To start with, as always, our “making of” from the print product advertised here:
PEACE, EY!
For two years, pop has been standing still: home recording, lockdown blues, postponed events, uncertainty. Spring 2022 should finally kiss everyone awake, yes, so many artists were hoping for a kissing marathon: Hello again, wonderful regular operation!
What happened instead? We have witnessed it: A war of aggression in the middle of Europe that turns millions of people into refugees and costs many their lives. In the recent all-time low, bands release albums and catch up on tours. You can sense in their communication that it feels unseemly to mobilize fans when the world is falling apart around the corner.
But music is not only part of the good life, but also of the bad: The Eurovision Song Contest (see page 40) also reflects geopolitical conflicts on the show stage, various pop artists have recently become lateral thinkers, but the local music scene also stamped along during the pandemic The “Tour D’Amour” launched a major action in favor of the people in the Moria camp – and is now using this structure again to help Ukraine. All facets are there. Pop is an active part of everyday life that has faltered.
We are contributing a fresh issue to the troubled times – and in it we have put together far more than just a soundtrack to the downfall. Peace folks!
The Music Express 05/2022 – the topics at a glance:
George Michael – Someone Special
35 years ago George Michael published FAITH. He arranges and produces the record himself, plays many of the instruments, sings like a young god. Sales in the millions, number one hits, jubilant reviews follow – he is now one of the very greatest. The album takes 80s pop to the threshold of the 90s, and its meta concept has shaped the music world to this day. And yet: George Michael died like David Bowie and Prince in the loss-making year 2016, on Christmas Day – of all things! While Bowie and Prince possess a posthumous omnipresence, the memory of George Michael stands in diffuse shadow, illuminated once a year by Last Christmas and the soft lights of the Christmas market huts. Why actually?
Brian May: ‘I dream of speaking to Putin’
Like Harrison Ford, who blasted again as Han Solo, as Rick Deckard returned to the future and soon even as Indiana Jones, Brian May has increasingly used the 21st century to return to his iconic roles. Since 2005 he has been back on stage as a queen with different singers and the corresponding success, finished his doctorate in 2007 – after 37 years – and is now reworking his solo career record by record.
Glamour, queerness, geopolitical conflicts – The Eurovision Song Contest in the new millennium
Shrill looks, sometimes extremely questionable songs, this epic award of points and memories of great TV moments from childhood – the Eurovision Song Contest is somehow part of the family. If you talk or write about him, you always end up quickly with the classics, with ABBA, with Nicole. Which is a bit of a shame, because a lot has happened at and with the ESC since the turn of the millennium. Conflicts in Europe were also negotiated on the show stage, there was the eastward expansion, Lena, Conchita, Madonna’s failure – oh yes, and what is Australia doing at the ESC?! The new edition of the bizarrely homely singing competition starts on May 10th, this time in Turin. We finally took care of his recent past.
Warpaint – guitars (without hierarchies) against rockism
Once upon a time there was a band from Los Angeles. Not the Los Angeles shown in Larry David’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” with its palm trees, mansions and electric SUVs. This does not mean the Los Angeles of social conflicts, poverty and discrimination. And neither is criminal Los Angeles, about which there are so many movies. Warpaint’s Los Angeles was… well, a kind of Prenzlauer Berg with better weather.
Monchi: “Dude, what does he look like now?”
As an ultra from Hansa Rostock, Jan Gorkow, alias Monchi, lets it rip around football. With Feine Sahne Fischfilet he rises from the youth club band to the chart band. Celebrating, singing, drinking, political commitment and taking a stand – at Monchi it’s always going to the limit. When he steps on the scales one day, he pauses – and changes a few things. He talks about it in his book “Niemals satiated”.
Fontaines DC – Never really home
Ireland is a post-colonial society. With their London album SKINTY FIA, the post-punks Fontaines DC finally deliver the soundtrack in an offensive way.
ME Heroes: Public Enemy – Fight The Power
Between revolution and consumption: Public Enemy are probably the most influential and at the same time most controversial hip-hop crew this planet has ever produced. 35 years after the release of their debut YO! BUM RUSH THE SHOW it’s time for a throwback to ups, triumphs, downs and Professor reaching into the toilet.
Also in the issue:
- Self-timer: Ferris MC
- Topic interview: Sven Väth about wanderlust in times of pandemics
- Obituary for Taylor Hawkins
- 10 facts about bands with ghost train make-up
- Blind Date with Wet Leg
- Radar: Mia Morgan, Koffee, Suki Waterhouse, The Linda Lindas & Omar Apollo
- Subscriber CD insert featuring Fontaines DC, Warpaint, Lucius, Chris Imler, Girpool & Dana Gavanski
- Digital Playlist Featuring Fontaines DC, Warpaint, Lucius, Chris Imler, Girpool, Dana Gavanski, Rosalía, Koffee, Denzel Curry, Charli XCX, The Linda Lindas, Mia Morgan, The Man, Ibeyi & Omar Apollo
>>> to the music express playlist for everyone!
Read more? You can subscribe to the Musikexpress here.
The new music express – available from April 14, 2022 at kiosks and from home as an e-paper
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