Having dissected the minds of music lovers with their electro-guitar indie-cocktails, (later these cocktails were called 'indietronic') The Notwist vanished in the time stream, but 6 years later they returned to us with their new album. They say, clothes count for first impressions, The Devil, You + Me have no problems with that - nice cover, various media and package variants. And as for the site dedicated to the new release was perfect! Surrealism, rich designer's imagination, not even a designer but an artist. I researched this net-resource for a long time with great pleasure. There were even T-shirts with the album's symbols. Powerful promotion, skillful representation of the new material. But listening to this music I understood that not all music with nice disc cover is good. It seems that everything's ok - light vocalism of Markus Acher, numerous instruments with beloved guitars on the first stage, accurate electronics seasoning, sound of good quality... But something's missing. And that's not the amount of electronics used, in comparison with album Neon Golden, for example. There is no experiments, breakdown, emotions, nothing of that which was in Neon Golden and for what I listened to this album for many times. It sounds as if it was boring for the musicians to create this music...Well, it seems The Notwist didn't manage to record something breathtaking, powerful, catching your soul and leading it the needed way. The Devil, You + Me can be considered the next successful album of the team, somebody will call it perfect, someone wouldn't do that. Some years later people won't remember it, they won't discuss the details and emotions after buying the disc. It seems that The Notwist - crazy guys of the early 90s, then grown up romantic intellectuals of 2000s - turned into the team of pensioners, whose albums are still by force of habit signed as 'highly recommended' in modern music shops.
- The Notwist
- City Slang