Mike76

Ah, the review is made with effort and dedication, but referring to the tracks with terms like "track number 5" or "track number 7" I really don't like.

Well, for me, the Ultravox of Foxx are superior to the ones from Vienna solely in terms of ambition; musically speaking, their formula was a mix that was neither here nor there between art-rock and punk, and the ambitious nod to Neu! was really only in the exclamation point. They visibly improved only with the third album, "System Of Romance," which was already looking towards the future, an album that was already '80s (in 1978), with a more polished, fresh, and cohesive sound that better aligned with their futuristic visions.
Certainly, the addition of the excellent and original Robin Simon for that third chapter did wonders, taking the place of the mediocre and much more anonymous guitarist Steve Shears. It’s true that the first two albums contain some genuine gems (though you can count them on one hand), like "I Want to Be a Machine," "My Sex," and "Man Who Dies Every Day," but also, and even more so, bland stuff like "Rockwrock," "Young Savage," or truly tedious drivel like "The Wild, the Beautiful & the Damned," "Artificial Life," "While I'm Still Alive," and the list goes on. At this point, the cold elegance of the waltz + Kraftwerk in "Vienna" is much better; a nice entertaining album is preferable to an ambitious mess.

I haven't listened to "Abbey Road" yet, but if it's true that it's even worse than "In The Court Of The Crimson King," I'm not really eager to hear it.....

It's not a bad album, but the DM really lose much of their personality. Anyway, if I'm in the right mood, I can even appreciate it.

Well, I don’t know the KJ well enough to judge their entire career, but having the first album (which I appreciated but not too much) and listening to a bit of their later work, I’ve formed an opinion not too far from Gabrielegall's, namely that they have gradually transformed into a plastic 80s band. I believe the KJ’s strong point has always been their arrangements (they’ve always managed to find the “right” riffs and chord progressions), while their Achilles' heel has been rather mediocre songwriting, a weakness that has been amplified by commercializing their sound. The proof of this is precisely "Eighties" (and here I agree with Alexander77), a great arrangement for a weak song to the point that the less than brilliant Nirvana, despite a shameful theft akin to "Fornaciari," would make a distinctly better song with the same arrangement.

As far as I'm concerned, both the little movie and the related soundtrack are "pathetic" (forgive the pun). Stuff that could only interest archaeologists.

Until a few months ago, I thought that Mr. Fini Gianfranco was the smartest politician in Italy and that with the merger move between AN and Forza Italia (initially rejected vigorously and then strangely accepted with good grace within a few days), he would find himself at sixty years old (therefore, in the 2013 elections) as the leader of the largest party in Italy. It would have been quite a remarkable achievement considering where he started from.
In just a few months, however, he completely backtracked, likely throwing away 30 years of political career, and it’s unclear for what purpose (perhaps he doesn’t even know himself). Today, as I see him alongside his former rival in the municipal elections in Rome, Rutelli, at the helm of an unlikely centrist army, the suspicion that he might actually be the biggest fool among Italian political leaders (and that takes some doing) is strong.

Peace to his soul, but I can't feel nostalgia for his art.

"They should dare again." Well, considering that a good portion of debut artists don't dare at all, I don't see why I should expect it from a band that has 30 years (not 30 albums) under their belt. From them, I expect a handful of good songs and here, aside from 2-3 duds, there are ("The Reason Why" above all).

I can brag about having one of their works in my collection, not this one though, but "Ad Negantem Usum Significationes," from around '99-00, a pretty heavy record that could be labeled as industrial-power-electronics (and as a guest on some tracks, there was even a growl vocalist borrowed from some dark, dark metal band). I can say they are no slackers and that their non-music was dense, gloomy, powerful, and expressive... however, listening to one of their CDs from start to finish is really a heavy brick!