The singer/songwriter rarely leaves the vague song-poet twilight state.
Maxim doesn’t seem to have much time in the here and now. “Nothing is worse than being at home,” he sings, and elsewhere: “Everything will be fine when we’re there, but we’re never actually there.” In “Window, Top Left,” his duet partner Lina Maly even puts him down into a hot air balloon and wishes him “a favorable wind”. Wanderlust, wishing away, not wanting to exist are a common thread running through NACHTIALL – which is pretty funny because Maximilian Richarz’s core business is actually inwardness.
This is also expressed on the Bonn native’s new album – as with most of the other, now old, Junge Milden, worst of all with Mark Forster – in a mumbled delivery, but Maxim can be credited: his lyrics are not just emotional nonsense, but actually pretty okay poetry. Sure, he also lacks a little ironic distance from his own emotions, but the moments of embarrassment are far rarer than with the competition.
Musically, however, NACHTIALL sits so full and self-satisfied in the song poet mainstream with good guitars and expected strings that even a fairly conventional but at least cautiously cracking outburst like “I remember everything” can pull you out of your twilight state.
You can find out which albums will be released in March 2024 via our monthly release list.