Recommendations of the Editorial team
There are bands that become mellower and more forgiving as they get older. With complex songs and noble productions, the aim is to maintain the level of success that has been achieved. And then there is Die Toten Hosen. Shortly before their last regular studio album, they hit again exactly where they were always strongest: with anger, speed and attitude.
Frontal attack instead of a farewell greeting
The just released single “Bad Neighbors” is not a nostalgic farewell, but a frontal attack. Two minutes and a few seconds of German punk rock, consistently beaten forward, hectic, loud and unpleasantly topical. The opening makes it clear that the people of Düsseldorf, some of whom live in Berlin, have no desire for “dignity” in the strictest sense.
Kuddel counts in a curt “one, two, three, four.” Suddenly the good old vibe of Ratinger Straße is back.
Musically uncompromising
Musically, “Bad Neighbors” is reminiscent of “Big Bang”, the furious opener of “Ballast der Republik”. Drummer Vom Ritchie drives the piece forward, the guitars are under constant power, towards the end Kuddel launches into a solo that conveys less virtuosity than urgency.
The real sharpness lies in the text
Campino describes a German terraced house settlement in which the shift to the right has long since crept into everyday life. The AfD sponsors the bouncy castle at the summer festival, the neighbor’s son is “not right-wing” but raises his arm after a few schnapps. The refrain – “No place for you and me / Because we are bad neighbors” – does not function as an ironic punchline, but rather as a declaration of war. The pants don’t do any analysis, they draw a line.
A cool move in the fall of her career. They remain specific. “Bad Neighbors” doesn’t name any names other than the AfD, but the song precisely describes the normalization of right-wing thinking that runs through clubhouses, garden fences and family celebrations. The band stays true to the old punk logic: attitude doesn’t have to be subtle if reality isn’t either.
Campino with full physical effort
The video clip relies on maximum directness. Campino performs and conducts the song with full physical effort. He pushes the rhythm and tension forward, as if to make the pressure of the song visible. The fact that a singer over sixty still looks as if he would jump over the edge of the stage at any moment has long been part of the mythology of Los Pantelones Muertos, as they are called in Argentina.
Album and bonus album on May 29th
After “The Show Must Go On,” “Bad Neighbors” is the second outtake from the album “Drink up, we have to go!”, which will be released on May 29th.
At the same time appears “Everything has to go!” a bonus album in which the pants cover 25 songs by all sorts of companions and role models. On it, Campino sings, among other things, duets with artists as diverse as Bettina Wegner and Blixa Cash.
“Bad Neighbors” shows that even at the possible end of their studio career they would rather offend than reconcile. Perhaps this is your best tool against inevitable aging. Despite millions on the high edge, a blatant refusal to appear dignified and moderate.
