Nina Hagen – Volksbeat (2011)

01. Bitten Der Kinder & An Meine Landsleute
02. Ick Lass Mir Doch Vom Teufel Nich ...
03. Killer
04. Ermutigung									play
05. Ich Bin										play
06. Das 5. Gebot
07. Menschen Sind Kompatibel
08. Wir Sind Das Volk
09. Soma Koma
10. Jesus Ist Ein Freund Von Mir
11. Susses, Susses Lied Der Errettung
12. Keiner Von Uns Ist Frei
13. Noch Ein Tass'chen Kaffee
14. Nicht Vergessen
15. Dieser Zug Fahrt Richtung Freiheit

Bass – Graham Maby
Brass – Peter Hinderthür
Conductor – Joris Bartsch Buhle
Drums – Dave Houghton
Guitar – Warner Poland
Keyboards – Peter Hinderthür
Orchestra – Berlin Session Orchestra
Vocals – Nina Hagen 

One of the most charismatic front women of Punk has returned with a new release, namely the ‘Volksbeat’, just one year after ‘Personal Jesus’. And here is the point where the good, the bad and the ugly news start. The good news is that Nina Hagen can still read the Gospel of John and make it sound as de Sade’s ‘120 days of Sodom’. It is also a CD that has covers of older songs, songs that Hagen liked mainly for their messages to the audience. Those of you who don’t pay attention to anything but the quality vocals can proceed and buy the album. As for the rest, this release is bad news per se; Nina Hagen found Christ along her way and you’re bound to be faced with the results of her epiphany. She found and embraced her “ancestors like Brecht, Martin Luther and Larry Norman. In the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King and Jesus the Christ, who have gone before us, who have fought for the same ideals, as well as also embracing beloved artists like Biermann & Dylan, Mayfield and Burke, to never forget why we are here; we are born to love one another and take good care of each other. We are born to be free, born to serve humanity, so that one fine day, we all shall be free and live in peace and dignity. It’s about our love that never fails!”

She forgot something else; she has also found SONSEED, the band who wrote one of the most pathetic songs that I know of, ‘Jesus is My Friend’, and a song that is second only to the utter lack of talent that characterises the band. What motivated Nina Hagen to do all that? I guess her engulfment of political activism with shreds of messianism following her baptism in the Protestant Reformed Church of Schüttorf 2009. Jesus and Brecht make an unbeatable team I guess much to the distress of the so famous German Universities in the areas of Philosophy and Theology. Really in Schüttorf do they have any serious books? Apart from all that, as it is easily understood, the songs are flat. Due to Hagen’s voice no song here sinks but then again nothing really particularly shines as well. Nina Hagen actually believes that this release is a step forward. The truth is that it is leagues backwards to the point, where you might be wondering about the reason why she was nicknamed “The Mother of Punk”. --- Ray Dunkle

Born in East Germany, Nina Hagen had already gained a reputation as a flamboyant rock singer by the time she emigrated to the West in 1976, where she formed a band, signed to CBS Germany, and released the debut album Nina Hagen Band in 1978. It was followed in 1980 by Unbehagen. Hagen's first U.S. release, Nina Hagen Band EP (1980), was a four-song EP consisting of songs drawn from her two German releases. She moved to New York and made her first English-language LP, Nunsexmonkrock, in 1982. That and its follow-up, the Giorgio Moroder-produced Fearless (1983), charted briefly, and "New York New York" was a Top Ten dance club hit. But Hagen left CBS after Nina Hagen in Ekstacy (1985). In 1988, she celebrated her marriage with the EP Punk Wedding, released in Canada, and in 1989 she returned to the German market with Nina Hagen. In 2010, Hagen released Personal Jesus, which featured 13 faith-based tracks that dutifully blend rock, blues, soul, and gospel into a sound that’s distinctly hers. ---William Ruhlmann, allmusic.com

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