In the Netherlands people are not really worried that the German singer / songwriter Herbert Grönemeyer delivers his first studio record in five years with Zwölf. After all, his last major Dutch hit Halt Mich dates from 1988. Our eastern neighbors are different, here the sympathetic singer and actor (known from Das Boot) is a stadium-sized star. His album 1984 was even the best-selling German-language
… album of the decade. Zwölf is not only his twelfth studio album but also contains twelve songs. All twelve tasteful pop songs, sometimes politically charged but mostly love songs, beautifully and spatially produced and with catchy choruses. Rarely did the German language sound so melodic and melancholic in pop music as from Grönemeyer's throat. In the past, Grönemeyer sometimes tried it in English, but with the well-behaved and predominantly dark atmosphere of Zwölf, the mother tongue is completely appropriate. A special edition of this album was released with added DVD with a 5.1 Surround mix of the twelve songs and the video clip of the single Stück Von Himmel. (MR)more
