CD Review : Zimmer 483
Tokio Hotel's second album with Universal.One recurring snarky comment about it from non-German "music critics" and journalists who don't do their job is to point "Hear hear, it's been released only 6 months after Schrei!" (implying that it was rushed to benefit from TH's rising fame).
Except they get it wrong, because while Schrei was released in France in September 2006 and Zimmer 483 in February 2007, Schrei had come out in Germany in mid-2005, and judging from the vocals, had been recorded for the most part way before.
So there :P
(though in a way, I like it when bashers trip on their own critics like that by being too stupid or too lazy to check their information. Especially music critics. My motto on the matter is "I'm not a music specialist, but if you can't even get your info straight, your opinions are moot")
For the record, I know Universal is INDEED milking TH for all they're worth, but it's not like it's an isolated case...
Track list
1. Übers Ende der Welt
2. Totgeliebt
3. Spring nicht
4. Heilig
5. Wo sind eure Hände
6. Stich ins Glück
7. Ich brech aus
8. Reden
9. Nach dir kommt nichts
10. Wir sterben niemals aus
11. Vergessene Kinder
12. An deiner Seite (Ich bin da)
(French edition bonus :
13. Monsoon
14. Ready, set, go
)
Again, there were two versions. One for the "domestic" market (Germany / Austria etc), containing tracks 1 to 12. The French version has, in addition, "Monsoon" (English version of "Durch Den Monsun") and "Ready, set, go" (English version of "Übers Ende der Welt").
Track commentary
1. Übers Ende der Welt (At the world's end)
One of their "power songs". Works wonders live. Very cathartic, it makes you want to scream / sing it along.2. Totgeliebt (Loved to death)
ANGST! Heartbroken break-up song with weird goth imagery. I like it, I swear. Just because I joke about it doesn't mean I don't like it, it just means I'm allergic to idolization and superlatives.3. Spring nicht (Don't jump)
It was the first single out of the album, if I recall, and it made me laugh a lot. Yeah, I was still in the phase where I didn't take them seriously at all, so when I figured it was a "say no to suicide" song, it was way too cliché and artificial for me not to laugh. The video added to it (fully-clad in leather duster!Bill running to the rescue of defeated-almost-without-make-up!Bill who is about to jump from a roof).On the other hand, nobody said you had to take a song seriously to love singing it, and Spring Nicht is catchy.
Also, it gave us the occasion to see Bill perform an unconventional dive jump at an award show, at the end of the song, with his back to the crowd and in a christic "arms extended" position. Fortunately for him considering both his fans and the anti-TH, it had been staged so that he fell on security people, not the actual crowd. They kept him there for a while since they didn't want him to be taken away in the crowd (the poor kid would have been promptly torn into pieces otherwise), but that was... uh... interesting.
Nah, I luv them, really. You never know what they're gonna do next. They have no self-awarenesss. It's so refreshing. And they go into it with such ingenuity.
4. Heilig (Sacred)
Their unofficial Titanic soundtrack. Well, that's what the lyrics evoke to me anyway ("You break the cold when you speak" / "When the ocean breaks under me" / "I look through the ocean / and I see you above / I'm sinking / far from you"). Awww...5. Wo sind eure Hände (Where are your hands - eh?)
Another power song for concerts. With *gasp* vocals from the other band members! (live. I'm not sure about the CD version). Really all about "Hey, we rock this place, show us your hands!".6. Stich ins Glück (Shot of Happiness)
Yes, it's a song about drugs. Sounds very Nirvana-esque. Okay, you can either call it a tribute if you're feeling nice, or a rip-off if you don't. But it sounds good. Especially the acoustic live version of the Trabendo Session.7. Ich brech aus (I break out)
I didn't think much of this one (yet another power song) until I saw the band performing it live on Bastille Day for a free gig in front of the Eiffel Tower... and half a million people. Yeah. They 0wned it. My babies, they seriously rocked the place. And now it's become one of my favorite ones.8. Reden (Talking)
The "fangirl in hotel room" song that any rock band needs to have in their set list... *roll eyes* I'm too cynical (and not enough interested by what's in their pants) to like it, but whatever. It's there. Fangirls love it. Especially Tom's fangirls (Dreadlocks twin), because it's supposed to be about him and his reputation for being easily seduced by fans.Yeah right *tries not to laugh*.
9. Nach dir kommt nichts (After you there's nothing)
At the first hearings, I pretty much discarded the end of the album - starting here - as repeats of the beginning. Along time, though, this song emerged as something different. For starters, and unlike what I thought when reading the title (my German was just good enough for me to get it), it's not a "OMG whine, you left me I'm so dispaired!" song.Well it is, but in a much less whiny and much more bitter and angry way than that. So now I love it.
10. Wir sterben niemals aus (We will never die out)
For some reason, it felt to me like the most honest song of the album. Because too many of the others seem like "politically correct messages you expect from a young band with a young goth-ish audience, we don't want problems with the parents". Except Reden and its "We just wanted to talk, and now you lie here and I lie by your side" line. Hrm. That one sounded like a fan-trap.Yeah, but WSNA? Is all about making music and wanting to live on forever through it. More selfish, but more believable from them like that. It's only afterwards that I realized it was the only song of Zimmer 483 that doesn't have any co-signer out of Bill and Tom. Aw. If you write more like that, boys, I will definitely be one of those "standing up for you when you no longer can".
11. Vergessene Kinder (Forgotten children)
The thing I wrote above about "PC messages from young band"? Yeah, that's an example of it. Emo number about street children etc. Apparently, it's very emotional live. Can't say I dig it much. I have adverse reaction to tearjerkers.12. An deiner Seite (Ich bin da) (By your side (I'm there))
Another rather demagogic song. First I heard it I thought "There ya go, every fan will take it personally and play it when they feel angsty and unloved at school or home"....
And yet it works. *face plants*
I will blame the fact that it echoes to me to "Stand by me" due to the theme. Yeah.
And well, it was introduced as a song for fans, and music does make you feel better even if it's not out of personal implication of the artists, so I guess it's not that far-fetched and it's what they mean?
13. Monsoon
English version of Durch Den Monsun. Also performed lower since DDM was recorded pre-puberty and Monsoon after it.14. Ready, set, go
English version of Ubers Ende Der Welt. I'm trying not to listen to the English versions too much, they don't add anything to the songs and it's hard enough to remember German lyrics as it is, without meddling it with the translation.
