The Notwist Return, Seeming Deal with the Devil Made
Six years of side-project sousing lead to a balanced, haunting return for the German quartet.
The Notwist
The Devil, You + Me
Released on Jun 17, 2008
While The Notwist was busy forming and recording 13 & God, producing a much-heralded electro-hip-hop record, it seems they didn't forget the trademark ambient indie noise that made us fall in love with the casual sound play of Neon Golden from 2002, the return triumphantly with The Devil, You + Me. Six years of working on other albums and forcing listeners to wait impatiently clearly hasn't been for naught. The Notwist's traditional sound has been marinating all this time and the result is a downright perfected blend of ambient electronica and indie rock.
As has been becoming more and more apparent in their career, The Notwist has put an ever-increasing emphasis on production value. With heavier use of drum machines and synthesizers than ever before, Gretschmann (aka Console) steps the bar up and produces a level of consistency that keeps the heavy-handed lyrics and almost-whispered vocals of Markus Acher from becoming overwrought or glitchy.
The album works wonderfully as a whole, producing a claustrophobic sound that is somehow inviting and completely accessible. Setting things off, "Good Lies" spews existentially uppity phrases like, "We'll remember good lies when we carry them home with us" and "let's just imitate the real, until we find a better one." Setting these words on a piece of paper makes them look like static, pompousness. Luckily, The Notwist has developed, and continues to use, a formula that results in some of the catchiest melodies that whisper their way into your mind and softly develop the ideas of both being trapped and walking under the sun in an empty city at the same time.
The title track hosts a gentle guitar part that bounces along while Gretschmann produces cloud-like reverberating blips that don't overbear or confuse the essence of the song: Acher's perfected lyrics and a twinkling melody of bells and guitars. Again, with a sparkling ear to proper proportions, The Notwist take various elements that have often put off listeners to other bands and balanced them along a well-calibrated scale.
Consistency and balance are probably the two most important things to say about The Devil, You + Me. Failing to fall into the traps of many indie bands, The Notwist seems able to recognize when enough is enough. Each musician knows just as well when to back off as when to step into the spotlight. Tracks can be listened to alone, but the album is much better appreciated as a singular piece, a great album for walking alone, for leaving on under dim lights, for relaxing and thinking.
And lord knows we could all use a little more of those last two.
High Point
"The Devil, You & Me" as a chorus comes out like a well-crafted Wizard of Oz spoof, begging the listener into the rest of the song for one of the most introspective and catchy of gently rocking tunes.
Low Point
"Hands On Us" possesses the same claustrophic feel of the rest of the album, but it seals the exit points. A bit of a standout track in that it feels more hopeless and dim than the rest of the album. Almost like a calmer version of the trash compactor scene in Star Wars: A New Hope before C-3PO returns to the comlink.
Posted by Mark Steffen on Jun 21, 2008 @ 9:05 pm
