The 1981 Listening Post - Yello - Claro Que Si

 

Yello - Claro Que Si

#449

By Daniel Irwin

Yello

Claro Que Si

Genre: SynthPop

Allen’s rating: 4 out of 5

Daniel’s rating: 2 out of 5

I first started listening to this album while I was driving alone on I-5 through the San Joaquin Valley.  Somewhere in the middle of the 3rd track ("Take It All"), I had to switch it off because I was afraid that I'd start driving so erratically that I would cause a major accident.  (Note to self: don't operate heavy machinery while listening to Swiss ambient techno-pop.)

After this album as well as a Cabaret Voltaire album I reviewed last year, it's become pretty clear to me that I just don't care for early 80's European techno-pop.  I hadn't heard of Cabaret Voltaire before Allen assigned it to me, but I don't have the same excuse for my reaction to "Claro Qu Si".  My sister had a copy of "Stella" during our teenage years.  I pretty much wore out the grooves for "Oh Yeah" but was turned off by the rest of the album.

I didn't want to give this album a low rating because I just don't understand it.  I abstain and leave it to those who like Yello's music beyond what is heard in films like "Ferris Bueller's Day Off".

https://open.spotify.com/album/7l1Fr59dIPSN0ZmaNRJFyY?si=9m4SARTmT0uxBEjn0nt7RQ

The 1980 Listening Post - Yello - Solid Pleasure

 Yello - Solid Pleasure

#411

by Lori Alley

October 15 1980

Yello

Solid Pleasure

Genre: Synthpop

Allen’s Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Rating: 2 out of 5

Highlight: 

Smirak's Train

TOUCH MY MONKEY!! Sorry, the lead singer of this Swiss band is a millionaire/gambler/dilettante named Dieter Meier, so there was practically a gun to my head. (I would highly recommend watching some videos of this guy dancing). 

I have only heard of Yello because of their single "Oh Yeah" -you know, that song in Ferris Bueller's Day Off?   I can imagine the royalties from that song alone paid for a lot of drum machines and trips to Vegas.  So, there are probably a TON of Yello fans out there, maybe like people who love Star Trek and Dr. Who.  I mean, I don't get it, but I get that you get it. 

Actually I LOVE techno but not this, sorry to say.  There were three singles from this album, and they are indeed the most tolerable of the bunch - Night Flanger, Bimbo, and Bostich.  Other than Smirak's Train which is a hidden masterpiece, the rest is a true Musik smorgasbord.  It's totally ALL OVER THE PLACE!  Cleanup in aisle seven! 

Okay, so let's say you want to break up with someone, but you're just not up for the hassle of being honest.  I'm suggesting that you send them "Downtown Samba" and convince them that the moment you heard it you fell in love, and that it's the anthemic background music to your life together.  It is the most insufferable piece of dreck I have ever heard. It really is a samba with lines like "Hey you, over there, watch me, come closer!"  It's so creepy it's practically wearing a Members Only jacket and polyester pants. 

I guarantee this breakup method, or your money back.  It actually ends with voices talking over the music like My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts except instead of being interesting it's actually the stuff of nightmares.  I'm not kidding. 

Here's another one:  "Bananas to the Beat." Just, no.  And really, what ARE these crazy kids going to do next?  Maybe a few instrumentals like Magneto, and a song called "Massage" which sounds like meditation chanting (I seriously do usually love meditation chanting, but this is just sorta weird). 

Bimbo isn't TERRIBLE, imagine if Adrien Belew and Devo were at an awards show doing a Shaft tribute song.  Night Flanger is hovering very close to copyright infringement of the Doors, and "Reverse Lion" might be where 'good' experimental music crosses the line into 'Dahmer' experimental.   Most of the songs are just really derivative, strange, and kooky.  Okay, okay, before everyone gets mad at me, I do have to say, listen to “Smirak's Train”.  If you're at all an ambient music person, this one's pretty lulling and addictive.  I gotta give them that. And if I were being even more generous I can see that they pushed some boundaries, blah blah blah and probably influenced some future generations of techno bands. 

If you were throwing an ironic 80's party though, these guys would be a must (but don't forget to mask!).  I can see that this just maybe didn't age well.  

https://open.spotify.com/album/4ybpV482xl3I2cZe6xBpQW?si=-0UzICwySOaJTH6_TUAqLg

The 1985 Listening Post - Yello - Stella

Yello - Stella

#14

January 29 1985

Yello

Stella

Genre: SynthPop

4.75 out of 5

Highlights:

Desire

Oh Yeah

Stalakdrama

Koladi-ola

Domingo

For me, Yello has been a rule of diminishing returns. Loved their first one, not so much the second, less the 3rd. So, I wasn’t looking forward to this. 

Unlike the last one this sounds a littttttttle less like Sparks and more like…Right Said Fred? Well, Fred will sound like them. Traveling far afield to total club rock, you know you’ve heard at least one track. 

“Oh, Yeah”. 

It was EVERYwhere in 85 and 86. Entire movie sequences seem to have been designed around it and you know what? It’s excellent. Like mainstream pop Art of Noise. It’s excessive and gross and obnoxious and that’s what it’s supposed to be. It’s the opposite of strip club music. But it is objectifying. Only, instead of objectifying women, it seems to either want to objectify cars or bodybuilders. 

“Stalakdrama” is an epic that is what happens if Jean Michel Jarre gets drunk and tries to write a Wagnerian Opera and “Koladi-ola” is a psychic breakdown of a hoedown. 

There are so many twists and turns on this record and all of it is unexpected. And kind of great.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/stella-remastered-2005/1152680210

The 1983 Listening Post - Yello - You Gotta Say Yes to Another Excess

Yello - You Gotta Say Yes to Another Excess

Sparks worst impulses rear their head again and—what? This isn’t Sparks? Yello?
Oh. Ok.
There are moments where I am positive Yello has been listening to Group:Xex by Xex, like on “Crash Dance”. But Yello had more money and less humor.
Sometimes I wanna swear they are The (conventional) Residents
It’s still annoying. “I Love You” makes me want to throw my phone against the wall.
The original album ends at Salut Mayoumba. Continue on at your discretion.

How was this album NME’s #6 of the year?

June 1983
Yello
You Gotta Say Yes to Another Excess
3 out of 5

Highlights:
Crash Dance
Salut Mayoumba