Yello’s Stella is a classic synth album for which I have a lot of love. I’d grown up listening to their album Baby because my dad owned it, but I bought Stella when I was 15. I remember popping it
into the CD player of my Dad’s hi fi system before my eyes were opened wide by Boris Blank’s crisp production along with a rich mixture of synth tones, quirky samples and Dieter Meier’s unique voice and wild storytelling.
Yello is made up by Boris Blank and Dieter Meier. Blank is mad musical scientist concocting
detailed, eccentric soundscapes using his encyclopedic, original sample library and a wide
assortment of synth sounds. Dieter Meier’s shadowed voice carries his off-the-wall lyrics that tell mad tales. He’s also the band’s manager and producer. Boris Blank’s high quality production and experimental attitude to making music excites me and Dieter Meier’s bizarre characters telling their stories through his unique voice entertain me.
The story of Stella as an album is interesting in itself. When they went to mix it in the summer of 1984, they decided to try a recently perfected digital mixing process. After ten days, they
canceled the mixing sessions because, according to Dieter Meier the music was becoming
soulless. As quoted by Jonas Warstad in Stella: The Story Behind the Album, Meier said that
“With Stella we were being dragged down by an excess of perfection.” After this, they took the album back to their Zurich studios and remixed most of it.
According to Warstad, Dieter Meier wrote and created Stella with “a Fairlight CMI Series II
sampler along with an ARP Odyssey synthesizer, the Linn LM-1 and Oberheim Dieter MeierX
drum machines, a Roland VP-330 Vocoder Plus, a Lexicon Hall reverb unit and a Framus
guitar.”
Overall Album Impressions
Stella is an album that combines Yello’s distinctive sonic signature and energy within a sharply produced package that still sounds good today. The album is a superb showcase for the combined talents of Dieter Meier and Boris Blank with additional support from their musical guests. It represents a step forward in the band’s musical evolution as they grew more confident and comfortable with their unmistakable sound.
Boris Blank’s musical wizardry is strongly in evidence on Stella. Each track is an individual sonic exploration that creates entertaining soundscapes. His ability to combine well chosen synth sounds with guitar and his endlessly inventive use of samples creates powerful atmospheres in every piece of music. I am also drawn to his melodic sensibilities, as he composes expressive melodies that are memorable and ear-grabbing. On top of those factors, he also strives for excellent in production, but not to the point that the music’s character is sapped.
The vocal abilities and songwriting skill that Dieter Meier brings to Yello’s music are on full
display on Stella. His voice isn’t exceptional as singing voices go but it has dark shading and a powerful presence that lends the music a distinctive flavour. This album showcases his
songwriting’s story telling ability. Each track for which he’s written lyrics unfolds strange and
engaging tales, drawing me into the fascinating worlds that he creates in his words. Stella was the point at which Meier’s creativity flowered.
Guest contributors are another feature of Yello’s music and the two major collaborators on this album are especially strong. Rush Winters’ performances on this album make the best of her sensuous and expressive vocal style, imbuing Dieter Meier’s lyrics with extra feeling and impact.
Chico Hablas’ guitar performances are full of style, emotion and electrifying energy as they
unfold. Both artists make Stella an even stronger album than it otherwise would have been
without their presence.
My Favourite Tracks Analyzed
“Desire” begins as steadily throbbing, bouncing drums and hissing shakers are cut by flaring
synth. A steadily guiding drumbeat and bass pulse shapes the music as wandering notes drift high above. Dieter Meier’s shadowed voice adds resonant emotion as a female voice moves behind it. Hard-hitting drums and bass burst along with a twisting, roaming guitar solo that has a blues-inflected feeling to it.
Now Dieter Meier’s spoken word segment adds atmosphere above continually rebounding
drums and solid bass. There’s darkness in the ethereal sonic flow as quickly slicing notes are
joined by a funky guitar pulse. Chimes ring out delicately while the throbbing bass keeps
undulating along with Dieter Meier’s vocals.
Our narrator creates the image of “the sun, blowing the moon away” as it energizes him for
another day. He describes the streets as “naked in the morning sun” and as the night lifts behind him, he runs.
In a monologue, the storyteller talks about how the morning’s heat “puts a thin film of sweat” on his face. He watches a small man with “his eyes half closed” putting chairs on tables, admiring his work before he “collects a quarter from the floor.” Now the narrator talks about heading to Broadway where he watches himself “having a slow breakfast” and trying to impress “the barman with a fresh voice” when he gets the bill.
“Desire for the unknown eyes…the unknown name” fills our narrator. He talks about how he’s “burning in the morning sun” as he wants to flee. He is driven by that same desire for the “unknown name (and) the unknown love.”
