About Rammstein's latest album "Liebe ist für alle da"
Well, I tried to post it as a reply to the discussion about the album, but I couldn't cause it's too long for a reply. Thus, I'm posting my opinion about LIFAD here.
So, about the album...
I love it.
They said it will be like "Mutter" and "Sehnsucht". I think it gets closer rather to "Reise, Reise", than to these other two. (Personally, I think "Reise, Reise" and NOT "Mutter" is their best album - excepting LIFAD. Don't get me wrong, I love all the songs on "Mutter", too. But "Reise, Reise" shows that the band has musically matured, if I can put it this way). LIFAD is very complex musically; the music is rich in sound and effects. With lots of nuances and layers with rough, howling sounds over subtle ones, all in all, a very complex construction.
The fact that this album raised so very conflicting opinions is actually a good sign - one can either love it or hate it. This is Rammstein for you. Truth is it has been quite a long time since their last album, and guess some people changed and their expectations and tastes changed as well.
The lyrics wear Till's "mark", if I can put it so. A lot of word games, as usual, and humorous, actually, whether it is plain humor like in "Pussy" or sarcasm and irony like in songs such as "Wiener Blut". There's also a lot of sensitivity in them, see "Frühling in Paris" or they get just plain beautiful, pure poetry, like in "Roter Sand".
I cannot choose a favorite. I like even songs like "Frühling in Paris", "Roter Sand" and "Donau Kinder". About "Rammlied", in the beginning I was a bit "WTF?" about the lyrics. I absolutely love the music, but the lyrics... the lyrics seemed rather puerile to me, to use an euphemism. Then, knowing that Till couldn't write good lyrics for all the other songs and to one of them not. I have to note that the way we perceive things depends a lot on our past experiences, i.e. I have to laugh every time I hear lyrics such as "one way, one motive, one collective". "Collective" - "Kolektiv" and such words have a different meaning for someone born and raised during the communist era. So, this song sounds like a mockery of such a song from the former DDR era, where you'd have brigades of "workers" putting up shows and singing about their work, the party and how they want to build the communism. Or, on the other hand, Till "speaks" from the point of view of a more or less charismatic dictator, that tells the crowds that they have one way, one goal, one idea to follow.
I absolutely love "Ich tu dir weh" and "Waidmans Heil". The same - "Haifisch", very rhythmical, with beautiful lyrics. "B****" is so awesome, so rough, so brutal, like gathering all the primitive energies, putting them under pressure and making them explode. "Frühling in Paris" - even if I'm not the ballads type, I like it, the drums, the guitars and the lyrics. "Pussy" is just epic, humor, sarcasm and fun. Love the tint a la Scooter in the sound. This sort of sound one can find often in German "party" music. "Liebe ist für alle da" - long live the ole, good metal! "Mehr" - very metal too, with very good lyrics, even if it reiterates the old idea of the one who has it all, and wants even more, but R+ did it in a good way.
"Wiener Blut" is also just amazing, the way they structured and built the music with the lyrics. Till's lyrics are the "voice" of the perpetrator - in this case Josef Fritzl, since the song is about the "Inzestvater von Amstetten" - but in the chorus, he speaks directly to us, the public - are we ready to face the reality where such sinister things occur?
"Roter Sand" makes me think of Western movies and Enio Morricone. I don't know why, maybe the whistling, because the lyrics should give the image of the duels in the 1800s. "Fuehre Mich" - absolutely love it. The lyrics and the music. It is in the same registry with "Ich Tu Dir Weh", theme wise. "Donau Kinder" - very sensible lyrics with grandiose music. Musically, "Donau Kinder" is a bit like "Mutter". "Halt" - love it too. I still haven't figure it all out. Seems like a preacher, a teacher or someone in this direction talking. Someone who used their status or power to achieve their "dark desires"? Or a serial killer? Someone sadistic, anyway. As I said, I like the music and the lyrics to it too.
Rammstein albums and songs are like psychiatry books, where are presented case of the "darker side" of the human nature (the incestuous, the cannibal, the rapist, the paedophile, etc), and this album makes no exception. If they made the songs on this album to shock the audience (like some accused them of) , means they made the songs on all the other albums to shock the audience. But this is not the case. On the brilliant music, Till sketched and collated these portraits of different types of humans and human behavior, be it aberrant or not. And it is about love, after all. The title fits perfectly, whether it's by accident or it was intended. The album is about all sorts of "love", in all its positive and negative aspects of manifestation. Even if it hurts the other party involved in the "duo" of love, for the subjects of the songs it is still "love" what they think they feel.
