Dignity & Beauty
Pat | Hamburg, Germany | 09/03/2000
(5 out of 5 stars)
"To say it straight away, this is currently the world's best band. KOOK is their latest regular release (not counting their remix album, that is) and it is also their most sophisticated one by far, as far as arrangement and production are concerned. It has been sort of a watershed for people's opinions on the band; many that didn't like them before now do, and vice versa.Tocotronic started out in a trashy Hüsker Dü/Dinosaur jr. tradition, mixing cheap guitar sound with tongue in cheek lyrics, but also being unbelievably sweet and tender from time to time. They have thus become strange kinds of sex symbols for the alternative German school girl.However, this is pretty irrelevant. What is relevant is the fact that most of you won't understand the lyrics, as they are in German. This is a shame because their lyrics certainly rank among the best in German poetry. However, I think their music will pretty much make you feel the right way even if you can't literally understand what they're saying.Take the record's best track, "17", for instance. It deals with the narrator being visited, in a dream, by a friend, who is, in fact, dead. He closes by stating, "Today I am happier than I've ever been". Even if you don't know this, the 11-minute-piece will drown you in slow sounds of beauty, sadness and the kind of dignity that neither an expensive suit nor altruistic behaviour will be able to bestow on you.It is a record that abounds in great songwriting. There are many great love songs, but only few will actually make you feel like you're enthusiastically in love. "Jackpot" is one such song. "Let There Be Rock" might not sound like much when you hear it for the first time, but you won't be able to push it out of your brain once it's in, and you'll want to play it on your parties. "Die neue Seltsamkeit" is another one of those tunes that will go around and around in your head (though I doubt you'll play it on your parties), creating a strange atmosphere of unsafety and wanting to be optimistic in the face of growing unease.I don't want to go on giving a song-by-song-review, wasting your time. This is a monolith of beauty and dignity. Buy it, steal it, I don't care. You'll make your life a better place."
Something vague
Stefan Hirt | 06/11/2002
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Since 1996 Tocotronic is considered one of the best german-language bands. Most people are impressed by their ego-philosophical lyrics, their sad journey as lonely individuals for a place in a world they can't understand and which can't understand them either. Their words are pure magic, striking, touching and full of truth and especially this makes them so singular in the international music scene.Still, nobody should put aside their music. Especially Tocotronics early work consisted of slow beats, sad melodies and hard guitar riffs, often expressed in long instrumental parts. K.O.O.K. and their latest, self-titled album, aren't going that way consequently. "Let there be rock" shows their gradual maturation and change towards a less-disturbing sound and more lyrical parts. If you like slow, sad songs, sometimes interrupted by fast punk music, and speak german, you really gotta get this one!"
Track Listings (17) - Disc #1