Bye (2014) ♪♪♪
Bela B (Germany)

Compared to his punkpop work with Die Ärzte Bela B’s solowork shows a much more inquisitive and curious character. Electropop, Vaudeville, Folkrock are musical genres he explored on his former two solo albums. For Bye he browses the world of Bluegrass and Countrypop. He relseases the inner cowboy in himself together with some German flag bearer’s in that genre, Smokestack Lightnin', Peta Devlin and Walter Broes. The clear-cut concept of ‘Bye’ gives it an coherent feel. You get an atmosphere as if Bela stayed around trailer trash for months and picked up the tunes along the way. Musically it goes from honkytonk diddy’s to darker American countrysoul. The twangy examples of the first are tracks like ‘Immer so sein’, opener ‘Abserviert’ and ‘Streichholzmann’. Example of the latter are songs like ‘Der sünder’ and ‘Teufelsküche’ which sounds like the devil himself landed in Bela’s trailer. Rattling pots and pans and tempting the listener with deep, rasping and booze infused voice.

The album also has something gritty and filthy around it. Like warm leather and sweaty adventures on the backseat of his Cadillac. Like sung on ‘Sentimental’: " Sittin ' on a semen stain on the back seat of my car / I am alone / He is there , but you're gone / And I think of you / What can be sadder. " Compared to Bela’s dark voice the vocals by the female guest singers Key & Devlin give the necessary innocence to some of the songs. Which in effect feeds the eary smutty atmosphere. Listen to the grand ‘Verwöhn’ which erupts form a rock-a-billy tune to an electro hurricane. With "Bye " Bela B. creates something that feels authentic and strangely raw. It mixes up the sound of the Cramps with that of Johnny Cash. A convincing third album that puts a mark behind Bela’s name proving that he can easily operate next to his career with Die Ärzte.

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Hu una galassia nell’armadio (2014) ♪♪♪
Nicolo Carnesi (Italy)

30 year old Sicilian Nicholo Carnesi has a galaxy in his closet. A musical galaxy that of which he pulled ten fine examples for this album. On Twitter, about the new album of the Sicilian singer-songwriter , appeared this post: "I do not really know if Carnesi has a galaxy in the closet, but it almost certainly has it in his head ." Two years after he spellbound the Italian indiescene with Gli ‘Eroi Non Escono Il Sabato’ he returns with an album that is as breezy as it worldly. Written during an almost endless tour and a long stay in New York Nicolo wrote most of the tracks. You could called the album dreamy with its tingling guitars and Carnesi’s soft voice. But somehow there is something bittersweet about this album that allures the listener. As if the romantic Italian mood has a deeper darker layer.

A translation of a song like ‘L’ultima fermata’ quickly shows us a story of a love that is standing on it’s last legs: “The last cigarette and then , I swear I 'll stop I swear I do I feel differently / But you , fool ourselves one more time / Yes, there is a flower that blooms in the middle of the storm in the middle of your arms / The last story is what my mother told me to bed the night before the first day at school / The last night with you , I know it will be a few happy hours but well acted”. Carnesi is a wanderer who knows that if you want to be happy you are the only one who can make that possible: “ We went to the worse / we are only cells in continuous collision (...) Parachutes lead , we let the wind to save us , miracles I have not ever seen, the Saints do not help people like us ".

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Hammer & Michel (2014) ♪♪♪
Jan Delay (Germany)

One would expect that after his festive performance at the 2011 Eurovision German artist deluxe Jan Delay would follow up quickly with a new album. Instead he toured endlessly with the Bahnhoff Soul-revue in his homecountry and waited three more years before he would come up with a new album. Five years after his last studio album he teased the fans last year with pictures from him at a local Metal festival in Wacken - white suit , white hat , pink tie , pink handkerchief. And yes ‘Wacken’ is probably the most Hamburger rock song on the album. This made fans weary that Delay might have gone completely of the reggae-urban-soulfunk train and over to the dark side. And indeed, the first song ‘Liebe’ on his new album ‘Hammer und Michel’ is a rocksong build on a strong power riff. But Delay is not an artist to discard his signature sound so easily. The frame stays unmistakable disco styled but then with a raw edge. Delay’s main mission is to create music that makes the crowd dance. And if you can’t dance he added some guitars so you can always bang your head with this album.

Or that is what he seems to say on ‘Sie kann nicht tanzen’. Maybe a ballad like the Scorpions made will help (Scorpions ballade). Meanwhile Delay takes a pun at children with overweight problems (Dicke Kinder) playing modern parents to fill their kids with more vitamin pills then Sid Viscious used drugs. But rest assured in ‘St Pauli’ is always a party to go to. You can dance till you drop. Not every music critic in Germany is taken by the album. One summed it up as how Jochen Distelmeyer would sound if he would record a soul album. Unintendly this actually is a rather acurate comparison and disguised compliment. With ‘Hammer und Michel’ he links the hiphop scene with alternative indiepop of the Hamburger Schule. And he doesn’t deliver a poor attempt.

