(23.12.2009)
#6: Tokio Hotel “Humanoid”
The currently most successful German rock bands are Silbermond, Rammstein and Tokio Hotel. All three have released very strong albums in 2009 – but looking back, one has to say that the quartet from Magdeburg comes out on top with their record. The third Tokio Hotel album “Humanoid” is, despite the band’s image, a successful and soulful outcry with a lot of facets. What most people wouldn’t believe possible for the band to do, but will have to admit after listening half-way objectively: they work important topics into good lyrics. They may be youthful topics – but aren’t those moods in society of general interest?
Musically speaking, “Humanoid” is a great hit. Where Rammstein sound oddly uptight despite all the hardness, where Silbermond despite undeniable class waver between “making sure” and some kind of plan-less euphoria to experiment, ever single note and the superb-effective rhythm group of the Kaulitz brothers fit. Singer Bill Kaulitz has grown up to become a gifted entertainer, he walks the line between beautifully entertaining in-your-face-ness and painfully open soul strip. Even songs like “Alien”, “Geisterfahrer” or “Für immer jetzt” – that one might have thought to be b-sides after hearing the album for the first few times next to hits like “Hunde”, “Sonnensystem” or the Goosebump’s hymn “Lass uns laufen” – turn into evergreens. That is exactly the way perfect rock music has to sound for the new millennium – even if the production was a little softened…
