Punishing Kiss

Quite a few artist I enjoy being covered by one artist I definitely don’t.

Who's this album meant for? In what setting would I play this? It's got a killer lineup backing her but... it's still not good. I had never heard of the Divine Comedy before I started this 1001 project and every time I come across them, I'm left wondering why this/they were ever a thing. I'm also left wondering how popular cabaret/baroque pop was or is this just a handful of people thinking that it was popular/good/important and trying to shove it down the throat of the rest of us?

It was... cool I think... but I didn't vibe with it.

This is hilariously over the top German performance art. Are there a bunch of people trying to take it seriously and then rating low because of that? Amateurs.

Was this an accident?

Very interesting and cool featured artists. Not sure I'm down for it every day, but certainly willing to listen again. 3.

1.42

Under a 3 on both rateyourmusic and 1001? Produced in part by the Antichrist himself aka Divine Comedy? I don’t know man. She’s like a blonde Morticia Addams.

So, this artist is a German singer and actress, known for basically just being a really good actress in various musicals, and I guess that made it so she had connections with some of the more consequential artists of the 20th century, and The Divine Comedy, who doesn’t deserve the shit that comes out of him in the morning. Songs like “Little Water Song” are incredible, surely, and “Split” is a theatrical powerhouse of a song. However, songs like “Tango Ballad,” “You Were Meant For Me,” and the title track are all much harder to listen to in my opinion, for plenty different reasons. I don’t hate any songs here either, but Jesus, it’s almost an hour long and feels longer!

This album is definitely strange. I don’t dislike all of it, but it’s more often than not very annoying, and the artfulness of the intent is wasted on the pretentiousness and vapidness that ends up as the album’s primary characteristic.
6.0/10
DOES IT BELONG ON THE LIST: NO
REASON: Lack of relevance and interesting musical ideas
WHAT ALBUM WOULD I REPLACE IT WITH: The Marble Index by Nico

𝘗𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘒𝘪𝘴𝘴 is a wonderfully odd choice for a list like 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. It sits somewhere between classical music, jazz, cabaret, and art pop, never settling comfortably into any one category. That makes it difficult to classify, but also much more interesting than a conventional pop record.

At times, it almost feels like a Divine Comedy album with Ute Lemper taking over the lead vocals. The theatrical arrangements and literate songwriting fit her dramatic voice surprisingly well, giving the whole record a distinctive personality.

And naturally, Kurt Weill has to make an appearance. Lemper has built much of her reputation interpreting music from the interwar period, so 𝗧𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗼 𝗕𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗮𝗱 from The Threepenny Opera feels less like an obligatory inclusion and more like a natural part of the album.

I enjoyed 𝘗𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘒𝘪𝘴𝘴 enough to give it 4/5, but I still would not have chosen it for an essential-albums canon. Then again, its sheer oddness may be exactly why it is worth hearing.

German sensibility

This album really wants to be taken seriously but also contains the lyric "if sex were an Olympic sport, we'd have won the gold".

2.0/5.0: Uses Gene Simmons interview talking points for lyrical content

she has a beautiful voice and the album is really well done. that said i absolutely hated almost every moment of this

It was nice actually

This album was nothing but overproduced covers of better songs. I like Ute's voice, and there was some good moments throughout, but not essential whatsoever. 2/5

No es tan malo como la gente dice que es, simplemente mira a camp en el ojo y sale ganando.

I see the idea it wants to push for but it fails to keep me interested through the majority. 5/10

This is a bit odd, it's arty and a little avant garde without ever being dangerous or too edgy.

Wow, I wasn’t expecting that! Of course I know who Ute Lemper is: the German singer who went to the US to make it big – and make it big she did. As the saying goes, 'a prophet is not without honour save in his own country'. She performs musicals, jazz and Brecht-Weill songs. But an album like this? With Nick Cave, Tom Waits, Elvis Costello and Scott Walker as the songwriters and The Divine Comedy as the backing band (and songwriter). The result is a sombre, emotional avant-pop masterpiece of singer-songwriter music. The crowning glory is the lengthy 'Scope J.', written by Scott Walker. At over 10 minutes long, it is austere and profound — the antithesis of commercially accessible, light jazz songs. Some editions of the album also feature an additional Scott Walker track, 'Lullaby (By-by-by)', as a bonus. Another 11 minutes of uncompromising artistry. This is an album that really is a must-listen.

There must be a German word for utterly unlistenable…

I can completely understand why someone might hate this. I like this. It’s essentially another Divine Comedy album and I liked the other two. You can clearly tell who wrote each of these songs even without having the credited clearly. The Elvis Costello songs could have been done by him and the Nick Cave song has his fingerprints all over it. Little Water Song also has vocals that feel like Bjork could have done them well. This sort of schmaltzy cabaret is entertaining with some really funny lyrics. Favorites were Little Water Song, Tango Ballad, and Split.