Surrender (album)
| surrender | ||||
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| Studio album from Tocotronic | ||||
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Publication |
July 6, 2007 |
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| Label (s) | Vertigo Records | |||
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Format (s) |
CD, vinyl LP |
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Title (number) |
12 |
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running time |
54min 5sec |
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| occupation | ||||
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Moses Schneider |
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Studio (s) |
Chez Chèrie (Berlin-Neukölln) |
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Capitulation is the eighth studio album by the German indie rock group Tocotronic . It was released as the follow-up to Pure Vernunft must never win in July 2007 on Vertigo Records . It is the second album after the move from L'age d'or to the major label Universal Music .
The album was largely praised by the feature sections, and in retrospect it was also partly one of the most important albums of 2007.
Dirk von Lowtzow explained that there were of course ulterior motives in the naming; it is about an alternative to the rising mood of optimism in Germany. In an interview with the taz he said:
“The album also has something very warlike about it, lots of metaphors from the art of war: surrender, strategy, explosion et cetera. It has the potential to be aggressive. It should also be radical or blatant. A statement against this terrible emo culture. "
History of origin
In 2006 the band members mainly devoted themselves to their own music projects alongside the band. Dirk von Lowtzow released their own albums with Phantom / Ghost , bassist Jan Müller with Das Bierbeben and guitarist Rick McPhail with Glacier , alongside Tocotronic.
2007 is again dominated by the common band Tocotronic: Together with the producer Moses Schneider they rent a recording studio and start recording their eighth studio album. Tocotronic record everything live, only the choirs that are used occasionally are added later. Overall, the band's stay in the studio does not last long; the DVD accompanying the album mentions seven to nine days. In interviews, the individual band members speak of a concentrated work towards the recordings that take place twice a day. Nevertheless, there is the impression of spending four weeks in the studio instead of a few days, according to the musicians.
In addition, recordings are made in the studios “Transporterraum” (Berlin) and “Subraum” (Hamburg). The mixing took place in the Berlin “Tritonus Studio”, the mastering in Düsseldorf at “Monoposto Mastering”.
successes
Surrender was represented in the German, Austrian and Swiss charts.
- In Switzerland, the album started at number 35 and stayed in the charts for three weeks.
- In Austria it started in 10th place and lasted nine weeks.
- In Germany it reached third place on the album charts and stayed in the charts for a total of ten weeks.
Reviews
Below are some voices from the press on the album.
“For the four musicians, the surrender to all oppressive everyday duties marks the absolute liberation. [...] Capitulation is exuberant pop in the rock-like sense and an angry manifesto of German culture pessimism. "
“These are poses, not orders. And they are in the right poses: The boys behave somewhat like an assassin who tries to murder the Grim Reaper because she rightly no longer wants to see so many people die. "Capitulation" is not just music, but musical theater, the purpose of which is: To begin with the role played against the old successful people's misunderstanding of the vitality of rock music; like the Rhine daughters at the end of Wagner's “Rheingold” in the thunderous jubilation over the topping-out ceremony of the gods mix the complaint: Wrong and cowardly is what is happy up there. "
“Surrounded by siren-like guitars, von Lowtzow wanders through meadows, fields and archives, the song of uselessness on the lips. [...] Surrender is a seduction into absent-mindedness. Wherever dismal pragmatism rules, passivity becomes the last gesture of resistance. […] The tocotronic impulse is born out of the contradiction of wanting to be rebellious and yet knowing exactly that the time of rebellions is over. [...] Surrender is a romantic revolt of the tired, which is fed by various sources of strength. The lazy Oblomov has left his mark, the dandy's disinvoltage. Bartleby, Herman Melville's subversive writer, haunts the lines with his "I'd rather not". Not to forget the biblical classics of social theory, from Marx to Michel Foucault to the anti- Oedipus . In addition, the band rocks so poisonously sweet as never before. […] In the black tradition [of soul] under the keyword »Sweet Surrender« one can find the idea of giving up on oneself, which is at the same time a surrender of the lovers: Let go of all hope and you will be helped. "
“Especially since the LP“ KOOK ”from 1999, the beguiling ambiguous songs by Tocotronic have had a barely comprehensible magic, which is driven to perfection in the white album“ Tocotronic ”and since then ramified and gently broken. Surrender now, tender, longing, knowing and emphatic, is nothing less than exploring the possibilities that a visionary guitar band has. "
CD cover
The CD cover is based on a large section of the Douglas Morgan Hall portrait , which was painted in oil on canvas by the American painter Thomas Eakins around 1889 . The cut-out goes over the entire width, only a wide stripe is missing at the lower edge, where the cover image appears overall a bit darker. In the lower right half is the name of the album and the band in bright, green capital letters.
Track list
- My ruin - 5:45
- Surrender - 4:15
- From my fortress - 5:18
- Conspire against you - 4:11
- We are many - 6:54
- Harmony is a strategy - 4:35
- Imitations - 4:17
- Defenseless - 3:49
- Your secret name - 4:00
- Cancel everything - 2:02
- Air - 5:13
- Explosion - 3:46
Singles
The following songs were released as singles:
- Say it all - May 2007
- Surrender - July 2007
- Imitations - September 2007
- My ruin - December 2007
Contributors
- Dirk von Lowtzow : vocals , guitar
- Rick McPhail : guitar , keyboard
- Jan Müller : Bass
- Arne Zank : drums , keyboard, vocals
- Sila Davulco, Michaela Meise, Virginia Rösinger, Barbara Wagner, Julia Wilton: Choirs
- Ben Lauber : Keys and Bells
- Moses Schneider : producer
- Torsten Otto: Recordings in the "Chez Chèrie" studio
- Michael Ilbert: Mixing
- Michael Schwabe: Mastering
- Henrik Olesen : Cover design (painting "After Thomas Eakins", 2007)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Article at SpiegelOnline
- ↑ http://www.vertigo.fm/inhalt/kuenstler/Tocotronic/6843/biografie Künsterlerbiografie at Vertigo Records
- ↑ Interview with the taz on July 3, 2007
- ↑ Christian Ditloff: The "Capitulation" by Tocotronic
- ↑ Dietmar Dath: Dropout, termination, redemption from the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of July 6, 2007
- ^ Thomas Groß: Project Flausen . In: Die Zeit # 28/2007 from July 5, 2007
- ↑ SpiegelOnline: bugged! The most important CDs of the week of June 26, 2007
Web links
Digital is better (1995) | After Lost Time (1995) | We come to complain (1996) | It doesn't matter, but (1997) | KOOK (1999) | Tocotronic (2002) | Pure reason must never win (2005) | Surrender (2007) | Schall & Wahn (2010) | How we want to live (2013) | Tocotronic (2015) | Infinity (2018)