Culture
April 29, 2024

CD tips: first works and relaxing music

Get Well Soon - "Rest Now, Weary Head!"

Weltschmerz can be so beautiful - especially if it is set as opulent as on "Rest Now, Weary Head!", The debut album by Get Well Soon. However, mastermind Konstantin Gropper does not want to be understood as a "model crybaby" - rightly so. The album definitely has more to offer than flat melancholy. His trademarks: the daring combination and the unexpected style break. El Mariachi guitars meet synthesizers, cheerleading choirs and accordions. Gropper poaches in the most diverse music areas, covers Michael Holm as well as Underworld, makes use of Ennio Morricone, sounds like Radiohead, sometimes like Nick Cave. The 25-year-old has largely arranged the album on his own. He benefited from his musical education. From the age of five, Gropper received cello lessons, a drums for communion and then a guitar. Later he studied at the Popakademie in Mannheim. But his classic education penetrates "Rest Now, Weary Head!" again and again. Like a classical concert, the album starts with the Prelude, ends with the Coda and is a complete work thought through from the beginning to the end. In the classic as well as pop sense a round thing.

Please listen: * If This Is Missing I Have Gone Hunting * You / Aurora / You / Seaside * Christmas in Adventure Parks

Release: 18.01.

A Fine Frenzy - "One Cell in The Sea"

She's only 22 years old and yet Alison Sudol, aka A Fine Frenzy, sings of life as if she's been in the singer-songwriter business for 20 years. Again and again it's on their debut album "One Cell in The Sea", about longing, about heartbreak, about melancholy. With sugar-sweet, almost whispering voice sudol sings of past or near-lovers, of separation pain and being in love. And then, on tracks like "Come on, come out", suddenly mundane things like the weather take center stage. Or, with "The Minnow & The Trout" and "Liar, Liar" she takes her listeners to a world where sirens beguile seafarers and drink hummingbirds. It is a world shaped by Sudol's love of literature. British Heartbreak Queen Jane Austen is one of her body and stomach authors as well as the creator of the fantastic Narnia Chronicles C.S. Lewis. So her lyrics are also clearly Sudol's strength: heartbreakingly beautiful, like Austen's "Pride and Prejudice" and imaginative like Shakespeare's "Midsummer Night's Dream".

Please listen: * Come on, come out * Almost Lover * Rangers

Release: 08.02.

HushPuppies - "Silence Is Golden"

Rotzig, schäbbelig, sixties-heavy and anything but silent, the new HushPuppies album. The very opposite of what the title "Silence Is Golden" might suggest. In any case, the second album after the debut album "The Trap" is silent and silent. It gets rocked - to the limit and with everything that goes with it: a bit of organ, a few pounding choruses and a good portion of guitar. Gorgeous! At most, the tracks "Love Bandit", "Down, down, down" and "Harmonium" singer Olivier Jourdan agrees softer tones. All in all, the album of the five French is nothing for Leisehörer. If you like the sounds of The Hives, The Libertines and Co., you should definitely listen to "Silence Is Golden". It is worth it .. Especially if you like Jourdans charming French accent.

Please listen: * Moloko Sound Club * Bad Taste And Gold On The Doors * Broken Matador

Release: 01.02.

Nada Surf - "Lucky"

With "Popular" Nada Surf gained a certain reputation in 1998. But then it literally became quieter around the New York trio. While the single was played up and down in the indie dancers, Daniel Lorca, Ira Elliott and Matthew Caws were working on new albums and comparatively quieter tones. Her latest work "Lucky", like his predecessors, is also suitable for compassionate mitcy. Slowly, persistently but unobtrusively, the songs make their way to the emotional center. Setting the tone for the album is already the first track "See These Bones": quiet guitar sounds, restrained voice, unspectacular chorus. Unspectacular meets it very well. What in the case of "Lucky" is not negative but to be understood in the best sense of relaxation. Unprecedented, the songs come together to form a successful complete work. Recorded at Robert Lang Studios in Seattle. Just where once greats like Alice in Chains, Bush and Foo Fighters worked on their albums.A whole series of prominent guest musicians stopped by to support the trio musically. Ed Harcourt contributed the piano for "Beautiful Beat" and "Weightless". Ben Gibbard from Death Cab for Cutie did the honors for "See These Bones" and Calexicos Martin Wenk for "On the Wings".

Please listen: * I Like What You Say * Lake These Bones * Weightless

Release: 01.02.

The Hoosiers - "The Trick to Life"

In England, they are already stars: The Hoosiers rose with "The Trick to Life" at number one on the album charts. And also for German supporters of the above-average well-made indie pop, the record is now available. But everyone who is about to go to the nearest store should be warned: you have to like Irwin Sparke's way of singing. On tracks like "Run Rabit Run", he turns Muse vocalist Matthew James Bellamy into real rivals when it comes to high notes: vocal cords are exploited to the limit - in a heartbreaking way. Great feelings are on "The Trick to Life" in the foreground. "There is undoubtedly a basic theme in our music," confirms singer Sparkes. "Someone feels unfinished and is looking for something and hopes that something is looking for him at the same time." Lyrics like "I hate my work, but I'm in control / I'm fearless now, but it cost my soul" clearly reflect this theme. So it is not surprising that The Hoosiers include among others the Gothic veteran The Cure to their musical role models. Clear evidence for this is "Cops and Robbers", the similarity with "Love Cats" hard to miss. However, it would not do her justice to reduce the entire Hoosiers plate to a certain Cure similarity. "The Trick to Life" is an independent work, which is recommended to every warmest.

Please listen: * Run Rabit Run * Goodbye Mr A. * Killer

Release: 25.01.

Morcheeba - "Dive Deep"

They were the kings of the chill-out, the world's celebrated downtempo majesties. With singer Skye Edwards, the brothers Ross and Paul Godfrey celebrated enormous success under the name Morcheeba in the late 1990s, selling millions of records. But at some point the air was out. "After the fourth album 'Charango' we barely talked and the tension on tour made us all sick, so Ross and I decided to part with our singer Skye," recalls Paul Godfrey. A decision that should not pay off. It went downhill - until now. With "Dive Deep" the Godfrey brothers are happy and satisfied. The album was apparently a lifeline, a kind of therapy for the brothers. Dive Deep is also about swimming away from anger to release pain and anger from the past, they say. The record also sounds exactly like this: as if one were to dive, the world is perceived only muted from the underwater perspective. Comfortably relaxed as in a bubble bath, you let the soft beats underlay folk and blues trickle down on you. Or, in the words of Ross Godfey, "Dive Deep" sounds like "Nick Drake was produced by RZA from the Wu-Tang clan".

Please listen: * Enjoy The Ride * Riverbed * Blue Chair

Release: 08.02.