ELEMENT OF CRIME
Romantik
CD, Motor
And
these lyrics are really what make this record so outstanding. The music is
very good, no discussion about that, ranging from alt.country including Tex
Mex-trumpets to shanty-like ballads to some songs which at their core might
by French chansons to something reminding of the slowest of slow-songs by
Curtis Mayfield. As you can see, these are all perfect styles to be arranged
with melancholic, old-aged-wisdom-drenched lyrics about love, life and the
way the world turns. And there is a lot of that in the lyrics of Sven
Regener. I will try to give you a little insight with my limited abilities
as a translator, okay. Don’t put it on me later on. Right on the first
song, the first words are: “I also have no idea where we are going / I am
happy that there are still paths to tread / that I got out on probation once
more / and that we two are still standing on two legs / darling, next
morning, I want you to say to me that we are happy still / looking into the
sun will make you blind”. (“Die Hoffnung, die du bringst“) I
guess, that is a love song, somehow. There is a lot of these dark and bitter
undertones, that make you wonder, if the hope the singer expresses is real
or just a part of the general despair he feels. Yes, this is very German,
because it all has the feeling of winter, of greyness and snow on bland
fields. But it is also truly beautiful, especially in a way, that people
from Vienna can feel and relate to in various ways.
There
is another picture, that might have been very important in the making of
this record, or even in the constituency of the band – the picture of a
young man, lonely in a bar, drinking and thinking, and both way too much.
You know, the kind of thinking that leads to very surprising results, that
will harden over the years if it is regularly wetted with more alcohol and
lonely nights. And sometime late at night, this man will pull out a pen and
some paper and jot down a few words, that make up the core of his thinking.
After that it is either home or more drinks until black out. “At the end
of the street there is still a light on / there they surely need someone,
who / will sit unattended all by himself and silently / is still awake and
thinks until he’s asked to go.” (“Fallende Blätter”)
Of
course, the city that breeds this kind of people, of thinking and life-style
is Berlin, which has got to be one of the greatest cities on earth, with its
very special history, its mixture of people, of power and subculture, and
openness to everything. Believe me, Vienna might be nice, but compared to
Berlin or Paris it is a village, nothing more. But Vienna is also a
centre-point in the emotional network of Europe, and especially the place
where thinking and feeling death is most common and intrinsic into
people’s lives. Beautiful cemeteries and grey skies, overlaying
melancholia and nostalgia and a faible for funerals. The Viennese word for
the funeral meal is “eine schöne Leich’”, which could be translated
as “a beautiful body”. With these nice words I will leave you to ponder,
if you are able to stomach so much darkness and bitterness, to get to the
pure beauty of these feelings.
P.S.:
If you can’t understand German, all you will get is very melancholic music
with some folk-touches from all over Europe and German singing. How that
will strike you, I can’t say.
