Meret Becker, Fragiles: Review in Retrospect

All apologies for this entry so late in the day; been busy with other things (such things that offer payment in exchange for hard work, as opposed to blogging which is rarely a profitable enterprise). There's also the problem that I am damn close to flat broke, plus most of the new releases coming out interest me as much as having another root canal done. So, we reach into the bygone era of 2001 and the land of bratwursts and sauerkraut for Meret Becker's Fragiles.

Meret Becker came to my attention through Einstürzende Neubauten; aside from being married to Neubauten's longtime guitar and bass player Alexander Hacke from 1996 to 2002, she also sang a duet with Neubauten frontman Blixa Bargeld on Ende Neu's "Stella Maris" (my personal favorite love song, by the way). She has done two albums with Ars Vitalis (1993-'95, Noctambule), two solo albums (Nachtmahr, Fragiles), and the motion picture soundtrack to Pipermint... das Leben möglicherweise, among other assorted collaborations. Acting is her primary calling, but her recorded output is more than enough to firmly establish Meret as a potent musician.

Unfortunately, since her fame is mostly confined to Europe, most of these albums are difficult to find to us unfortunates that happen to live on this side of the Atlantic. Enter eBay. In July of last year, I was the sole bidder on an auction from a British seller for an unopened copy of Fragiles. I paid one pound for the CD, and 2.50 GBP for the shipping. At the time, I think that came out to be something like 6.70 USD.

My understanding of the music is obviously hampered by the fact that I understand about five words in German. However, the liner notes provide translations for all songs, so at least there is a starting point to understanding what the heck I'm listening to. The lyrics are remarkably poetic and surreal (at least in translation), but several fall victim to the album art in that some are obscured with the images, or running into and over the images, making some partly unreadable.

The album art consists mostly of one of the most vivid shades of deep red I have ever seen. Fragiles definitely stands out the most on any shelf it sits on, drawing all attention directly (name and title in giant block letter along the spine assist this effect). The case is a digipak with a matte finish and the liner notes glued to the front flap. While I am grateful for the extensive work done arranging the lyrics in three languages (for most songs), and the outstanding surrealist-style artwork, the glued-in booklet makes perusing those lyrics rather troublesome unless you take up a good portion of your desk every time you want to read them. I would have preferred a booklet you could slide out separate from the rest of the case. Otherwise, the packaging is beautiful; always a plus when most albums are paired with awful atrocities that can barely be called art.

Becker's voice ranges from low seductive whispers to belting her heart out to twisted mad elfin to that annoying high pitch typically reserved for small children. If you find female vocalists unattractive, then I can't recommend this to you. At times, I feel like she's channeling the quirks of Tom Waits, but with an even more carnival-like atmosphere mixed with an alien etherealness. This is a twisted, topsy-turvy ride into a surreal mindscape; it's like I'm picking up radio stations from the other side of the looking glass. The arrangement of the music is superb, with a variety of instruments including (but not limited to): saw, glockenspiel, kazoo, accordian, assorted guitars, banjo, harmonium, and so on.

Becker proves herself a commander of the bizarre love song with such tunes as " Zirkus," "Zum Diktat," "Miroir De La Nuit"... come to think of it, most of the album is love songs, be they either romantic celebrations and confessions or laments of heartbreak. Fascinatingly, one of the tracks on Fragiles is a cover of The Beatles' "For No One." A rather compelling variation, I should say. Another cover is the traditional nursery rhyme "Hey Diddle Diddle," here retitled to "Cow & Moon." The music to "Cow & Moon" is repeated for the instrumental "Dish & Spoon" and "Schwalbe (Vogellied);" hearing the same tune three times in a row is rather maddening, and one of my few complaints with Fragiles.

This album jumps from music to spoken pieces with little musical accompaniment, most of which are under or around a minute long. My research tells me that she tends to mix poetry with the music, and, while I can appreciate the mix since I have often been accused of being a poet myself, I find it a tad distracting, as well as lengthening the album past the hour mark and beyond the attention span of most contemporary music listeners. Since I can't understand the language, and these pieces don't have words listed in the liner notes, I can't estimate whether or not these short pieces are essential to the overall thematic experience. While I find them taxing, they are also fascinating to listen to, even if you don't know the language.

Despite my minor quibbles, I find this to be a very impressive and under-listened album from a very talented woman. Excellent lyrics (again, I only can tell from translation; German-speakers might find it less than stellar), instrumentation that is mind-twisting, and an album art that immediately grabs attention make for a release that should be in more personal collections than it probably is. However, this is a seriously acquired taste and hard to digest. You might not like until you've heard it five times, or it might be too much weirdness for you. It certainly is for many people.

By all accounts, all releases by Meret Becker are out of print, with some fetching high prices on various websites. However, copies of albums occasionally turn up on various online marketplaces. If you are interested, then keep your eyes peeled; you'll find them sooner or later.



Meret Becker's homepage, which won't be much help to those not fluent in Deutsch.