Liquido
Float

Liquido. To read it, it seems like the brand of a new type of toothpaste; to hear it, with that curious accent on the second "i", it seems like a freak of nature; to listen to it, the name of a German band with punk-pop inspiration.

To be honest, we had already listened to Liquido extensively seven years ago when, with a catchy and sycophantic earworm like "Narcotic," they invaded the rest of Europe in a short time: the track from the self-titled CD-single soon anticipated the entire work, "Liquido," with the band's curious name.

Three years after their last work, "Alarm! Alarm!", 2002, Liquido return to the scene. They do so with "Float," a work of 14 tracks in total, with the standout being the single "Ordinary Life," which has already gained considerable resonance in a good part of Europe. Schrödl and company are back in the limelight, once again happily known to the global audience after two products, "At The Rocks" and the aforementioned "Alarm! Alarm!," which, though moderately appreciated in Germany and beyond, have not reached the heights of the excellent "Liquido" from '99.
Thus, "Float" is, for the sake of tribute, an album offspring of the latter, a close relative that, for just a trifle more, we might call a "clone," but which, out of deference and momentary caution, we will define as mere "perpetuation of style," for not knowing either to read or write.

The beginning of the album is controversial. "Flip To Play" is a recognizable track, perhaps too much so, with sounds suspended between the punk of Lit and the pop digressions of Travis, making it appealing but at the same time already assimilated: engaging, it's certain. After the dutiful "Lay Your Head Down," Liquido bursts into the usual unmistakable caricature style: "Love Me Love Me" has almost the same rhythms as "Video Killed the Radio Star" by Buggles, while "Mr. Officer" is the most uncompromising of genre thrash. After the convincingly crafted "Bulletin," with similar sounds to Liquido tracks like "Clown" and "Wake Me Up," emerges in all its immediacy the most epidictic track of the album, that "Ordinary Life" which preceded the album with the single, the trailblazer that brought the German band back to international fame. At this point, it's useless to lie to oneself: whether a clone or a spurious offspring, with "Ordinary Life," "Float" positions itself as a sub-genre of "Liquido"; the same catchiness, the same sound, the same tone of Schrödl's voice compared to the hit "Narcotic": perhaps of lesser impact, it's true, but during the listening one can't help but compare the two hits in a due confrontation. After another techno-thrash digression like "Fake Boys Fake Girls," punk-rock sensations resurface again in "No Sensitivity Healing," while with the ninth track, "The Final Strike," it returns to more purely electro-pop sounds, not too distant from "Narcotic" and "Swing It" from the '99 album. Notable again are "High Roller" and "Jump Off" in intentions and sound not too far from certain works by Lit and Blink182, while "Valentine" ends with good instrumentation the track and album.

Clone or perpetuation of style? Different readings for an otherwise pleasant work.