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

This was a passion project, not intended to be a commercial success, and the love for the art really shines.

Theatrical cabaret.

No thanks

Obligé de l’écouter sur un podcast c’est quoi cette merde ?

A l'air important politiquement, mais musicalement c'est pas trop ça. La voix est cool et certains sons sont géniaux mais la plupart est dure à écouter

Very interesting record, quite inaccessible for some - probably. Still worth listening.

It may be expressing 40 year old sentiments, but they're good sentiments expressed evocatively and masterfully. More Midcentury Theatrical please.

pior que eu curto alguns projetos da dagmar krause.
mas, com todo respeito, eu PRECISO ouvir ISSO antes de morrer?
eu creio que não. portanto 1 estrela.

What insane person decided this should be in the 1001???? Wow, just wow. Sounded like a parody of a bad one-woman musical. I saw the brilliant review that referenced Lily Von Schtuppe and couldn't unhear it (this is one of the rare cases where I read the reviews before posting my own - some of them had me in tears laughing). There were a few ok tracks, or maybe ok moments - Song of a German Mother, Mother's Hands, Und Endlich Stirbt, and The Trenches were ok. I also enjoyed hearing "To a Little Radio" since I know that tune from Sting's The Secret Marriage (which is credited to Hanns Eisler, so this is apparently the original tune). But overall there were too many moments where my reaction was pure bafflement (especially Mother Beimleim - wtaf??). Giving it a 2 rather than a 1 mainly because it wasn't unlistenable, it just doesn't remotely belong on this list.

I appreciate some of the lyrical content, but it ultimately becomes a chore to sit through.

2/5

I've really tried to enjoy this album, but it has become grating for my ears. The versions of the songs aren't even decent, and I'm not a big fan of the songs to begin with. While I don't mind the style, the execution feels borderline kitschy for me. I listened to both the English and German versions, but it still didn't work.

Overall, this album just isn't for me, and I’m glad I won't have to listen to it again.

Thia is absolutely not my thing, but unlike yesterday's garbage offering, I respect it, so I can't give it one star. I wish I'd been able to find the German version.

Since the album on the list wasn't available from my streaming provider, I listened to another album of hers. Unfortunately, this says very little about the album listed, but I didn't like her voice. Therefore and out of ignorance 3/5

I didn't listen to all of it, because listening to it on YouTube is a pain in the arse.

I don't think it deserves to be one of the lowest rated albums of the website. I like her voice and the music behind it, but it got repetitive and is probably too long

It's very dramatic. And it's definitely an 'interesting' listen. It's like a soundtrack to a theatrical wartime production rather than a standalone album. I'm definitely not revisiting, but I kind of like that this is in the list.

2.5 rounded up.

What did I just listen to? I'm down with German opera but would need to listen more closely to really follow what was going on.

For this review, I listened to the mostly English version of this album referred to as Tank Battles, as opposed to the full German version called Panzerschlacht.

Alright, we have another difficult album to unpack on your hands. Strap yourselves in.

Dagmar Krause is a German singer best known for her work in various art-rock groups like Slapp Happy, Henry Cow, and Art Bears. Alongside that venture, she had a fascination for cabaret music that came out of the Weimar era, a period of post-World War I Germany where the country suffered economic hardship and the rise of political extremism up to the point where fascism took over. In particular, Dagmar admired the works of playwright Bertolt Brecht and his musical collaborators Kurt Weill and Hanns Eisler. This interest was piqued to the point where she recorded two solo albums covering the compositions of Weill and Eisler. Tank Battles is the latter of those solo efforts, focused primarily on the works of Eisler.

I will admit, cabaret music is not my forte here, where I can appreciate the elegance on display even if this is not what I normally seek out. It's apparent from the translated lyrics when this music was written, likely done in response to the political turmoil that Germany went through at the time. I can appreciate this perspective brought into the limelight when Germany was going through another tumultuous time with the separation of East and West by the Berlin Wall, and updated with newer instruments such as electric guitar. Also, I can tell this comes from a place of passion as Dagmar did her best to sell the emotion in her husky alto range that suits this music.

Even if I can't fully connect to this music, and if I feel that Tank Battles is rather long, I don't regret listening to it. Instead, I can appreciate the historical significance preserved for the next generation from such a potent voice.

January 16, 2025

HL: "(I Read About) the title track", "Ballade Von Der Belebenden Wirkung des Geldes", "Song of a German Mother", "Berlin 1919", "And I Shall Never See Again"

I have a little context for this, as I had a professor in uni who often brought up Bertolt Brecht in theatre history. We'll see how this translates to a full listening experience

I had written that Ute Lemper was the first cabaret-esque artist on this list; only true if you don't count Swordfishtrombones & Rain Dogs. Yet clearly I overestimated the amount of cabaret albums I would hear over the next two years.

This is definitely one of the big wild cards of the project, so naturally it's among the lowest rated albums. The short runtime of many tracks forced an absurd comparison to grindcore band Napalm Death, who is right there next to Tank Battles in the lowest-rated.

I particularly enjoyed the instrumentation, the mix of discordant guitars and quirky woodwinds providing a kind of surreality to the dark and political lyrics. The version I found online is the reissue, which contains more OG German versions of Eisler's songs. Songs like "And I Shall Never See Again"/""Ich werde nicht mehr sehen" sounded better in German, but I wasn't put off by the English lyrics either.

Since many of the songs are fragmented, it was sometimes hard to concentrate on those song's structures, and I can see how a full hour of this can be too much. Since I did take theatre in university (and resultingly will soon have to start selling my organs), I accept that my tolerance for theatricalism in music may be higher than the average listener; for example, take the scratchy, sinister vocals in "Mother Beimlein".

I think my own feelings fall around a 3.5/5, as once I got past the alienating songwriting of a different time and culture, I started to dig it.

I only listened to a bit of it but it’s not for me.

This felt like listening to Abba in a fever dream at the beginning. then it changed to german