Nina Hagen was an opera-singing punk rock incendiary from Germany who entered 1980 with a major label deal, massive sales figures in Europe, and an outsized fan base that packed most of the rooms she played. After two albums fronting the Nina Hagen Band in her native language, the 25-year-old signed with Frank Zappa’s manager and landed in New York City to record her solo debut and inaugural English-language LP. There was every reason to believe that this woman with unteachable rock’n’roll magnetism had crossover appeal in the U.S. market. She was riveting not because of her flashy clothes, thick eye makeup, or neon hair—anyone can dress the part. It was the way she screamed, the way she fell into deep and bizarre voices and contorted her face to the delight of her fans. Nunsexmonkrock, released in 1982, was an opportunity to introduce even more people to Hagen—an incomparable performer, a new mother, an activist, a clown, a disciple of Christ, a true believer in UFOs, and without question, a star.
Hagen did not waste a moment playing it safe or easing the listener in. Instead, she charged immediately into a multi-tracked pan-religious chaos sphere. The first time you hear her voice over thundering drums, she’s telling a Bible story about Jesus exorcising a demon out of a man and into a litter of pigs. The overall aesthetic of the album is distilled in Hagen’s desperate, frantic vocals on “Antiworld” as she shrieks about the pigs “running away, screaming.” Her voice is harrowing. It’s calm momentarily, but then her deep demonic growl shifts quickly into an authoritative bark like she’s preaching over an ocean of bodies, and then again, she pivots entirely and becomes tongue-tied like a man possessed. Her intense wailing, her proselytizing about deities and black holes, and her deep commitment to character work is a thrown gauntlet—you’re either in the tank for this maximalist credo or you can’t hang with her at all.