Thoughts on:
The Notwist--The Devil, You + Me
Somewhere around 2003-4, I looked at the excellent latest release from Germany's The Notwist ("Neon Golden") and a mind-bendingly good album from Denmark's Mew ("Frengers") and predicted the next rock revolution might come from Central Europe. As far as brilliant forecasting goes, it ranks up there with my obviously spot-on prediction that Coldplay wouldn't break America because they released "Clocks" as the second single off "A Rush of Blood to the Head": Mew made a disastrous follow-up album full of prog-rock tripe; The Notwist, meanwhile, pretty much disappeared. There was the puzzling collaboration with Themselves, a group of insect-rapping Californians. Notwist frontman Markus Acher released an excellent record with his other group Lali Puna (2004's "Faking the Books"), but that too failed to register outside of hipster circles in New York, LA, and London.
Why was the bar so high? You see, with 2002's "Neon Golden", The Notwist rewrote the rules of merging rock with electronic music. After a decade of the music industry telling us the future was sweaty American jerks using drum loops to underpin grunge dirges, The Notwist took tasteful laptop textures and merged them with delicate rock songs in an utterly beguiling way. Acher's voice, reminiscent of Belle and Sebastian's Stuart Murdoch, floated ethereally above a bed of music that sounded like New Order for the 21st century.
Listeners have waited six years for "The Devil, You + Me", and although it's not entirely clear what took them so long, there are plenty of fine moments on this record. Maybe expectations were simply too high, but what they've basically given us is "Neon Golden 2". Opener "Good Lies" is fantastic, with a circular melody repeating and reinforcing the key lyric: "Let's just imitate the real until we find a better one". Being German, Acker's unusual delivery gives lyrics that might sound cliche coming from a native speaker a decidedly uncanny quality . "Good Lies" also reveals the band's new secret weapon: the acoustic guitar. Whether it's the descending chords in that track, the Teutonic Bossa Nova of "Gloomy Planets", or the space-age blues of "Gone Gone Gone", this post-modern band using the most traditional of instruments results in added warmth and texture.
"Where in this World" Promo:
The morbid "Where in this World" seems like an odd choice for a lead-off single; more obvious choices would have been the upbeat "Boneless" or the part-jittery/part-shimmering "Gravity". A June release also seems like a curious move, but maybe that just means people will be rediscovering "The Devil, You + Me" in the fall when the weather becomes more suitable for this kind of thing.So while one shouldn't expect a new rock revolution from mainland Europe any time soon, with "The Devil, You + Me" The Notwist have continued their quiet insurgency to redefine and recontextualize rock n' roll. This is thoughtful and evocative music that deserves your attention.
Listen to "Good Lies":
[Download the MP3 Here]
[Band Website]
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[Band Wiki]
Labels: Germany, reviews, the notwist
posted by Mike at 9:30 AM
3 Comments:
hm...I don't think it sounds all that much like 'Neon Golden'. It has a similar vibe, but i still think it has an identity all its own. Good record.
Yeah -- this is in no way Neon Golden II unless you mean it's simply another album sounding like the Notwist. Firstly, this one is far less overtly electronic in nature. Second, the melodies in their latest record are a huge step forward for Acher who tends to work within a limited range.
There's no doubt it's a bit different--it's been 6 years after all. But after those 6 years, I would've expected a big leap from them, which clearly didn't happen. Besides the inclusion of more acoustic guitar (as I noted) and a few different instruments, this is pretty much the same template as "Neon Golden". Hence my comment that this was "Neon Golden 2".
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