You Gotta Say Yes To Another Excess
	Produced by Yello and Ursli Weber
	Released on 1983
	US CHART POSITION #184
	Find it at GEMM
9 60271-1 cover [high resolution photo]

I remember hearing “Swing” on the radio and thinking it was the lovecat’s pajamas, which prompted me to pick up this album. However, I didn’t have much use for the rest of the songs on You Gotta Say Yes To Another Excess, so I played “Swing” constantly until I got sick of it and quietly filed the record under Impulse Purchase alongside Flying Lizards and Suburban Lawns. It’s been years since I’ve heard it, but being in a Kraftwerkian frame of mind and encouraged by Yello’s legitimate artiste status among critics, I dusted it off for one more try. And, yes, I have to say, I put Excess to bed too early. The almost-callous economy of words juxtaposed against Boris Blank’s prescient electronic sounds is intentional art, nearly on a par with Kraftwerk’s commercial crossovers (Computer World) while anticipating artists like Nitzer Ebb. If you were to draw a line from the electronic titans of the ‘90s to the sonic explorers of the ‘70s, somewhere in between you’d need to connect the Yello dots. Hearing this disc today, almost all of the tracks are praiseworthy: “I Love You” pulses with auto-eroticism, “Great Mission” transports listeners to the original digital jungle, “Heavy Whispers” mixes sex with suspense, “Smile On You” draws an audible blueprint for Nitzer Ebb, and so on. The combination of Dieter Meier’s dispassionate vocals and Blank’s energized arrangements is oddly compelling after a while. Granted, I think Boris had the bigger challenge, creating electronic music that could please avant garde tastes and still work well in a dance environment (as opposed to Sparks’ wet blanket bingo, No. 1 In Heaven). Meier’s lyrics are minimalist by design, allowing the ears to pick up some words and discard others as sound, suggesting images without taking the trouble to illustrate them. (As a lyricist and singer, Dieter makes a good robot.) If you enjoy intelligent electronic dance music then you gotta say yes to Yello, noting that Excess is a good place to ingress. Now, where did I put that Flying Lizards record...

9 60271-1 back cover

TRACK LISTING

1. I LOVE YOU    3:11
2. LOST AGAIN    3:30
3. NO MORE WORDS    4:08
4. CRASH DANCE    2:08
5. GREAT MISSION    2:56
6. YOU GOTTA SAY YES TO ANOTHER EXCESS    2:09
7. SWING    3:27
8. HEAVY WHISPERS    4:03
9. SMILE ON YOU    3:14
10. PUMPING VELVET    3:12
11. SALUT MAYOUMBA    4:40
    
    CD reissue bonus tracks
    
12. BASE FOR ALEC
13. RUBBER WEST
14. YOU GOTTA SAY YES TO ANOTHER EXCESS (CLUB MIX)
15. LIVE AT THE ROXY N.Y.
16. PUMPING VELVET (CLUB MIX)
17. I LOVE YOU (CLUB MIX)
    
    Music composed and arranged by Boris Blank; Lyrics by Dieter Meier

CREDITS

BORIS BLANK --
DIETER MEIER --
CARLOS PERON --
Beat Ash -- drums
Chico Hablas -- guitar (10)
Yello and Ursli Weber -- engineer
Ernst Gamper -- cover design
Ray Photography -- photographs

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