With “Dunkel” Die Ärzte present their 14th studio album - but the cult band seems to have lost punk.
“Are you still burning or are you already exploding?” Ask the doctors in the chorus of “Anti”, whose song title already suggests that Farin Urlaub, Bela B and Rodrigo “Rod” González are also on “Dunkel” - their now 14th song Studio album - understand it as a critical voice that fundamentally questions everything.
2021 is a year that the snotty-rebellious attitude of the punk is sorely needed: Bundestag elections, pandemic, vaccination debate, Afghanistan withdrawal, climate crisis;
Germany has not yet exploded, but there are currently enough sources of fire.
A new doctor album comes in handy.
Actually.
The Doctors: Punk Record?
There is a lack of bite on "Dunkel"
The "punks on principle", as it is called in the intro "KFM", appear again almost to the day exactly eleven months after the publication of "Hell" in order to provoke and criticize with pointed, sometimes late adolescent, sometimes profound texts, to reflect - and last but not least: to entertain. Compared to their overall discography, the trio only succeeds to a limited extent on “Dunkel”. The break-up song “Wissen”, for example, a melancholy, straightforward excursion into shallow college rock realms, lacks bite, a symptom that doctors often encounter over the course of the one-hour season.
With its annoying roaring vocals, which lives up to the title of the song, and the uninspired 08/15 instrumentals, “Schrei” is at best reminiscent of the first band rehearsal in the youth center.
The sappy “Tristesse”, the love song “Anastasia” with its dull teenage humor pervaded by it, or “Einschlag”, which just rocks monotonously and calmly, are classic fillers.
In general, the album lacks a clearly recognizable, meaningful structure.
The doctors: "Dunkel" takes risks - and convinces in stages
"Dunkel" comes up with a total of 19 songs. The fact that both creativity and an obvious red thread fall by the wayside is bearable. Anyone who has been involved in the music business for as long as Die Ärzte has earned the right to go on stylistic excursions, even if the experiments are not always entirely successful. Shortly before the turn of the millennium, the Berlin trio broke away from its punk-rock roots and increasingly penetrated the mainstream with hits like “A Pig Named Men” (1998) or “Junge” (2007). Both songs reached the top of the German single charts.
Even on "Dunkel" there are still songs that fully exploit their potential, despite the previously mentioned, step by step frighteningly meaningless passages. “Doof” proves to be a rousing, humorous good mood challenge against the right, while the rhythmic marching “Kraft” is dominated by harder elements. Once again, Die Ärzte self-confidently blow up the conventions typical of the genre, such as in “Core Business”, which, thanks to the guest appearance of the Munich rapper Ebow, is undoubtedly one of the most innovative highlights of the album.
“Music is older than capitalism”, proclaims the band in their trendy and charming way - and with this statement possibly unconsciously explains the basic essence that characterizes “dark” from beginning to end.
That means: As a musician you are not accountable to anyone, especially not to the consumer society!
So it finally flashes, the original punk, which musically only really shows up towards the end, for example on “Our Bass Player hates this song”.
The doctors: flying visit to the punk - "dark" falls short of its possibilities
Compared to its predecessor “Hell”, Die Ärzte look almost tame on “Dunkel”.
Instead of relying on tongue-in-cheek cynicism and groovy guitar riffs, they play their way through a motley jumble of different influences - but one misses the unaffected punk and the usual bitter reckoning with society.
2021 would have deserved a rough doctor album.
Maybe everything has to explode after all ...