Sportfreunde Stiller
Die Gute Seite

THE REVIEW

Second album from this Munich band after their great debut in 2000, "Wie Einst Real Madrid", which featured the hilarious "94 (novanta quattro)" sung in Italian and a handful of great singles "Fast wie von selbst", "Heimatlied", "Wunderbaren Jahren". They are still soccer fanatics, organizing their tours around Champions League matches. Musically, they could just as well come from Hamburg (Tocotronic, Die Sterne, Blumfeld) with their "talk" rock—long spoken texts that tell stories, demonstrating an interesting use of the German language that unexpectedly lends itself wonderfully to storytelling, with very creative rhymes that you can't get out of your head. The essence of pop. But compared to those from Hamburg, they are more melodic, singing through major chord progressions. Guitar, bass, and drums, with cheap keyboards and synths in the background that trace the sung melody, for a direct album. Irony: "Unsre Welt sind die Berge! Von hier oben seht ihr aus wie Zwerge!"(10:1 -für uns). The guitars are beautiful, always in slight distortion. Excellent production. They've found this formula and don't want to abandon it; in interviews, Peter says that he knows how to play the guitar just enough for his music, but he doesn't want to learn more, so he avoids straying from his path... he says. Therefore, "the good side" is the continuation of 'Wie Einst..." without novelty, some less inspired songs, but also with the immense "Kompliment": "Wenn man so will bist du das Ziel einer langen Reise, die Perfektion der Besten Art un Weise-in Stillen momenten leise...wenn man so will bist du meine Chillout Area, meine Feiertage in jedem Jahr, meine Süßwarenabteilung im Supermarkt..." They are more positively ironic than the depressed ones from Hamburg, in short, from the south, engaging, pop! A great pop album. "meine softporno-ästhetischen no name Klamotten würden heute ohne frage jeden Anzug toppen...und ich frage mich gelegentlich: bin das ich?oder bin ich schon so wie die im Fernsehen?"