Delay himself wanted to pay tribute to ‘Lenny and Lemmy, Iggy and Ziggy, Slash and Clash’. But instead of hearing Motorhead or the Stooges the album unmistakable Delay. He urges us not to think in segments in a world where everything changes all the time. Over a classic rock riff he sings: “It is all really too crass, It is no longer clear, ey / because the fascists listen to Tupac, the cops listen to Bob Marley” (Scorpions ballade). Dandy style with nasal voice as ever Delay crosses boundries and mixes them all up.

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Rottami (2014) ♪♪♪
Fraulein Rottenmeier (Italy)

The Italian band named after a character from Heidi is back three years after their debut album ‘Elettronica Maccheronica’. It’s been a hectic three years with much touring and an English version of their debut. It maybe did not bring international success, it is obviously an instructive one. The experience let to a new album called ‘Rottami’ that sounds more mature and balanced then their more rudimentary and blunt debut. On ‘Elettronica Maccheronica’ it was obvious the Fraulein came from the Italian electropunkpop scene with Prozac+ and Subsonica as main inspiration. For their second album the main change can be heard in the music Franco Bruna created (also responsible for the production). Where the beats on the debut were pretty boarding up the sound he now gives more room for breaks, synth loops and pauses to make some air. It is a welcome and necessary adjustment in their sound.

Although singer G. is still remembering is on the single ‘Rumore’ that the band can be loud in concert: “We make the most noise / I'm not saying that someone will listen / I'm not saying that you will change society / I'm not saying all the shit is going to end / I'm not saying that we will solve the drought / And if you have been told that you have to go / Pretend that it's okay, ready to jump”. And you’d better. Not every song comes lose from the hard electropop they made before. ‘Hai mangiato un limone? ‘ is still hard and unsubtle. But the change in how to build a song can be heard on a track like ‘Morta Maria’ or ‘Pugno sul tuo grugno’. The mysterious comic like, delirium styled lyrics also stayed. We hear G sing: “How useful mosquito drones around me / I prick for the sake of miserable break / suck my blood, but you did not think that / this is my strength and will make you shiver / if you do not cover your nose she will make you shiver / fist on your snout and I will make you flee”. All in all Fraulein Rottenmeier is ready to burn the stages of the Italian clubcircuit this summer with a brand new set of killer tracks.

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Allios (2014) ♪♪♪♪
Dimitra Galani (Greece)

After the CD single ‘Αλλιώς' (‘Allios’, ‘Different’) with four new tracks, Galani presented her completely new album with the same title. An album that is accompanied by a beautifully designed book. A new album from one of the leading artists of the Greek music scene is always an experience. The now 61 -year-old Galani has more than earned her stripes , initially through her interpretations of all leading Greek composers since the late sixties, since the 90s also as a very capable composer herself. In addition to her distinctive tender, yet dramatic voice , the way she connects and integrates both pop and folk music , ancient and modern sounds, makes her art so interesting and unique .

‘Allios’ is quite a somber tinted disc. Its central theme deals with the harsh climate of the times in which we live . Of the 13 songs, Galani composed 4 of them, Chrysostom Mouratoglou 3 and together they co-wrote another 5 of them. One song -  Ένα Κόκκινο Μαντήλι ' (‘Ela kokkino mantili’ - ‘The red scarf’) - is an interpretation of the most famous music piece from Wim Wenders film'Pina', written by the Japanese composer Miyake and originally named ‘Lilies in the valley’. All the lyrics were written by Paraskevas Karasoulos. He describes the album as “songs that tell a story, as the soundtrack to a film that never was made.”

The story starts with a single woman who wakes up from a violent nightmare ( '5:30 Ώρα πρωινή ', ‘Morning time 5:30’). She realizes she urgently needs to change her life. Only then might she be able to try change the degenerated world of today. Time stops. She looks at the past, and still decides to look ahead (‘Πίσω μην Κοιτάς' - 'Do not look back’), to resume her life amid humanity (‘Αλλιώς' -'Different'; 'Μια άλλη χώρα' - 'Another country'). The message is clear: an appeal to all of us to reflect on our lives , the world and what we have made of our planet. And a plea to do otherwise , to do better.

‘Allios’ is a both intelligent and beautiful album by one of the best Greek artist of this era.

