Dieter Meier and Boris Blank are back in their confident, mischievous form, doing what they do best. It is a genuine pleasure to witness—which is precisely why their new effort, “Time Lab,” becomes our Album of the Week.
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Fresh material from the Swiss duo Yello can instantly lift your mood—and it takes just a few opening bars for “Time Lab” to achieve that exact effect. It kicks off with “Around The Sun,” built on their signature catchy, dry shuffle, opening the band’s fifteenth studio chapter (and their first after a six-year hiatus). Meier uses archived vocals recorded during the era of their iconic album “Claro Que Si”, delivering reflections with his characteristic dry wit: “Some stand on this planet, orbit around the sun… some were born anywhere, I didn’t choose my face.”
Not much has changed on the planet of this synth-pop duo. Boris Blank constructs the soundscape with surgical precision, while Dieter Meier brings his trademark deep voice and elegance. A prominent feature of the album is its guest vocalists. Long-time collaborator Heidi Happy provides the perfect complement to the wonder-filled and gentle tracks “You And Me” and “Beautiful You,” while singer Malia adds dramatic depth to “Dancing Flame.”
“Music, and above all rhythm, is my passion, my life. Yello’s music knows no time and never really gets old,” said BORIS BLANK.
Cinematic Poetics, Emotions, and a Return to the Dance Floor
The peak of the album is “Saturday Morning,” where Meier’s voice drops to the absolute bottom, setting a nocturnal atmosphere of waking up to an extraordinary day. Similarly, “Streets Of Berlin,” with its urgent string tremolo, instantly transports the listener onto a movie set during a suspenseful chase between two classic cars. Beyond the comedic touches, however, the album also offers moving moments. The slowest track, “About Time,” carries a poignant lyric about our species destroying the Earth, to which Meier lends profound depth without a trace of cliché.
“We had a certain freedom because we didn’t align ourselves with whatever happened to be trending. Yello’s music doesn’t really know time.”
The record later returns to positive energy. “Spin Back” takes us back to the dance floor, while the romantic “Burning Dreams” brings a dreamy mood. “Time Lab” might not break radically new ground for the band, but it shows them doing what they do best. The combination of sonic vision and charm makes this a real hit from the Swiss pioneers.
NMR (photo: Helen Sobiralski)
