(24.11.2014)
Tokio Hotel’s ‘Kings Of Suburbia’ Welcomes You To Their Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
Join us for a visual journey through TH’s latest.
Tokio Hotel know that everybody hurts. Like a lot. And sometimes those hurts cut so deep it takes a minute to figure out how to put them into words.
Or, in the case of the German techno pop glam band, four years to find the right way to crack open their glitter- and gloom-filled hearts for our entertainment. But, with their signature mix of electro beats, new wave-y keyboards, disco swagger and shiny future shock rock, the band’s follow-up to 2009′s Humanoid is like a shot of adrenaline to their legion of fiercely loyal Aliens.
Here’s our track-by-track guide to Kings of Suburbia:
1. Feel It All
What you need to know: A new day is coming on this mid-tempo dance floor invitation to have all the feels and never look back.
Key lyric: “Strobe lights flashing out of your eyes/I can feel you all night, I won’t let you down, down.”
2. Stormy Weather
What you need to know: This is for the real Aliens, like the ones who don’t mind feeling like they’re stuck in a claustrophobic, zero-gravity electro rock nightmare.
Key lyric: “I can breathe in, can’t breathe out cuz the air is fading heat/We can breath in, can’t breathe out we are suffocating.”
3. Run, Run, Run
What you need to know: A Radiohead-like falsetto piano ballad about a love so deep it makes you bleed.
Key lyric: “Tell me how you close the door/Knowing nobody could love you more.”
4. Love Who Loves You Back
What you need to know: Did someone say disco? This sly slice of dreamy pop dance channels a bit of Empire of the Sun via Scissor Sisters.
Key lyric: “Throw your arrows/Hit her heart/If they don’t react/Love who loves you back.”
5. Covered In Gold
What you need to know: Love is fleeting, love don’t last, but at least you have this pleading banger to remember us by.
Key lyric: “Falling in and out of love is a part of us/I keep hanging on to secret promises/You broke me apart, like a shattered glass/Our love is gross but I’m covered in gold, gold, gold.”
6. Girl Got A Gun
What you need to know: “Gun” could be the lost theme song to a James Bond movie, with its secret agent guitar riff, AutoTuned vocals and in-your-face bang, bang lyrics.
Key lyric: “Girl got a gun, girl got a gun, gun, gun/Girl got a gun, girl got a gun, bang! bang!/Boy better run boy better run run run.”
7. Kings of Suburbia
What you need to know: Yeah, manicured lawns and above-ground pools are lame, but when you rule the suburbs with a Depeche Mode-like dark dance leather-glove fist, it’s all good.
Key lyric: “We are the Kings and Queens of suburbia/Somewhere in time/We don’t know where we are/Come on/We are who we are.”
8. We Found Us
What you need to know: EDM meets emo in this angsty electro jam about finding love (of every stripe) in da club.
Key lyric: “We found us, us/In this club, club/We found us, us/It hurts but it feels right.”
9. Invaded
What you need to know: Can you say “power ballad”? Now can you say “please don’t go”?
Key lyric: “One night, one scream, one echo/Silence louder than before/One tear of blood on the floor/Cold wind through my broken door.”
10. Never Let You Down
What you need to know: It’s hectic and hot, and then it’s chill and out of this world. But whatever you call it, it’s love, and it’s got a beat that will make your heart run.
Key lyric: “I wanna fly with you above the end/I promise you I’ll be a better man again.”
11. Louder Than Love
What you need to know: It might feel sad and lonely now, alone in the dark, but nothing, I repeat, nothing is louder than love. But, strangely, this soothing EDM tune is not that loud.
Key lyric: “Exploding sounds of loneliness/Echo through the night/Raise your hands and cover up your ears/And if you have the courage now/Leave them by your side/For once in your life.”
12. Masquerade
What you need to know: Not gonna lie: no idea what this one is about, but it feels kind of post-apocalyptic-y, and it has big, dumb guitar, so all good.
Key lyric: “In time we hide in a masquerade of heroes/A million lies behind blue eyes/in a masquerade of heroes.”
13. Dancing In The Dark
What you need to know: Nope, not the Bruce Springsteen song, but a glitchy, twitchy robot rock tune about how sometimes you just have to dance all by yourself with the lights off to try and burn off that love you just can’t shake.
Key lyric: “Snow blows through my mind/It makes you comin’ back to me/Just that one more time/But your feelings are gone.”
14. The Heart Get No Sleep
What you need to know: Tribal beats, a slow beat build that would make Avicii proud and lyrics about “burning diamonds” and setting the world on fire. What’s not to love?
Key lyric: “And I can set the world on fire/Just to see you come undone/I’m falling out, it feels like flying/Into the daylight, into the daylight.”
15. Great Day
What you need to know: A nice, chill comedown for the rocket ride of heartbreak, the final track is a slow-burn rocker with a killer new wave keyboard riff about making peace with love lost.
Key lyric: “It’s a great day to say goodbye/It’s ok ’cause I’ll be alright.”