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Ein Leichtes Schwert (2014) ♪♪♪
Judith Holofernes (Germany)

Judith Holofernes gained fame as frontlady of German indiepop band Wir Sind Helden but truth is that she already had a solo album before she joined the guys to conquer the local music scene. ‘Kamikaze pilot’ has been largely forgotten also due to the fact that the best songs were later added to the WSH repertoire. So let’s just treat ‘Ein leichtes schwert’ as a sort of solo debut from a singer who wanted to wrestle with her own demons instead of going through the democratic band process. Seated on a dragon with a crocodile dog and ukulele she tackles 12 songs from her own hand. The album goes from poppy fun to twingling indiepop. The coverart and girlie-fairytale concept of the songs spell out ‘Gwen Stefani’. But where the former No Doubt singer went completely discopop with her solo debut Judith stays close to the musical world she created with the other heroes. Their 2010 album ‘Bring mich nach hause’ was already laced with acoustic instruments and a folkrock sort of indiepop. This sound is continued on this album where dry drums and trashy guitarsounds form the backbone.

But over that Judith organizes her own pyjama party with bouncing breeziness. We may sit on the bed while she jumps in her closet and comes up with another idea and persona. She tells you why she loves reading John Irvin, gossips about the local Milf and Pechmarie or waves her Luke Skywalker light saber and dares you to a duel. Downside is that when you expect a set of perfect pop song Miss Judith didn’t go that far. It is mostly a collection of nice ideas that either work or have the potency to be a nice song but aren’t there yet. On top of that Judith was never the best singer of the local German indiescene and this solo album doesn’t help to change that impression. Strongest track is the punky ‘Danke, ich hab schon’ which is a complaint against mass consumerism. A song that demands a steaming live performance and is written to get a club jumping and bouncing around. She throws her voice through a vocoder and screams ‘I have enough, enough, enough’. Although the album is a nice effort we know the feeling when the album finishes. Twelve songs is exactly enough.

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Magnum (2014) ♪♪♪½
Philippe Katerine (France)

The elusive Philippe Katerine is back. After we chewed ourselves the past years through a completely warped self titled album and re-releases of his early obscure and bizarre sound & song –collages on ‘Le marriage Chinois’ and 'L'education Anglaise' we would almost forget that Katerine is capable to also make some great pop music like he proved with the 2005 ‘Robots après toi’. But here it is. ‘Magnum’, with Katerine sporting a very incorrect moustache, wearing an evenly incorrect white blazer and in front of a tasteless tropical sundown wallpaper replica. Like Tom Selleck in the original series Katerine finds himself sexy cool. The cover screams fun-disco time and that’s exactly what we’re in for. Cheeky, he plays the horny lovemachine that sings on ‘Effeminé’ “With my big balls, I'm going to Casino / With my big balls, I bought a KinderBueno”.

Indeed the lyrics are still as bizarre as funny. During the languid ' Amiami ' you can hear the rustling palm trees , taste the cocktails , feel the sun on your face and you can see the scantily clad bikini girls sunbathing on the beach of Miami . Katerine shopped around in his record collection and probably found albums from Claude Francois, Cerrone, Bee Gees and Chic. Placed into the hands of a person who is permanently topsy turfy ‘magnum’ is what you get. Deliciously funny and sexy. Katerine never takes himself too serious but it is proof that he is indeed a good composer and musician that he can switch styles so easily and convincingly. Fun album of the month. What a return to pop.

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Tigerdrottningen (2014) ♪♪♪♪
Kent (Sweden)

We weren’t too taken with Kent’s previous album ‘Jag är inte rädd för mörkret’ that, in our opinion was a watered continuation of more sensational albums like ‘En plats is Solen’ and ‘Du & jag döden’. But grandeur seems to come in intervals of 5 years with Kent. Because ‘Tigerdrottningen’ sees the band return with elegant harmonies, catchy songs and a dark edge.

With “Mirage” The album starts with a seducing track, a slow pulsating beat and Joakim’s voice who wants to lure you in to take you on a journey: “I left my country, In the night under the lining ring, for a delectable horizons, the illusion as a mirage.” Throughout the whole album Kent takes us deeper and we lose ourselves in melancholic melodies, marching drums and a lyrical path embracing us in a warm blanket. Where the previous album had something uninspired, this album sounds suddenly very combative.

That does not mean the band wields a massive sound and loses itself again in pompous stadium rock. They use the more subdued approach from ‘Jag är inte rädd för mörkret’ but adapt it much more convincingly in the entire concept. A track like ‘Var är Vi Nu?’ leans heavily on the piano while all other instrument work complementary to the keys. Even the choir in the end holds back to give room to the core piano-melody. On ‘Tigerdrottringen’ Kent is for everyone and gives room to anyone. It identifies with the weak and strong. They dare you to leave the normative everyday concepts behind and step into the new Belle Epoque: “I am the state & capital / I am a safety manual / anonymous comments / I'm being bullied online / I'm BigMac all you can eat / I'm mosques Cathedrals / I am Bible & Quran / All for all / One for one. “

It seems after 19 years at the Swedish musical forefront Kent has hit a more introspective period: “I know what time is worth. And time is running out / I was once a millionaire when we had all the time in the world." Especially the second half of the album holds some strong songs and builds up to the finale of the other side, ‘Den andra sidan’. “To start an avalanche when you gave me your sour offenses / We met in a different life / And I know we see us on the other side”. All is forgiven. All the critique. Outside Sweden Kent is sometimes categorized as a version of Coldplay. With ‘Tigerdrottringen’ they once again proof that this is a foolish comparison. It is perhaps the other way round and maybe Kent could not care less by now. With Joakim’s voice like gritty ice, Markus epic keyboard arrangements and Sami dosing and weaving his guitarlicks through the music Kent makes Coldplay the British answer to Sweden’s top-indieband.

