NEU! 2

Neu! 2 is the second studio album from German experimental rock act Neu! The album has a rather original story as the band ran out of money after recording the first side of the original LP and then had to fill side two of the original LP with different manipulated versions of a single called Super / Neuschnee which they released in 1972. Call the songs on side two remixes or what you want, but they are all in different playback speeds which was created on recordplayers and cassette recorders. As an experiment Neu! succeed very well with the manipulated versions on side two, but as far as enjoyable music goes ( at least for me) most of side two is a waste of time.

The music on side one is better though and the 11 minute long opener Für Immer and my favorite here Lila Engel are truly great songs. None of them reach the hights of Hallogallo from the debut though. Neu! is an exciting and groundbreaking band and proves it again on this album but they are also an aquired taste and I must admit that I would have been more happy with their music if they had cut all the strange sound experiments from their first two albums and then made one album out of their driving and relentlessly pounding krautrock tracks. See that would have made a great album IMO.

The production on Neu! 2 is as excellent as it was on the debut. Very enjoyable.

It´s hard to rate an album where you like about half the tracks and pretty much dislike the rest but somewhere between a 2 and a 3 star rating is fair. I´ll be nice and give Neu! a 3 star rating. The experiment is rather interesting even though it doesn´t always sound good.