Vexations (album)

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Vexations
Get Well Soon studio album

Publication
(s)

January 22, 2010

admission

2009

Label (s) City Slang ( Universal )

Format (s)

CD

Genre (s)

Folk

Title (number)

14th

running time

62:28

production

Konstantin Gropper

chronology
Rest now, Weary Head! You Will Get Well Soon
(2008) 		Vexations -

Vexations (German: annoyances ) is the second album of the German music project Get Well Soon . It was released on January 22, 2010 by City Slang ( Universal ).

concept

According to Konstantin Gropper, Vexations is a concept album about stoicism . He explained this concept in an interview as follows:

“It's about fears, annoyances, vexations , maybe also about the brevity of life and death […] The solution with the Stoics is always: don't get excited, everything is unimportant, you are free when you have everything you can loves and has, could give away at any time. "

- Konstantin Gropper

He also said that he does not necessarily agree with the opinion of the Stoics, but that they fascinate and occupy him.

Emergence

Gropper wrote all the titles within two weeks, as he could not spare any more time due to his tour and some commissioned work. In preparation, he did extensive research, including reading the works of Seneca , Georg Büchner and Peter Sloterdijk .

First the entire album was created on the computer, for which Gropper retired to his Berlin apartment and at times also to his parents' house in Upper Swabia.

In contrast to the first album, Rest Now, Weary Head! You Will Get Well Soon , Gropper had enough money for Vexations to rent a large studio and record the album. Almost 20 musicians were involved in the recording, including his sister, who supported him on his debut.

occupation

While Gropper played many instruments himself, his live band was also involved in the recordings:

A number of guest musicians can also be heard:

Track list

  1. Nausea
  2. Seneca's Silence
  3. We are free
  4. Red Nose Day
  5. 5 steps / 7 swords
  6. We Are Still ...
  7. A Voice in the Louvre
  8. Werner Herzog Gets Shot
  9. That love
  10. Aureate!
  11. We are ghosts
  12. A Burial at Sea
  13. Angry Young Man
  14. We are the Roman Empire

The limited edition by Vexations also contains an additional CD Songs For / From Films , which mainly contains covers and titles that Gropper wrote for various films.

  1. Teenage FBI - 4:49 ( B-side of Angry Young Man )
  2. Busy Hope - 3:09 (Soundtrack to Palermo Shooting )
  3. La Chanson d'Hélène - 3:42 (originally by Romy Schneider and Michel Piccoli )
  4. The World Needs A New ... - 4:14 (Soundtrack for Contact High )
  5. Harmour Love - 4:04 ( Syreeta-Wright cover from the soundtrack to Junebug )
  6. My Door - 3:33 (Soundtrack to The Disposed Father )
  7. I'm Deranged - 3:58 (Originally by David Bowie and Brian Eno )
  8. Good Friday - 4:43 (Soundtrack to Palermo Shooting )

Content and structure

Vexations begins with Nausea (German: 'the sickness') with a short text, spoken by a woman's voice, which describes an “early morning walk into the forest”.

The second piece, Seneca's Silence , is based on the writings of the philosopher and introduces the concept of stoicism for the first time:

"Oh it touches, itches, bites and wastes the time,
Trying not to be in love with what is mine."

"Oh it touches, itches, bites and is a waste of time
trying not to love what is mine."

The title 5 Steps / 7 Swords is about death . Gropper got the inspiration for this piece from the writings of the psychiatrist and death researcher Elisabeth Kübler-Ross , who is also quoted. In the song Gropper questions how scientific their death research is and compares it with the doctrines of the Catholic Church.

In A Burial at Sea, on the other hand, Gropper deals with immortality , which he contrasts with the “fear of insignificance”. The song is inspired by Melville's Moby-Dick , in which the captain considers his fight to be decisive for the fate of the world. According to Gropper, "in the end [...] there is nothing left but a coffin lid, and if the story were not told, it would make no difference whether the whale swims around there."

The piece Werner Herzog Gets Shot is a tribute to the Bavarian filmmaker Werner Herzog , according to Gropper's "one of the konsequentesten artist." Herzog dedicates his life to art and pursues his visions, for him there are "no excuses".

In We are Ghosts , Gropper lets the "spirits of the Enlightenment" appear. In the chorus it says:

"Boo hoo ooh, we are ghosts,
You, you are losing your religion
Boo hoo ooh, we are ghosts
We're haunting Europe
and tomorrow the world"

"Boo huh uh, we are ghosts
You, you are losing your faith
Boo huh uh, we are ghosts
We are going to visit Europe
and tomorrow the world"

The second half of the chorus is an allusion to Karl Marx 'and Friedrich Engels ' manifesto of the Communist Party , which reads: “A ghost is haunting Europe - the ghost of communism.” The song ends with the repeated choral singing “ And God is dead ”(German: “ And God is dead ” ) and thus implies that the Enlightenment has triumphed. Gropper wrote the title after seeing pictures of World Youth Day in Cologne on television , where young people Pope Benedict XVI. cheered. Gropper said he was disappointed that his homophobic attitude , for example, was so popular, even though European society was actually much more progressive.

reception

Chart positions
Explanation of the data
Albums
Vexations
  DE 11 02/05/2010 (3 weeks)
  AT 26th 02/05/2010 (1 week)
  CH 30th 02/07/2010 (1 week)

Immediately after its release, Vexations rose to number 11 in the German album charts , and the album was also placed in Austria and Switzerland.

Torsten Gross wrote in Rolling Stone magazine that Konstantin Gropper was an “accomplished craftsman, great composer and arranger”. Regarding the concept of the album, however, the question arises why he burdened himself with "such a vain educated bourgeois design". Sometimes simple "posie rhymes [...] are loaded with meaning", but due to the musically excellent design of the album, this hardly matters.

Jan Kedves wrote in spex as critically as Gross :

“Konstantin Gropper aka Get Well Soon makes the mistake of disregarding the ideal playing length of albums. 14 tracks, which together give a playing time of over an hour - a comprehensible arc of suspense does not want to be recognizable. You have to take it as an indication that the artist is too in love with his own work. He can't part with weaker songs either. In such cases, the motto still helps: Kill your darlings. "

The editor-in-chief of spex , Max Dax , added:

“Above all, it's name dropping of the worst kind. Gropper dictates into each microphone that his album is a “concept album on the subject of stoicism” and has at least the following references: “ Werner Herzog , Seneca , Georg Büchner , Homer , Peter Sloterdijk , Elisabeth Kübler-Ross , Sartre , the latest findings in conflict research , the question of whether anger is a basic human trait, as well as the fear of every artist of irrelevance ( viewed through the eyes of Moby Dick ).

- Max Dax and Jan Kedves : Pop Briefing, spex324

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Jörn Schlüter: The deep reason. In: Rolling Stone , Issue 183, January 2010, p. 24
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h Britta Helm: Get Well Soon: From fear. In: Visions , No. 203, February 2010, p. 52 ff.
  3. ↑ a b c Torsten Gross: Get Well Soon - Vexations. In: Rolling Stone , issue 183, January 2010, p. 88 f.
  4. ↑ Chart sources: DE ( Memento of the original from January 6, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. AT CH @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.musicline.de
  5. ↑ Tocotronic with their first number 1 album . Media control ; Retrieved February 2, 2010.
  6. ↑ spex.de ( Memento of the original from March 25, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.spex.de