Brassy, gleaming synth leaps dynamically above rapidly driving drums and throbbing bass to
open “Vicious Games.” Grooving, string-like synth flits in along with glittering chimes. Rush
Winters’ voice is resonant and full of aching emotion as charging drums and bass push the
music on.
Deep guitar tones twang and Dieter Meier’s spoken word part has honest feeling in it. Rush
Winters’ voice carries the chorus while gigantic drums hit hard and rough-edged, trumpeting
synth cuts into the music in energizing bursts. The guitar glides in again, gentle and mysterious as enfolding synth tones curl around it. The drumbeat and throbbing bass glide on.
Funky guitar adds an ultra-cool feeling and Rush Winters’ emotive, pained voice carries the
tremulous vocal melody as synth pulses entangle. The deep-toned guitar calls out as Dieter
Meier’s voiceover sounds empty and lost. A mad percussive plethora erupts as a high scream
rings out. Chimes flicker and Rush Winters’ voice has a ghostly drift to it as she sings a
wordless melody. The bright, brassy synth cuts in sharp lines above rounded, smooth notes and the deep guitar drifts.
The first narrator talks about how little she realized how much she loved or cared for the song’s subject so “I played vicious games with different names.” Our second narrator goes on to point out that he was scared to “go under, afraid to see” when he shut his eyes. Now the other person has gone and left him behind, she says “I had to learn how much it hurts to play those vicious games.”
“Desert Inn” comes to life as deep, repeating chanting mixes with flat, reverberating synth
pulses that angle through the music. Throbbing drums rush under jangling, glowing guitar that dances into the song accompanied by washing synths and unevenly pulsing bass. Dieter Meier half-sings his vocals in a reverent line between drum bursts and flaring guitar.
Warmly chanting voices climb over hard-hitting synth before the drums accelerate. Deep chants and sharply cutting synth again underpins Dieter Meier’s not-quite-sung vocals. Now elevated, chiming synths flare out over echoing drums and a ticking sound before the song returns to the main melody.
A contorting, flying guitar solo writhes and propulsive drums guide the music. The song circles back to quickly flashing chimes that bounce over the drums as Dieter Meier chants again and impassioned guitar is split by a nasal, twisting synth sound before the song ends.
Our narrator talks about the woman to whom he’s drawn. He says he never meets her in the city but instead “six-hundred-fifty miles away” he meets his “angel” in the desert where it's possible for him to meet her. He adds that “in the desert heat, she makes me play;
He adds that he’s not trying to be clever or “getting there forever” but simply flying along with “the wind and thee.” He isn’t intentionally being slow but is becoming her slave. Our narrator begs “come on angel, play the game.” He adds that he won’t fight “with the wind on me.”
The storyteller says that she’s never in the city but “the woman she’s pretty.” He goes out into the desert to meet her and out there in the heat “she makes me pray.”
A subtly ominous sound grows in power and intensity as “Stalakdrama” commences. A powerful drum thunders and deep bass fills the sonic space along with dripping sounds. A massive, triumphant fanfare trumpets along with a screaming voice shrieking into the void.
Water drips, a gentle background of misty sound swirls and brassy synth plays a gentle,
melancholy-tinged melody while minor key strings add light touches. Voices cry out and metallic noises shift before the fanfare shines again and the screams echo.
“Domingo” kicks off as gritty electric guitar slices in sharp lines and massive kick drums throb. Guitar and synth form a driving line with the throbbing drums. Dieter Meier’s voice reverberates above the slamming drumbeat and choral synths echo out. High synths move lightly above the chanting and the deeper synth choir moves with vocal synth sounds.
Dieter Meier’s vocals have a sibilance as wildly pulsating drumming is cut by surging guitar.
Dieter Meier’s threatening voice echoes out and the drums trip along with the drifting, gliding synths. Motion and drama fill the music as it drives on to a conclusion with the crisp percussion and strange, slashing sounds swirling while hollow notes writhe and shimmer.
This song tells the story of the followers of Domingo De Santa Clara who has convinced them that “there is no Lord” because the names of Buddha, Allah, Shiva and Yahweh are all “outside our bodies.” They are taught that each human being is god because we’re the only ones who can “create the idea of his existence in our holy brains.”
The French quote in the song translates to “I hate the idea of god and his son. It’s one of the
most diabolical ideas in the entire history of man” and the song’s narrator encourages people to pray to “ourselves and our spirits!”
In the chorus, our storyteller speaks of Domingo showing his followers “just nothing” like no one else has shown it to them before. He goes on to point out that Domingo of Santa Clara made them believe he’s “no phantom” when “without the slightest spot of a thousand nations” he let his “blood of Domingo spray.”
