes (collected works)" and "111 great extra wide sweatshirts" were awarded as prizes. The closing date for entries was December 31, 1984.

Illustration of the album cover
Link to the picture (please note copyrights )

As singles , the songs were fame and Secret Service decoupled.

In retrospect, Stefan Kleinkrieg said that the album was “not really finished yet because there were disputes in the studio”.

Track list

LP of the week
No.	title	Songwriter	Guest musician	length
1.	Fame	Kai Havaii		4:14
2.	Secret Service	Havaii		3:32
3.	Dieter goes to Hollywood	Havaii, Stefan Kleinkrieg , Wolfgang Jäger		4:59
4th	Forever cross	Havaii, hunter, guerrilla warfare		2:40
5.	Heart made of glass	Havaii, minor war	Hans Wallbaum (drums)	3:26
6th	Those Were The Days (1980-83)	Havaii, hunter, guerrilla warfare	Nuremberg Philharmonic	2:53
7th	Break That Ice	Havaii, minor war	Hans-Joachim Behrendt (drums)	4:16
8th.	Palermo (Voici Les Temps Des Assassines D'Amour)	Frank Becking , Havaii	Andy Anderson (drums)	3:36
9.	Hologram girl	Anja Kiessling, Havaii, hunter		3:40
10.	Eye Of The Snake	Havaii, hunter, guerrilla warfare	Andy Anderson	5:54

reception

Musikexpress wrote that the remaining musicians in the group would “pull out all the stops one last time”. "Title, producer, marketing, accompanying musicians" - all testify to "learning processes in the short but eventful career of the former New German summiteers". "No continuous flow" can be identified in the compositions, "opposing polarizations" determine "this collection of different songs and styles". The album seems "like a line of different ideas diverging from each other". Despite this "lack of cohesion" one should not ignore "good ideas and their witty implementation", the "corruption of current trends" has "always been extra wide". Havaii vocals are "as variable as the song structures" and show "convincingly their chameleon-like versatility", Jäger's bass playing is "solid as always", guerrilla warfare drives "his straight, bulky guitar riffs in", and Andy Anderson's band ( The Cure ) to Rolf Brendel ( Nena ) committed to “consciously different stylists” who “quite passably fulfilled the requirements of the individual songs”. The album is "certainly not the perfect hit of the week or month", but the "cornerstone for tomorrow" has been laid.

Web links

• LP of the week at Discogs

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Men without equals in Musikexpress , 1985. Issue and number of pages unknown
2. ↑ Where did THAT come from? The Extrabreit-Forum , accessed on February 24, 2020
3. ↑ LP of the week, first edition 1984, back of the record cover
4. ↑ Interview Too old for Viva, vampster.com , accessed on February 24, 2020
5. ↑ Willi Andresen in Musikexpress, issue 12.1984, page 81