''Optimizm'' (, ''Optimism'') is the second studio album by

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

n punk band

Grazhdanskaya Oborona Grazhdanskaya Oborona (Russian: Гражданская оборона, , Russian for ''Civil Defense'', or ГО, often referred to as ГрОб, Russian for ''coffin'') was a Soviet-Russian rock band formed by Yegor Letov and Konstantin Ryabin ...

. The album was released in 1985 and was recorded concurrently with its follow-up '' Poganaya molodyozh'''. The original versions of ''Poganaya molodezh'' and ''Optimizm'' were recorded in 1984 with Yegor Letov and Konstantin Ryabinov (Kuzya UO, ''Кузя УО'') and intended to be a Posev album. According to Letov, the two albums represented two parts of one big release and published together on a single tape. This tape was produced under the title "Grazhdanskaya Oborona" or "GO-85". The album was recorded in 1984/1985, but was re-recorded in 1988 by E. Letov and Kuzya Uo. Participants in the recording of the album in 1985 was Andrey Babenko (Boss), Oleg Ivanovsky and Valery Rozhkov, who played the flute in the song "Optimizm". The album is lighter and more lyrical in comparison with the debut album and made in the genre of

post-punk Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad genre of music that emerged in late 1977 in the wake of punk rock. Post-punk musicians departed from punk's fundamental elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a broader, more experiment ...

and

garage rock Garage rock (sometimes called garage punk or 60s punk) is a raw and energetic style of rock music that flourished in the mid-1960s, most notably in the United States and Canada, and has experienced a series of subsequent revivals. The style is ...

. The song "Sobaka", "Na nashikh glazakh" and "Optimizm" was played in the genre reggae and folk. Songs of this album were composed by Letov and Kuzya Uo back in the band «Posev» in 1983. Subsequently, these songs were re-recorded and included in the compilation of Grazhdansakaya Oborona "Posey" in 1989. The album had no cover until the 1999 release on XOP, because it was originally distributed via magnitizdat. The basis for the album cover was the figure of Letov drawn specially for the cover of the album in 1985.

Track listing

Personnel

Yegor Letov Igor "Yegor" Fyodorovich Letov (, ; (10 September 1964 – 19 February 2008) was a Russian singer-songwriter, best known as the founder and leader of the post-punk/psychedelic rock band Grazhdanskaya Oborona (), as well as the founder of the con ...

– vocals, guitars, bass guitar, drums, production * Konstantin Ryabinov (Kuzya UO) – vocals, guitars, bass guitar * Valery Rozhkov – flute («Optimizm»)

External links

''Optimizm''
at

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(list of versions)
Album on official site
{{Authority control 1985 albums Grazhdanskaya Oborona albums