The German punk icon signs his big comeback at 67 with “Unity”, a new album released after eleven years of absence. The always theatrical voice of Nina Hagen affirms her faith in God and in love on compositions with funk, punk, pop-rock, new wave or reggae accents.
The Berlin punk queen of the 1970s and 80s with five octaves has lost none of her theatrical voice. She demonstrates it again in this new stylistically exploded album where the variety of her vocal modulations marry the different convictions displayed over the twelve tracks.
On the title track, she collaborates with the pope of funk George Clinton in a sparkling and crazy dub register in tribute to the Black Lives Matter movement. The tandem wrote this title in reaction to the death of George Floyd and against hatred.
>> A voir: le clip de “United Women of the World”
Protest figure in rock
Reggae is also the source of inspiration for “United Women of the World”, conceived in the company of Jamaican singer Liz Mitchell (Boney M) and American underground new wave icon Lene Lovich. A title that allows Nina Hagen to celebrate especially women and the fight for their fundamental rights.
Elsewhere, the eccentric singer and figure of protest in rock ventures into a few covers in her unbridled punk way. Like that of “16 Tons”, a title by American country singer-guitarist Merle Travis, recorded in 1946, which evokes the hard life of a coal miner in Kentucky. Or the classic “Blowin’ in the Wind” by Bob Dylan adapted in German under the title “Die Antwort weiss ganz allein der Wind”.
>> To see: the clip of “16 Tons”
Nina Hagen now claims to make music to strengthen the unity of humanity. The mixture of speeches, genres and aesthetics of “Unity” suits him well.
Radio subject: Yves Zahno
Adaptation web: olhor
Nina Hagen, “Unity” (Greenland Records).