comeback
Gossip are back: “Real Power” is really heating up
Gossip are back – US singer Beth Ditto and bassist Ted Kwo are on stage at the Lido in Berlin. photo
© Britta Pedersen/dpa
Disco. Pop. Punk. Skirt. Soul. Electro. Gossip have hardly any reservations about their style. Now Motown and Funk are also added. The comeback album shows rousing power – even live.
In the sold-out Berlin Lido you have to Keep fanning Beth Ditto. At the concert to mark the release of her new record, the striking front woman of the US trio Gossip turns up the heat in the packed hall. With her amazing voice and dirty guitar riffs, the 43-year-old and her band get the crowd going.
The concert also gives a good foretaste of the new album “Real Power”, which is released today. More than a decade after their last record and a break-up in the meantime, the trio from Portland (US state of Oregon) now has their sixth long player available.
“Tonight you will be touched by an angel,” says Ditto in the Lido. Shortly afterwards the heavy soul song “Act of God” begins, which is also the album opener on “Real Power”. It’s about loss of control, faith in God and life. The track, somewhere between rough punk and melodic Motown, makes all the hairs on your body rise.
Songs are created in Hawaii with celebrity help
Eleven new songs are compiled on “Real Power”. The record’s exquisitely eclectic sound largely comes from the mind of guitarist Nathan Howdeshell.
And who has his fingers in the game again on “Real Power” is star producer Rick Rubin. He was already responsible for Gossip’s mainstream breakthrough “Music For Men” in 2009 and the mega hit “Heavy Cross”, which stayed in the German charts for almost two years in a row. The new songs were created in Rubin’s studio in Hawaii over the past five years. This makes the tracks stand out noticeably from each other – unlike last time on “A Joyful Noise”.
“Real Power” also says goodbye to the dance of its predecessor and is much quieter in many parts – including ballads. Stylistically completely different gems can be found. There’s the magnificent “Tell Me Something” with a mix of lowered, droning industrial elements, classical piano, light percussions and Ditto’s powerful soul voice. In “Don’t Be Afraid” the singer’s dominance comes to the fore impressively between 80s keyboard sprinkles.
In Berlin there is burping and screaming
Of course, Gossip also play their classics at the Lido: “Love Long Distance”, “Men in Love”, “Listen Up” and “Standing in the Way of Control” are on the set list. Ditto shows what she can achieve with her voice, she pulls out all the stops. The energy of queer punk rock just doesn’t get old, she says. She burps and jokes about flatulence, tries out German-language jokes, vapes on stage and tortures her voice to the point of screaming.
On that evening, it’s hard to imagine how Gossip encouraged the audience to join in and clap at the end of last year in the spruced up ambience of the “Helene Fischer Show”. The band is truly an obscure phenomenon. It has nestled somewhere between the queer-feminist underground and the thoroughly orchestrated commercial mainstream for years.
Just “goodbye” – and then “hello” again
Ditto and Howdeshell have known each other since they were teenagers in the US state of Arkansas. The band was formed 25 years ago and was later joined by drummer Hannah Blilie. The first albums are characterized by garage rock and riot punk. In 2006 the climb up the career ladder began with the third record “Standing in the Way of Control”. Especially in Europe, Gossip will soon be playing their wild concerts in larger halls. With her coolness, Ditto becomes an icon of the LGBTQI community, i.e. for lesbians, gays, bisexuals, trans, queer and intersex people. To date, according to their label, the band has sold more than ten million records worldwide.
The separation became public in 2016. “There wasn’t a big row. In the end we just said goodbye, life goes on,” said the singer at the time. So no drama.
And now just say “Hello” again? “Somehow yes,” says Ditto in Berlin. “There was no hesitation, especially between me and Nathan.” In good relationships it is understood that the other person needs freedom and that you are no longer the same person you were 13 years ago. “There’s a simplicity to Gossip that I just love,” she says. “There’s not a lot of talk about our goals or what we want or what we don’t want. It just happens.”