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Occupo poco spazio (2014) ♪♪♪♪
Nada (Italy)

The former child singer turned 60 last year… She might have positioned herself in the of Italian music scene, she definitely deserves her place there. As we look at the title of her latest album, we can only conclude that Nada is pretty content with her current status as indie-punk-pop mum: ‘Occupo poco spazio’ (‘I occupy little space’). And how right she is, after re-inventing herself over and over again the past 5 decades, she created her own alternative music niche. She composes and writes all of her material, she apparently has enough fans that buy het records to come up with great teams of musicians and producers, she seems to have unlimited artistic freedom. What more can a true musician desire?

‘Occupo poco spazio’ is an album in the familiar Nada-style: poppy, indie with some punk and dramatic touches. Her deep, dark voice is always present, to slap you in the face or to cut deep into your heart. Still, the album offers some new elements as well; the songs were recorded with quite big orchestral arrangements, with lots of strings, woodwinds (sax, tromba, trombone, oboe) and some peculiar instruments like the banjo. Enrico Gabrielli is in charge of the arrangements and directs the ensemble. The same Gabriella produced the album, together with Nada herself.

The songs tell happy and unhappy stories from a female perspective. In her exploration of the feminine universe, Nada seldom judges the women characters she sings about, she tells about their actions and what circumstances drove them to act in that specific way. The refusal of suppression, the refusal to conform, the difficulties of dealing with an inhuman environment... Take for instance ‘La terrorista’ (‘The female terrorist’), ‘Sonia’ or ‘Questa vita cambierà’ (‘This life will change’):

“A pretty young woman, looking foul / with long white legs, goes / in this deserted city / under the snow that falls, she is naked, she goes down, she gets up and dances / in the night she thinks that this life will change”.

In ‘Gente così’ she tells about a girl from a rich family, who’s having an affair with a poor boy. She addresses the ‘gente così’ (‘People like this’):
“Me, so elegant and beautiful, daughter of good family / He, a little rude, a little raucous and desperate / Do with me what you want, a leaf against the sun, against the wind that moves, knows where it is going. / You know nothing about this love / How can you say that it can die? / So I live my way.”

Three years after the both commercial and artistic success of ‘Vamp’, Nada again delivers a great album with some fascinating songwriting and original arrangements and production.

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Mue (2014) ♪♪♪
Emilie Simon (France)

After dedicating her last album to the heartache created by the untimely death of her partner François Chevallier (Chevallier died from complications with the H1N1 flu while on vacation in Athens, Greece. He was 29 and his death came a week before the release of The Big Machine.) the sonic siren from France is back with an album that looks forward. Taking the lush triphop extravanganza from her first albums and mixing that with the more introvert atmosphere from her previous albums it is a calling card of where Miss Simon stands now. It consists mostly of live instruments and soft orchestral work. Check the lush opening track, “Paris j’ai pris perpète,” with its sweeping strings to understand what this means. Or to ‘Quand vient le jour’ that refers strongly to her first albums with the strong percussion and rakish electronics. Simon also moves to bossanova vibes for the biting single “Menteur” (translation: “Liar”): “liar / You lie as I cry / All my lovers are liars / To save your skin liar / No one scares you / gentle as a lamb /my beautiful impostor / Saving your skin”.

The Carribean-Latin vibe appears on more tracks like ‘Encre’ and ‘Des larmes’. It is also nice to see that Emilie mostly sticks to the French language on this album. Only two English tracks out of the ten tracks. Romantic highlight of the album is ‘Perdue dans tes bras’, a Morricone-like track in which a banjo forms the backbone in the arrangement and Simon pulls out every vocal trick she has. “Yes I burn in your arms / So my heart does not want me / If I leave it to save our love / Temperatures and avoid abrasions / Too many stitches / If I leave I do not want / I 'm lost in your arms / If I leave I do not want / I 'm lost in your arms”. The album ends with the soft piano ballad ‘Amoureux des minuit’, a tribute to all midnight lovers of Paris. ‘Mue ‘ will please Emilie’s long time fans and is also innovative and catching enough to appeal some new ones. Another strong album from the modern incarnation of the Lorelei.

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