City Slang :: 2002 :: buy this record
Indeed, Neon Golden has all the material for a perfect cross-over, the ideal middle-way between electronic and pop music. Everything works in unison, in an upsetting blend of synthetic and organic sounds : electronic sounds sound as if they were controlled bit by bit (Martin Gretschmann monitors it), the voice, as rasping and moving as it gets, delivers melodies full of melancholy, arrangements of strings, brass instruments and banjo marvellously wrap the sharpest tracks, with the guitars in charge of inspiring an almost perceptible energy in humane and endearing pieces.
Within a few addictive tracks (the already well know Pilot, This room, sounding like Third Eye Foundation had started making pop music, TrashingDays, or One with the Freaks), these German boys have managed to outclass the recent efforts made by Hood as far as winter electrically modified grim pop is concerned. Did you say "Grim" ? The Notwist’s music has, besides its potential to be a hit, the fine ability to be heartrending, the perfect soundtrack to our moments when we are uncontrollably anxious, thanks to Markus Acher’s lyrics, a foil in which incommunicability and solitude unkindly reflect each other.
At length, maybe the impressive efficiency of this album will deprive it of Shrink’s time-proof character and its crossroads, nevertheless Neon Golden is a serious challenger to the title of "Album of the Year", this without a preliminary round of observation.
Translated by Gnusball