The Notwist - The Devil, You and Me

For those that don’t know, The Notwist, a band that started out in Germany in the late 80s are in their third decade together. Having released their grunge debut in 1989, The Notwist have proved to be masters of reinvention and currently pioneers of post-Radiohead angst rock. Their efforts to unite off-beat pop with darker, electronica tinged post-rock were perfected on 2002’s Neon Golden. Now after a six-year hiatus The Notwist are back, but can they follow their own footsteps?

The answer is… sort of. Let’s just imitate the real, until we find a better one sings Markus Acher on album opener Good Lies and unfortunately, this rings true for most of The Devil, You & Me. The Notwist just haven't progressed, they haven't arrived at anywhere better and instead their new album is another Neon Golden, no better, no worse. The familiar minor-keyed, mid-tempo numbers are all here as expected, split into acoustic pop ballads (Gloomy Planets, Gone Gone Gone and the title track) and more experimental, heavier, electronic influenced tracks (lead single Where In This World and On Planet Off). They both work, but hey, we knew that already.

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