• Record Label: Mute
  • Release Date: Nov 15, 2011
User Score
8.4

Universal acclaim- based on 52 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 45 out of 52
  2. Negative: 5 out of 52
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  1. Dec 24, 2011
    10
    I was very encouraged to find this site. I wanted to thank you for this special read. I definitely savored every little bit of it.

    Heathrow Minicab
  2. Jan 21, 2012
    10
    This is a landmark album that has influenced whole generations of musicians. I discovered this band five years ago and they became one of my all time favourites.
  3. Dec 14, 2011
    10
    An absolute masterpiece. Definitely one of my favorite albums of all time. Probably in my top 10, actually. Can has several incredible albums, but this one combines everything I love about them into one wonderful collection.
  4. Jan 5, 2012
    8
    This album is quite good, mixing several styles their sound is kinda hard to pin down. Overall it is very jammy, funky, and experimental, although the second half of the album with live songs such as "spoon" hasn't withstood the test of time, reminding me a bit too much of my teenage years when I was high on shrooms with a guitar and a mic and way too much effects on the vocals.
  5. Apr 8, 2020
    10
    Something truly great was occurring in Germany in the early 1970's. German youths, discontented with Germany's national identity following their atrocities in World War II, sought to use music to push forward a new kind of German - cerebral and cold, but also heady and open-minded. Inspired by psychedelic rock and progressive rock from England and the United States, they created a new,Something truly great was occurring in Germany in the early 1970's. German youths, discontented with Germany's national identity following their atrocities in World War II, sought to use music to push forward a new kind of German - cerebral and cold, but also heady and open-minded. Inspired by psychedelic rock and progressive rock from England and the United States, they created a new, futuristic style of music, dubbed "krautrock" in Western print, a term which many of its artists lamented.

    Now, there were two styles of krautrock that became popular - there was early-era krautrock, spearheaded by the likes of Can, Tangerine Dream, and Faust, and a later emergent style, the kind most associated with the genre today, done by the likes of Neu! and early Kraftwerk. The early sound is associated with a kind of wanton music destruction; noisy tapes loops, scratchy, loopy guitars, grotesque overdubs straight out of John Lennon and Yoko Ono's worst nightmares. Its near opposite, the later style focused on steady rhythms which ditched snares and high-hats for the almighty kick drum, while adding layer upon layer of synth and guitar work until the original, rudimentary composition was a thing of the past, symbolizing Germany's fetish for progress. Between these two styles, a new genre emerged known as kosmische musik, where Tangerine Dream would eventually migrate to, and would pair with later krautrock to create tense, spacey orchestrations that would eventually become the style that we associate with modern film/tv soundtracks. If the Grand Theft Auto V soundtrack comes to mind, then you're one step ahead of me - Tangerine Dream did the GTA V score. In fact, everyone was influenced by this stuff - David Bowie, Radiohead, LCD Soundsystem, Slint, Brian Eno; it would probably be quicker to name artists that weren't influenced by krautrock.

    Tago Mago sort of works as a bridge to gap the two styles. The album certainly isn't shy of the slightly unnerving, devil-may-care approach to psychedelic rock that emerged at the time, but we can see elements of the genre come into the fold that would eventually become synonymous with the genre. The drumming here is steady and plotting and the instrumentation, though highly improvised, never venture so far off the beaten path as to mold into new tracks themselves. It's noisy, but far from harsh and discordant. It's a pleasant experience that enlightens rather than alienates, and it's not difficult to see why Can's contemporaries fell in love with this record so much. This, of course, can not be said for the penultimate tracks Aumgn and Peking O, a frenetic mental breakdown that will make you rethink everything you said about Revolution 9 being "too much."

    Only now, some many years later, out of pure happenstance, do I now realize what "Can" means in this context. I always thought they were talking about a tin can or something. Now I get that it, of course, a kind of positive affirmation. Do you want to you? Yes, you Can. You just need to be clever enough and to have enough chutzpah.
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Metascore
99

Universal acclaim - based on 13 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 13 out of 13
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 13
  3. Negative: 0 out of 13
  1. Jan 9, 2012
    80
    We have a groundbreaking album re-released, with some strong live material
  2. Dec 9, 2011
    100
    It's a colossus of an album, the product of a band that was thinking huge, pushing itself to its limits, and devoted to breaking open its own understanding of what rock music could be.
  3. The Wire
    Dec 6, 2011
    90
    After four decades, the album's concentrated blend of brutalism and intricacy, fluidity and fracture, sound as uncompromising as ever. [Nov 2011, p.69]