Released November 1974 Genre Avant-garde Label Island | Recorded 1973 Length 42:02 | |
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Studio Sound Techniques, London, England | ||
The End... is the fifth studio album by German musician Nico. It was recorded in 1973 and produced by John Cale. It was released in November 1974, on record label Island.
Contents
Background
Nico had performed two songs from the album in concert several years prior to the album release: "Secret Side" had been performed at a John Peel session for the BBC on February 2, 1971 and she had also performed "You Forget to Answer" on TV in France and the Netherlands in early 1972.
Content
The End... is her fifth collaboration with John Cale and second with him as producer. It carries the same harmonium-based sound heard on The Marble Index (1969) and Desertshore (1970), with the addition of Brian Eno's synthesizers and electronic instruments.
The song "You Forget to Answer" tells of the misery felt by Nico when she failed to reach ex-lover Jim Morrison by phone only to find out later that he had died. All but two of the songs on the album were written by Nico: the cover of the Doors' "The End" and a version of the German national anthem "Das Lied der Deutschen". Brian Eno plays synthesizer on "It Has Not Taken Long", "You Forgot to Answer" and "Innocent and Vain".
The front and back covers feature stills from the Philippe Garrel film Les hautes solitudes (1974) in which Nico appears.
Release
The End... was released in November 1974, on record label Island, her only album on the label. Despite strong reviews, like its predecessors, it was not a commercial success and Nico's partnership with Island ended.
It was her last studio album until she found a deal with Aura to release Drama of Exile in 1981.
Track listing
All tracks written by Nico, except as noted.
Note: The original CD edition of the album erroneously cuts off the song 'You Forget To Answer' about ten seconds early. The deluxe 2CD remastered edition corrects this error.