As the tale unfolds, its teller says that his followers know that he’ll be “born today, tomorrow, and the day after.” This cycle will continue until the universe comes to an end. At that point, Domingo will sit smiling “as the rest of our species watches the catastrophe.”
Resonant, rapidly pulsating bass quickly oscillates along with pounding drums to start
“Sometimes (Dr. Hirsch).” Medium-low, hollow synth repeats a tremulous, pained melodic
pattern as Dieter Meier’s vocals whisper into the song. The drumbeat drives insistently as bass throbs along underneath it.
Now massive drums slam into the music and Dieter Meier’s impassioned voice echoes. The
drums are sharp edged and crisp as they snap out through the song. Tautly swirling, metallic
synth waltzes in the background as echoing space is cut by widely flashing synth as chimes
sparkle.
Dieter Meier’s voice is quiet but conveys deep pain as choral synths and a calliope cry out.
Bouncing, clopping sound joins dramatically shaded strings and a tapping synth pulse as
haunted voices drift. Dieter Meier’s voice cries out again along with the waving synth pattern as the sharply throbbing drums that press on as the song ends.
The storyteller laments that the other person is leaving him. He wishes that he could feel hurt
but “I suffer, I can't feel the pain.” There’s an emotional ache as he wishes he could cry. He adds that he’d heard about love and “I gave you the feelings I could.” It seems that those feelings weren’t enough because “You left me, I know you were right.” He ends by wishing he could cry again.
“Let Me Cry” starts as rushing drums, dominated by a chest punching kick drum form an
insistent beat. Flatly popping synth sounds patter through the song and a wild scream rings out. Guitar snarls into the track with a guttural edge as big drums splash and Dieter Meier’s spoken vocals sibilantly move. The scream howls out again along with growling guitar. The drums keep shattering and bursting as Dieter Meier sings the slightly pained chorus with a feeling of need emanating from it.
There’s a wistful quality in the melody and pattering synths pop as a record scratch shivers.
Minor key, broad synths descend and the whispered vocals shift as the massive drums explode.
Dieter Meier sings the chorus again as the guitar slices with a gritty edge while the drums rush endlessly and hollow sounds echo out. A guitar maelstrom twists and the song fades.
The narrator talks about a conversation that he overheard on the train. As he says, "a woman was trying to convince a man that she had not done it” while not specifying what “it” might be. She says that for the many years she hasn’t seen him, her “love is still the same.”
She urges him to believe her because “now I play no game.” Our storyteller hears her say that she loved him when she left him and “I couldn't tell you why.” Now she’s “too sad for tears” and asks him to let her cry.
Her memory of their meeting begins as she recalls him breathless after catching a train. He
smiles at her and they went to have a drink. There’s a wistful quality as she asks him if he
remembers the name of the place they went and he replies, “Yes, I do remember the name of the place: Three Roses.”
Desolate wind blows through open space as far off rumbling fills the low end as “Ciel Ouvert” starts off. A helicopter rotor sound sweeps around the stereo field as a near voice shifts. A choir exultantly cries out and shivering sounds tap in the distance.
Warm, worshipful notes are cut by the sound of clicking high heels and a wild voice screaming as sparkling, cut glass synth flows. Darkly insistent strings churn and massive drums throb as a haunted scream drifts and the sharp strings are triumphant.
A voice cries out and strings shudder with dramatic power and flash with intense glow. An
angular synth pulse is joined by demonic whispering and screaming voices echo out while the strings press on. Drums provide ticking guidance and the track ends on clicking heels and hard- edged strings.
“Angel No” begins with bombastic, brassy synth with a scream. Metallic, flaring synth is joined by a pogoing drumbeat and rippling, twangy sounds. Rush Winters’ strong, sexy voice rips into the music as metallic light flashes.
The vocal melody is full of wild energy as a male laugh rings out along with throbbing drums.
Quick, brassy synth flashes before gleaming, chiming sounds sweep and deep strings tremble.
Rush Winters’ voice delivers passion and drums patter along as shouts cry out. Rush Winters
fills each note with life and the colossal drums batter before the track ends.
Our narrator addresses the song’s subject and tells that person she doesn’t want to be their
angel but “your witch.” She has to wait for sunset so because she’s “getting ready for another flight.”
The storyteller says that only if the other person is prepared and “willing to drown” can they be hers that night. She says she’ll never live in reality because “in the daylight, I’d never survive.”
Ultimately she concludes, “I could never be your angel even if I tried.”
Conclusion
Stella marks the establishment of Yello’s unique and entertaining sound. The mixture of energy, thoughtfulness and well-produced and written music has established a sonic signature that the pair have only continued to refine and elaborate upon over the 40+ years of their musical career.