Nina Hagen Albums (20)
'Mother Is Reacting: Sweet Lord'
Release Date 11/17/2008
Tracks 14
Label Nina Hagen/Loka Nunda
See Album Tracklist and Review
'Irgendwo der Welt'
Release Date 4/24/2006
Tracks 17
Label Universal International
See Album Tracklist and Review
'Die Reise Zur Schneekoenigin'
Release Date 3/14/2006
Tracks 14
Label Gatea
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
A big-band album from a Teutonic dominatrix that used to be pictured dressed in PVC and restraining ropes? Sure, why not? Just don't fall for the pretty bindi wear and butterflies flying out of her mouth on the cover. Nina Hagen is still Nina Hagen and time has made her gritty voice even grittier. The lady was born to entertain, and if you're warm to her in-your-face absurdity, Big Band Explosion is a heck of a lot of fun. You'll be on the edge of your seat as the singer delivers the tunes straight-faced, but you just know that any moment she's going to bust out the brash Nina of old. That's the way the most of the songs go -- almost to the point of being formulaic -- but if anyone is going to pull it off it's Nina. Her greatest moment -- or most grating, depending on your tolerance -- comes at the end of "I Want to Be Happy" when her guttural scatting ends in a cough and an "oh my God!" She's Betty Boop one minute and Godzilla the next, which is why her fans love her. The Leipzig Big Band does a fine job with the accompaniment, but they could have been pushed up a little higher in the mix, and you just have to wonder what the look on their faces was like. Wonder if naughty Nina's untied them yet. ~ David Jeffries, All Music Guide
'Sternenmaedchen'
Release Date 3/12/2001
Tracks 18
Label BMG/Ariola Express
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
It had indeed been a few years since Nina Hagen's last regular album ("Freud Euch" and its English version "Bee Happy" in 1995), so there was reason enough to be curious about what the title of the new album, Return of the Mother, might portend. It turns out that the whole album is devoted to balancing the ambivalence contained in that title: the possible sinister undercurrent as well as the advent of sheltering care. The mother figure of the title track is revealed to mean a kind of caring divine principal, not bound to any one religion but common to all. Throughout the album (mostly sung in German but with English interjections) lots of well meaning good advice to humanity gets contrasted with none too clear warnings, all set on a musical backdrop of often sinisterly weighty and elaborate dance/rock arrangements. Early on, "Schachmatt" concentrates the combination of apocalyptic outlook and plea for change, but a number of songs veer off to scenarios of their own. Two of them are covers of songs from the repertoire of Zarah Leander, transposing them from pre-war Berlin to the dancefloors of the 21st century. "Poetenclub" is a unique kind of tribute to Austrian singer Falco who died in 1998: using samples of his voice we get a sort of dialogue between Nina Hagen and him, to underscore how souls live on. It's more of a meditation than a song, and that points to what has to be said that the album lacks: tunes. As usual with Nina Hagen, her energy is all over the place, she remains a unique, ever-changing vocal powerhouse, but melodic content just isn't a strength of this particular album. Even so, "Schüttel Mich," a fun and funky song of seduction, has hit quality, and when the electronics make way for a non-synthetic percussive backing on the Hindu chant of the closing "He Shiva Shankara," the album finds a distinctly melodic ending. ~ Alan Severa, All Music Guide
