Tank Battles: The Songs of Hanns Eisler / Panzerschlacht: Die Lieder von Hanns Eisler

This is a lot more enjoyable than I would've guessed.

Cabaret med forferdelig polert 80s sound. Bra det var korte låter, men synd det var så mange av dem.

Wow, what a weird album to be included. If you have me an afternoon I think I could get pretty close to naming 1001 other albums that should be on this list that aren’t. Also, I don’t pay for YouTube so getting an ad between every song is kind of a pain. That’s not Dagmar’s fault, but having 1:30 long songs all over this album is.

If you can make it passed Mother Beimleim I salute you. DNF.

Weird and interesting. Hard to understand. Probably more of a classical music piece, so maybe not a great candidate for this list. Challenging but once I got into it, I warmed up to it. YouTube without lyrics was a rough way to hear this.

This was a really hard one to rate

It wasn't a bad album. She had a nice voice, and it was completely fine as background noise

The problem with it was that it sounded like a musical. Which is fine if it actually was a musical soundtrack. It was also way too long - and seemed longer because the songs were so short

2 ⭐️

I’d never heard of Dagmar Krause or this album before today—and it turned out to be quite a challenge to even track down! After all that effort, I was really hoping it would be worth the hunt.

The best way to sum up Tank Battles is “unique.” There aren’t any traditional songs here that you’d sing along to or even tap your foot with. Instead, it’s a strange, theatrical, and often jarring collection of performances. At times, it sounds more like a dark cabaret soundtrack or a set of eccentric sketches than a conventional album—some tracks even reminded me of parody songs from The Simpsons.

That said, Krause’s vocals are powerful and utterly distinctive—like a German PJ Harvey performing a wartime opera. The instrumentals are intricate and well crafted, but overall, this isn’t an album I enjoyed or would listen to again. Still, I’m glad I gave it a go—it’s unlike anything else I’ve encountered on this list, and I learned a lot about Krause and the influences behind her work.

Favourite track: “Ballad of the Slackersingers.” I might even suggest my daughter’s school add it to their harvest festival playlist next year.
Least favourite track: “Mother Beimlein” — short, creepy, and genuinely unsettling (like a few other songs on this album).
Album artwork: I actually really like the cover—it’s striking and perfectly fits the album’s eccentric tone.

A very different kind of album for sure - definitley not a pop album by any definition. A rendition of Weimar cabaret translated to English. It's an admirable project with some great very dramatic performances. Although it's not really something I'd ever want to put on, it could be cool to see live and learn more about the music/lyrics and the context of their creation as well as the context of this rendition. Definitley sounds like a German of a certain generation grappling with what their parent's generation did.

I don't hate it. I don't hate it.

"Look, there's a new crack started, even the bricks have farted."

lmao

I love Dagmar Krause's voice and this style of Weimar songwriting. I'm not sure the songs are supposed to be packed in like sardines into one collection like this. If I get access to it other than on YouTube I'd pick away at it piecemeal. My only real quibble is I'd like a Dagmar era Henry Cow album on the list. In Praise Of Learning probably.

The guy who said this is better than Let England Shake might be the stupidest dude on here.

Ah yep, their favourite album is Aja. Moron.

The instrumentation was good but I don’t have much connection with German music.

The whole album is here - https://archive.org/details/0627_dagmar_krause_tank_battles_1988__mlib/09+-+Mankind.flac

As someone living at the end of America’s Weimar Republic this shit hits close to home.

I found this on youtube, but possibly it was an amalgamation of the English and German versions. Can't say I really enjoyed it but it was incredibly different to anything else on this list which I think warrants its inclusion.

This was unexpected, but kind of interesting. Reminds me a lot of the Cabaret film. I really enjoyed some of the songs and arrangements, but after a while the clunky lyrics and musical theatre style started to grate on me. Wouldn't listen again.

Passada a estranheza inicial de se estar diante de algo não convencional, comparado a música que estamos habituados a consumir, nos deparamos com belas canções magistralmente arranjadas e com interpretações poéticas (e até teatrais) de reconhecido mérito. Vale sim, conhecer, mesmo que não seja um daqueles discos que ouviríamos voluntariamente.

This is a tough one. Not sure why it's on the list over some others, but that's going to be a common refrain from me over the next 400+ (fml) albums.

I could only find 24 minutes of it on Youtube. I didn't hate it, and I thought it was kind of interesting. I could tell it was telling a pretty emotional story, but half of it was in German, so I couldn't follow. The song she sings to her son, who becomes the one kind of good Nazi (a dead Nazi) is pretty sad when putting yourself in her shoes.

Overall, I thought it was fine and interesting. I'll never listen to it again, but it makes more sense as an "adventure" than yet another Frank fucking Sinatra album, or a tenth David Bowie.

Not on Spotify but from the couple songs I listened to on YouTube I’m okay with that

Unusual and beautiful.

Honestly it was fine but it was just SO LONG

I tended to like the songs that are left in German over the ones they translated to English. The English ones I found the lyrics sound disconnected from the music. It was meant to be listened to in German, leave it the fuck alone.

Favorite songs: Bankenlied, Song of a German Mother, Lied von der Belebeden Wirkung des Geldes (The Song of the Invigorating Impact of Cash), The Trenches

Least favorite songs: Mother Beimleim

2/5