Silk Sonic – “An Evening with Silk Sonic” (Atlantic Records / Aftermath Entertainment)
For months and right up to the end, the record company had been doing a somewhat crazy thing about “An Evening with Silk Sonic”, the joint album of Bruno Mars and Anderson Paak: lots of sensational collaboration superlatives, gigantic gatherings, album-of-the-year attitude. In addition, a secrecy boom on the level of military attack plans on friendly states. It’s a bit of a shame. The album is not that (!) Good. Which by no means means that it is bad. Because it is not. Not at all. How good you find something in the end unfortunately also depends on how much you expected at the beginning. And after all the booze, at least one cure for Corona was expected, compliance with the 1.5-degree global warming target, free beer, overtime compensation and ever-small kittens for everyone. Therefore a bit of expectation management. The collaboration of the two American R’n’B superstars brings all of that: not. Instead, there is simply an extremely sovereign, hip-loose and very smooth funk-and-soul album. Lively drums, wonderfully springy grooves, fluttering guitars, beach-warm late summer keyboards – and Bootsy Collins and Thundercat. Which would also clarify any questions about the bass. In addition, choirs and synths as well as lovingly staged soft porn with backlight settings and lots of cuddling before and after. No longer. But: not even a tiny bit less. Jakob Biazza
Sting – “The Bridge” (Universal Music)
Even if you Sting and likes his music, one has to attest to the man an exhausting tendency to complacency. On his new album “The Bridge” he presents himself again as thinking man’s popstar. Sting, the aspirational popper for the better educated music lover. He thinks about love, life, the big picture – but forgets about the strong melodies that made him famous. With all the sympathy, “The Bridge” leaves the aftertaste of a reading in which a well-dressed author is leafing through his diary with self-love. Too bad. Max Fellmann
Emigrate – “The Persistence Of Memory” (Sony Music)
Of the Rammstein-Gitarist Richard Zven Kruspe has under the name Emigrate recorded a new solo album. “The Persistence Of Memory” (Emigrate Production / Sony Music) is his fourth. And it’s definitely fantastic and brilliant on some level (the guitar sound, which, like the main band, is supposed to be industrially hard and clinically exact at the same time, but this time unfortunately sounds a bit like muddy-thumping home recording, it’s just not ; and neither do the Casio Klingelingeling synths). Unfortunately, at least in Germany, nobody will ever be able to listen closely enough to recognize any musical genius. One is simply too preoccupied with the question of why – in God’s name – someone who speaks (and sings!) Such a radical English would want to speak (or sing! Or text !!) English. Everything, absolutely everything about this album sounds as if a humorous East Coast American would want to rap the words “Thuringian Bratwurst” over a waltz – just from a German.
Therefore a small addendum to the question of how one should deal with oversized song models – and only because the fantastic Dave Gahan has just covered “Always On My Mind”, known from Elvis, among others, and really irritatingly beautiful: Just like Kruspe does it together with Rammstein singer Till Lindemann (as if a humorless Texan wanted to syncopate the words “Scharfe Spreewaldgurken” over a feverish dancehall beat ), you could very well leave it. Jakob Biazza
Adele – “30” (Sony Music)
“30” is her “most personal album so far” Adele recently said. It’s the scary bang phrase that celebrities often use to make their products barely more interesting. At Adele there is a change. In the song “My Little Love”, for example, which Adele not only sings to her nine-year-old son, but in which the child can even be heard: an unreal atmosphere, an underwater choir, an echo sounder rhythm. For Adele, who otherwise acts rather sturdy musically, this is a daring, transcendental sound that is reminiscent of the trip-hop of the 90s. Which is why she sings flamingly of her failures as a single mother, until the son’s voice emerges ghostly from the fog.
Great. Until, at some point, Adele reaches the limits of the concept. And so at the end of “30” the half-dry feeling remains that in large parts you have listened to a self-awareness monologue, a sung voice message, than truly great songs. The observation made by Roland Barthes in 1977 that “the discourse of love is extremely lonely today” can be applied again in 2021. Slowly we may need a new language of love. Joachim Hentschel
Shirin David – “Bitches need rap” (Universal)
The big question on the second album by Barbara Schirin Davidavičius, mentioned Shirin David, it said: Can she do that? A pure rap album. Hard, dirty street beats, nasty synths, nasty basses. Does her voice carry that? Your attitude? The flow? Well, what can you say: she has already hinted at it, when she rapped the song “Conan x Xenia” on the “White Album” by Haftbefehl – almost the better part. Now she shows it on album length. “Bitches need rap” (Universal) is a deeply sovereign piece of German rap history. Better than a lot of the stuff that comes up right now. No, much better. Harder too. We are currently experiencing the change in power in the male domain. Jakob Biazza
Elbow – “Flying Dream 1” (Polydor / Universal)
You have to get the British from Elbow of course love. For the candlelight festivity of their songs. For their big, enchantingly small chamber music pop. For singer Guy Garvey’s commitment to Peter Gabriel. The fine instrumentation. The clever, circus-chaotic arrangements. The crude, but at the end of the day always drifting home melody arcs. And for the fact that they can actually, actually even, hymns. Her song “One Day Like This”, for example, ran often in England and was always absolutely fitting when Olympic sports or football games from the Premier League had to be summarized in shimmering action pictures. Fine pathos, little embarrassment. Great trick. Unfortunately, the song is now 13 years old again. And since then the band has withdrawn further and further to a somewhat aimless meandering. Too many verses, too few choruses. It is no different on the album “Flying Dream 1” (Polydor / Universal), which will be released on Friday. You drift and stroll and stray, you deceive, hit hooks and do some very enchanting pirouettes. Everything is very nice. Only a really, really good song (at least in the sense of a hit) will not succeed. Jakob Biazza