NEU! '75

As many other reviewers have pointed out, Neu '75 is very much a two-headed beast. On one side, we're presented with great, laid back, cozy atmospheric music, very much in the ambient vane, culminating in the quiet and calm of "Leb' Wohl" with its waves, minimal beat and piano, and quiet vocals. This side of the album is, in my mind, nearly flawless. Dinger and Rother excelled at this sort of music, and I can only wish they would have made more of it.

Side two, however, is a bit disappointing to me, at least a couple of the tracks. I generally enjoy both Krautrock and post-punk stylings, but I can't help but think that "Hero" TOTALLY destroys the mood the album started to set on the first side. The track takes this side of the album in a decidedly punky direction, plus adds two more members (another Dinger and Hans Lampe) on percussion. Not a bad track, but not what I would have wanted to hear had I heard this album on vinyl instead of CD. "E-Musik" is a lot better, being somewhat of a compromise between the wonderful atmosphere of side one's music and the beat of "Hero" - the group sort of...warp the beat, and this track is pretty dreamy, in a motorik sort of way. Later on it backs off a bit and we get a sort of reprise of "Leb' Wohl" which I enjoy. Good track overall. "After Eight" goes back to the general style of "Hero" and like that track I wish it was more laid back.

Side one of the album is definitely at least 4.5-star material, some of my favorite (and I think most representative) of Neu!'s dreamy side. Side two is trickier; "E-Musik" is 4 star material at least, the other two tracks are 3-star. Overall, I'd definitely recommend one of Neu!'s first two albums as a starting point...probably their debut, since Neu! 2 toys around with a lot of tape manipulation/vinyl manipulation, which I know isn't everyone's cup of tea. 3 stars for this album...still good, but doesn't match the heights of the previous two.