J. A. Freakin' Freestyle | CHICAGO, IL | 03/11/2006
(5 out of 5 stars)
"A great listen if you're in the mood for punk rock, high energetic music. And Nina truly delivers! I enjoy this when I just want to get down and get damn crazy in my apartment. My personal favorites are "Zarah";starts off with a slow cabaret style vocal ala MARLENE DIETRICH, but really a tribute to 1930's german singer ZARAH LENDER, which progresses into GIORGIO MORODER'S frenetic dance beats;"COSMA SHIVA" which has a nice groove, yet ethereal and outworldly sounding. Cosma Shiva by the way is the name of her daughter. Other tracks that are noteworthy are AFRICAN REGGAE, SPIRIT IN THE SKY, WHITE PUNKS ON DOPE(don't know the german title off hand), UNIVERSAL RADIO and NEW YORK,NEW YORK.
Julius-Allan
"
Good introduction
Pieter | Johannesburg | 11/07/2006
(4 out of 5 stars)
"These 14 tracks encompass some of Nina Hagen's timeless songs but they do not represent her best by any means. The best tracks here are TV Glotzer (White Punks On Dope, originally by The Tubes), African Reggae, her German version of Lene Lovich's Lucky Number which is titled Wir Leben Immer Noch and her interpretation of Norman Greenbaum's gospel song Spirit In The Sky. These capture the essence of the early Nina Hagen from the first two albums Nina Hagen Band and Unbehagen.
Other memorable tracks are New York New York, Universal Radio and her weird take on My Way. The song Zarah appears in three different mixes: the original, the dance mix and the dub. The CD booklet offers informative liner notes, photographs and info on the songs. Her early music was original and exceptional, an inspired blend of rock, punk and operatic vocals, whilst the later stuff became a little formulaic or did not live up to the high standard of the first two albums.
There are two other compilations that offer more of the early innovative songs like Naturtraene, Unbeschreiblich Weiblich, Auf'm Bahnhof Zoo and Heiss. These are the Definitive Collection and Very Best Of. But this one, 14 Friendly Abductions is a great introduction for the casual fan. Nina Hagen is an exceptional vocalist who made some of the most intriguing music of the late 1970s and early 1980s.
"
A 74:14 minute smile
n_navaro | Israel | 11/03/2006
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Not for every one Cd, and people who don't know what's ahead might get frightened (see some former reviews), but if you are open minded and like energetic punk-rock music, than you wont stop smiling. Nina is an excellent performer and her music is a complex although melodic. I enjoy listening even tough the German language is the worst, but with NH serving it doesn't matter (still, a few tracks are in English).
this CD is a good place to start knowing Nina Hagen great voice, every track is a pleasure. the only bad thing about it is that you'll end up wanting more of her.
"
I LOVE Nina Hagen, but this is NOT a good CD
Jeff N | Oakdale, CA | 07/26/2010
(1 out of 5 stars)
"The Best of Nina Hagen - 14 Friendly Abductions is terribly distorted, and does not have her best songs! If you look at it on Sound Studio (or any other sound editing software) you will see why every song sounds distorted. They cranked up the volume during the re-mastering and almost every note in every song is "clipped" really badly. That's when the curved peaks are cut off and literally missing their tops, because there was no place for them to go, which does result in distortion. Instead of nice wavy lines, it looks like someone spilled a lot of ink in a rectangular box.
Plus, interesting title, "14 Friendly Abductions" It's missing Flying Saucers and UFO, two of her best songs! It's missing a lot of her best songs, actually.
So, get Fearless and Nunsexmonkrock. That would be hugely better than this distorted mess that is missing so much of her best!!
NOTES ON OTHER ALBUMS:
I discovered Nina Hagen when a friend loaned me Nunsexmonkrock in the early 80s (her second best album). I loved Cosma Shiva and UFO. I just thought they were very cool... Then I found the Fearless LP, and it quickly became my all time favorite pop album.
After listening to Fearless off and on for many years, I have never gotten tired of it at all. It's Timeless. It's sweet. It's fun. It's Enlightening. Because I do enjoy it so much, I think Nina is at her best here, and the music itself - the arrangements, the instrumentations, the "sound" and sound quality... It's all just awesome."