TILL LINDEMANN - Zunge 2025 (2025)
I have always been fascinated and drawn to the emotional tone of the Germans. Ever since I struggled to learn their language, I empathized with their expressions of a feeling that is at times melancholic, at times rigorous, and at times tormenting in their symbiotic relationship with what is unsettling. Today, however, thanks to this album, I feel I can grasp even more of what they carry with them. A seriousness that becomes a profession. A profession that becomes a lifestyle. A lifestyle that observes you and asks you to take a stand. You must take a position without hesitation. You either accept or you renounce. The same goes for the lyrics of this album. Is it difficult to see yourself reflected? Is it easy to recognize yourself and make it a banner? Acceptable? Unacceptable? Reconcilable with your own feelings? Incompatible with the deepest motions of the soul? A feeling of Unheimlichkeit with which it is hard to feel at home. But it attracts you. You listen to this album, you listen to these lyrics, and you reckon with yourself. Meanwhile, poignant harmonies alternate with moments of almost unsettling harshness. Just like life.