It makes perfect sense that
Yello have lasted longer and aged better than any other synth pop outfit. When the Swiss group started out in 1979, the bandmembers were already older and wiser than most of their peers -- singer
Dieter Meier was already in his mid-thirties back then, and
Touch Yello finds him a sultry, smoky-voiced sexagenarian. He has effectively become the
Leonard Cohen of European electro-pop, with a touch of
Paolo Conte's Continental class and maybe a dash of
Serge Gainsbourg's genteel sleaze, and the comely female guest vocals that pop up throughout the album make for a perfect
Gainsbourg/
Jane Birkin kind of contrast. On what is only
Yello's second album of the last ten years, the duo of
Meier and synth wizard
Boris Blank has taken a somewhat schizophrenic route; roughly half of
Touch Yello is based around the kind of pulsating, electronic dance-pop grooves that have been the group's strength for three decades. On the other half, they venture too far into moody, downtempo pieces full of chillout atmospheres and bathtub jazz. By the end, one wishes the contributions of German trumpeter
Till Bronner would have been left in trash can of
Blank's laptop, as his parts take things entirely too close to smooth jazz territory. Thankfully, the funkier, more dance-oriented cuts where
Meier's deep, dusky voice is right up front pretty much save the day. Listening to tracks like the disco-drenched "Part Love," where
Meier comes across like some fever-dream combination of
Barry White and the guy from
Trio, it's hard to imagine why anyone would want to mess with such a winning formula. Still, when you've been around as long as
Yello have, you should be allowed to take a few detours, even if some of them wind up leading you down the occasional blind alley. ~ J. Allen