review by daniel

This is the original version of “Casablanca Moon”, recorded with Faust as a backing band. The dominating instruments are guitar and keyboards (usually piano) and Faust’s contribution is mostly restricted to providing a solid rhythm section. Dagmar Krause’s vocals are (naturally) dominating as well, but her singing is actually more pretty than ugly. Those who have heard Dagmar in other groups and found her objectionable, and have second thoughts about exploring Slapp Happy because of her presence, need not fear; the croaking, german-accented witch of the Art Bears are not present here. Slapp Happy’s music is often described as cabaret-rock, avant-pop or “brechtian” pop. I am not quite sure what some of those descriptions mean, or if they are correct, but Slapp Happy plays a kind of pop music that it would be unfair to describe as just pop. They are basically playing with genres in a pop context. This album includes tango-pop, electrified country, bossanova-pop, lounge-pop, humorous ditties and more. It is a diverse album, but unfortunately it is uneven as well. Some songs are close to brilliant, some are mildly interesting but disposable, while some are even annoying. The best songs (“Mr Rainbow”, “The Drum” and “Dawn”) are catchy in the best possible sense, while the annoying ones are catchy in the worst possible sense (choruses that stick the first time are repeated way too many times).