Stella is the fourth studio album by the Swiss electronic band Yello, first released in Germany, Switzerland and Austria on 29 January 1985, and in the UK and US in March 1985. It was the first album made by the band without founder member Carlos Perón, and with his departure the remaining duo of Boris Blank and Dieter Meier began to move away from experimental electronic sounds towards a more commercial synthpop and cinematic soundtrack style.
As well as becoming the first album ever by a Swiss group to top the Swiss album chart, it was the band's breakthrough album internationally, helped by the success of the song "Oh Yeah", which gained the band worldwide attention the following year after it was prominently featured in the 1986 film Ferris Bueller's Day Off and then a year later in The Secret of My Success.
I'm glad I stuck with this, because my first impression was: "Oh great, another boring 80s synthpop album". Then I got hit with the semi truck that was hearing the Ferris Bueller "Oh Yeah" song, and then the album randomly switched gears into scary ass industrial music, reminiscent of late-90s Einstürzende Neubauten.
Can't fucking believe that a song as good, dark and atmospheric as "Ciel Ouvert" is on the album featuring the funny song they now play in all the movie scenes of a guy looking at a woman's boobs.
I guess it is thanks to John Hughes that most of us know this group. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this listen today! Even found two great additions to my Halloween playlist (“Stalakdrama” and “Angel No”).
I was surprised at the “the moon… the sun” lyrics in Oh Yeah… somehow I’d never noticed the other lyrics beyond “Oh Yeah” before.
Terrific!
Memorably, one of the duo looks uncannily like Stan Lee. Expecting another bland, homogeneous 80's hit. 3.
I'll bump it to 4. It's a great work listen, relatively few words and very musically forgettable. That damn "coke" sound effect that you hear everywhere came from here! Go figure.
Me listening for a few minutes and thinking ehh it's ok then THAT SONG hits - which obviously I've heard for like 40 freaking years in the movie but apparently never had the curiousity to seek out the origin.
Honestly the album is more interesting than I'd thought it would be, especially for the time period.
Not gonna call it a favourite but it was a fun listen.
5/10 3 stars.
IMO: like it or not: should this have been in the original book [which should be called: 1001 Albums That Helped to Shape Music History]? for THAT SONG alone - yeah.
Stella is the album on which Yello turns into a more traditional synthpop direction. A bad decision according to my music taste, but it brought the guys a lot of success. Nevertheless Desire, Vicious Games and especially Oh Yeah are great songs. Too bad the extra special Yello flavor is gone.
This album is highly propped up by the song oh yeah due to Ferris Buellers day off. Always fascinating how pop culture can impact various things in the world for decades to come. However as an album this isn’t that amazing. It’s heavily enveloped in classic 80s sounds with the synths and dark dance bass lines. Overall this album is great if you love 80s electro pop but other than that it falls short to be worth a relisten. 4.7/10
Haha, it has that one funny song! Too bad the rest is pretty dated and stuck firmly in the 80s. There were some interesting textures/beats here and there, but this one should've stayed on the discoteque floor.
Un tanto de música electrónica y ritmos "siderales". Agradable de escuchar, sin mucha intensidad, pero con la sensación de escuchar algo relajante. Quizás podría estar elaborado de una manera más variada.
Well everyone knows Oh yeah so it was a nice surprise to have that in here but other than that highly unimpressed. I am trying to save my 1s for some really bad ones but I don’t really have anything positive to say 😬😬