Cross posted in my LJ.
So, about the album...
I love it.
They said it will be like "Mutter" and "Sehnsucht". I think it gets closer rather to "Reise, Reise", than to these other two. (Personally, I think "Reise, Reise" and NOT "Mutter" is their best album - excepting LIFAD. Don't get me wrong, I love all the songs on "Mutter", too. But "Reise, Reise" shows that the band has musically matured, if I can put it this way). LIFAD is very complex musically; the music is rich in sound and effects. With lots of nuances and layers with rough, howling sounds over subtle ones, all in all, a very complex construction.
The fact that this album raised so very conflicting opinions is actually a good sign - one can either love it or hate it. This is Rammstein for you. Truth is it has been quite a long time since their last album, and guess some people changed and their expectations and tastes changed as well.
The lyrics wear Till's "mark", if I can put it so. A lot of word games, as usual, and humorous, actually, whether it is plain humor like in "Pussy" or sarcasm and irony like in songs such as "Wiener Blut". There's also a lot of sensitivity in them, see "Frühling in Paris" or they get just plain beautiful, pure poetry, like in "Roter Sand".
I cannot choose a favorite. I like even songs like "Frühling in Paris", "Roter Sand" and "Donau Kinder". About "Rammlied", in the beginning I was a bit "WTF?" about the lyrics. I absolutely love the music, but the lyrics... the lyrics seemed rather puerile to me, to use an euphemism. Then, knowing that Till couldn't write good lyrics for all the other songs and to one of them not. I have to note that the way we perceive things depends a lot on our past experiences, i.e. I have to laugh every time I hear lyrics such as "one way, one motive, one collective". "Collective" - "Kolektiv" and such words have a different meaning for someone born and raised during the communist era. So, this song sounds like a mockery of such a song from the former DDR era, where you'd have brigades of "workers" putting up shows and singing about their work, the party and how they want to build the communism. Or, on the other hand, Till "speaks" from the point of view of a more or less charismatic dictator, that tells the crowds that they have one way, one goal, one idea to follow.
I absolutely love "Ich tu dir weh" and "Waidmans Heil". The same - "Haifisch", very rhythmical, with beautiful lyrics. "B****" is so awesome, so rough, so brutal, like gathering all the primitive energies, putting them under pressure and making them explode. "Frühling in Paris" - even if I'm not the ballads type, I like it, the drums, the guitars and the lyrics. "Pussy" is just epic, humor, sarcasm and fun. Love the tint a la Scooter in the sound. This sort of sound one can find often in German "party" music. "Liebe ist für alle da" - long live the ole, good metal! "Mehr" - very metal too, with very good lyrics, even if it reiterates the old idea of the one who has it all, and wants even more, but R+ did it in a good way.
"Wiener Blut" is also just amazing, the way they structured and built the music with the lyrics. Till's lyrics are the "voice" of the perpetrator - in this case Josef Fritzl, since the song is about the "Inzestvater von Amstetten" - but in the chorus, he speaks directly to us, the public - are we ready to face the reality where such sinister things occur?
"Roter Sand" makes me think of Western movies and Enio Morricone. I don't know why, maybe the whistling, because the lyrics should give the image of the duels in the 1800s. "Fuehre Mich" - absolutely love it. The lyrics and the music. It is in the same registry with "Ich Tu Dir Weh", theme wise. "Donau Kinder" - very sensible lyrics with grandiose music. Musically, "Donau Kinder" is a bit like "Mutter". "Halt" - love it too. I still haven't figure it all out. Seems like a preacher, a teacher or someone in this direction talking. Someone who used their status or power to achieve their "dark desires"? Or a serial killer? Someone sadistic, anyway. As I said, I like the music and the lyrics to it too.
Rammstein albums and songs are like psychiatry books, where are presented case of the "darker side" of the human nature (the incestuous, the cannibal, the rapist, the paedophile, etc), and this album makes no exception. If they made the songs on this album to shock the audience (like some accused them of) , means they made the songs on all the other albums to shock the audience. But this is not the case. On the brilliant music, Till sketched and collated these portraits of different types of humans and human behavior, be it aberrant or not. And it is about love, after all. The title fits perfectly, whether it's by accident or it was intended. The album is about all sorts of "love", in all its positive and negative aspects of manifestation. Even if it hurts the other party involved in the "duo" of love, for the subjects of the songs it is still "love" what they think they feel.
Cross posted in my LJ.