Disco de And One: “9.9.99. 9 Uhr”

"Get you closer"-Typical And One synthpop at it's best. Good starter of the album. This and "Love and fingers" are the "hit songs" of the album in my opinion.

"Michael Caine"-Typical And One synthpop at it's... well it's quite good but some things in it irritate me.

"Evil boys"-Kind of a ska feeling to this one. Harmless but not very good.

"Pimmelmann"-Dirty german lyrics. Ask your german teacher what Steve is singing. I usually don't like this kind of And One joke songs but this is funny.

"Und wieder"- I could live without this boring song.

"Love and fingers"-Great song with a typical And One sound and a sing-a-long chorus. My first favourite on the album.

"Pray"-A song that grew on me. The mood and the chorus makes it strong.

"Men in uniform"-My current favourite song on the album. Never before have the synthesiser sounds and Steve's voice worked this nicely together. Wonderful mood in this one.

"Hypnotize"-A song that I sometimes think is good and other times just skip. It's a bit boring.

"Der erste Schritt"-Some chords, a little melody and a robot voice saying something in german. Makes the album longer, nothing else.

---

So far i have 3 'and one' cd's and this is definately my least favorite. I have yet to get 'virgin superstar'. If you are into synthpop 'and one' is a must have but my rec. would be 'spot' or 'nordhausen' before this.

Great Industrial / Goth club track, getting harder to find. Much of And One's earlier music is waaaay out of print and this will soon be tuff to find.

Much akin to Depeche Mode's transitional album "Black Celebration," much of the emerging sound made clear on Bodypop is emerging in 9.9.99 9 Uhr. With one foot in their future sound and one back in the bubble-gummy, Vince Clark sound, it's an important work. Tracks that show the exploration of their evolving style include:

- Men in Uniform: a mandatory addition to any And One or futurepop collector's library.

- Und Weider: clearly an introspective, time-frozen song that starts with a minimalist, clean sound but develops its complexity and depth two minutes in with the pronounced major/minor, double/half tempo, western/eastern, percussive/blurry And One style.

- Love Fingers: Initially struck me as cheesy but there's really a lot more going on underneath and after a year, it's still fresh and listenable.