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Rating: At that point, the Faust were inevitably in a corner. They had become part of the British middle-youth culture and the Faust Tapes were subject to school-college rituals like Monty Python, mostly as a demonstration and test of how many knew and understood their genius.
But when "Faust IV" saw the light, there was enormous demoralization among us. I can't think of anyone who bought it. The look was different. The tracks had real riffs, and there was even a reggae piece! That piece, "The Sad skinhead", is now one of their best, but at the time I couldn't even bear to hear its name. And the same goes for the other students. Faust IV, certainly a great album, was devalued by the Faust Tapes.
In practice, "Krautrock", the classic 12-minute epic that opened the album, was nothing more than a continuation of their intense trip. It was followed by more standard songs, like "Jennifer" and "Giggy smile", krautrock classics.
But then, what's the problem? I suppose Faust IV didn't have that innate sense of immediacy that was evident in all of Faust's previous records and appearances. Regretfully, I must say that Faust's approach was clearly inferior to all others, and maybe they should have stayed in Wumme instead of recording it at Manor, in Oxfordshire. But regret doesn't lead to seeing anything positive, and when Faust 5 was rejected by Virgin, Uwe Nettlebeck lost all interest, and the Faust disappeared as mysteriously as they had appeared a few years earlier.
But the story didn't end there. The Faust immediately assumed that legendary status for which they are known, and like Neu! and Can, they were major inspirations for the upcoming punk scene.
The Faust, when reaching for the stars didn't mean shining for success.
Tracklist Lyrics Samples and Videos
02 The Sad Skinhead (02:43)
Apart from all the bad times you gave me
I always felt good with you
Going places, smashing faces
what else could we do?
Apart from all the good times I gave you
you always felt bad with me
Going places, smashing faces
what else could have happened to us?
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Other reviews
By northernsky
"The most important track is put right at the opening, and the overall judgment is therefore strongly influenced by its success: it is the resounding manifesto 'Krautrock,' almost 12 instrumental minutes."
"It is a stroke of genius to follow such solemnity with the irony of the playful 'The Sad Skinhead,' an almost reggae rhythm on which a hilarious text is grafted."
By Neu!_Cannas
Kraut is a whole different story, it's made by crazy people who take you by the hand into desolate meadows and... invite you to raise your eyes to the sky, towards the cosmic, towards the indefinable.
Faust IV is its worthy epitaph, and even if they will never be remembered and cited enough... no one will ever know what really happened, except them, of course.
By stiff.kitten
Faust IV is a milestone of the whole kraut currents, a thirty-six-year-old that still seems like a newborn, one of the absolute joys for my ears.
Faust make great music because they manage to evoke images that seem resurrected from the most intimate experiences but actually belong to an android world that sometimes seems to blur with ours.
