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Rating:
Bring in the trouble
It's where we live
Up on the roof I'll pray for love and disbelief
The new work by Notwist is an album that is difficult to approach, both due to the six-year gap since "Neon Golden" and the nature of this new work.
Let's immediately clarify that those expecting a follow-up to the previous album will inevitably be disappointed. Don't be fooled by the initial track, Good Lies, which explicitly connects to that context, almost as if trying to start from where it left off. There is in this work a dark, almost gloomy side: the claustrophobic Where in This World, the nightmare-inducing rhythm of Your Alphabet, the dramatic atmosphere of Hands On Us (a simple progression of guitar chords gives way to the neurotic crescendo of strings) well explain this sense of unease.
The other half of the album is instead populated by fragile melodies: the infectious one of Boneless, the almost jazzy step-by-step of Gone Gone Gone, and the lullaby-like cadence of the title track. But even in these situations, which should be lighter, the lyrics reveal planets shrouded in darkness and cities in hell. It thus falls to the restless Gravity, tense as it is between electronic dissonances, instrumental passages, and ambient pauses, to mediate between these two moods, one dark and the other reassuring, constantly chasing each other as the tracks of the CD progress.
As happens (unfortunately) increasingly rarely, "The Devil, You + Me" is one of those albums capable of unraveling its complexity listen after listen, revealing with each pass a subtlety, a nuance previously missed. These songs force you to look inside yourself, to discover that, with all their roughness and fleeting lightness, perhaps they resemble you much more than you are willing to admit.
For those who make music, and even for those who more modestly write about it, this is no small thing.
Tracklist Lyrics Samples and Videos
09 Boneless (02:55)
Boy was wrong
was wrong in every cast
was always told that make up
would make things last
Boy would feel
would feel like strange
Boneless
This town is all in hell
(2x)
Boneless
You know
You would always run
from here
(2x)
Boneless
This town is all in hell
(2x)
Boneless
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