The Swiss remain true to their traditional mix of singer/songwriter and indie rock.
It’s beautiful in “paradise”. Orange trees do grow, but what flows is more red wine than any fruit juice. The Vorab single already hinted at it: Nora Steiner and Madlaina Pollina add a new but seamlessly following chapter to their previous story on album number three.
The sound of RISIKO is robust and analogue in the broadest sense. The songs sound rough, but always melodic, made for the middle stages rather than the big ones. You want to feel the band’s sweat on your own skin, see the sparkle in your eyes. In terms of content, stories about love meet those about society. Sometimes the two bandleaders are the protagonists themselves, sometimes they watch.
Sometimes there is irony in the lines, sometimes tenderness. The latter makes up the strongest songs on this album: In “Engel am Hauptbahnhof” – which wonderful excursions into the twang the guitar allows itself here – the train station is told as a principle, about the hurry and the quiet, about the on and off togetherness. In the following “Unter uns” it only takes an electric piano and a guitar that reverberate to sing the ballad of love. And the closing “I stay and you go” beckons affection not only in Schwyzerdütsch, but also with wonderful melancholy.
