It started so well.
I’m not necessarily referring to the album, but rather to the first releases that were supposed to be on Tanzneid. Tons of excitement from my side back in the days when Electric Callboy released RATATATA and Elevator Operator. Even more excitement with the release of Revery. Great joy when they played at TUSKA last year.
And then something went downhill. Somehow, TANZNEID is the peak of a line of disappointments I’ve went through within the last year when it comes to Electric Callboy – a band I’ve loved dearly for several years now. Here’s why.
Let’s start with the two things that annoyed me the most just by looking at the tracklist on Tidal: TANZNEID comes with 14 tracks, out of which 4 are remixes and a spectacular amount of TWO SONGS (!) that haven’t been released before. Very subjective: there’s hardly anything I hate more than remixes. Also very subjective and something I’ve mentioned before: I am so damn tired of album releases that are basically a collection of single releases of the last 1.5 years with one or two bonus tracks. I so damn miss the days when album releases were connected to excitement and curiosity. Is this part of the Spotify-influenced modern music culture? Releasing as many songs as possible to end up in as many different playlists as possible because nobody (except for avid music lovers) bothers listening to full albums? I hate it. I hate it so much.
Second thing: The album INCLUDING THE REMIXES is 44:14 minutes long. If you take out the remixes, you’re left with … half an hour. HALF AN HOUR. Again. Yeah, I know that’s pretty much the standard these days when it comes to metalcore, but you’re telling me I’ve been waiting for a new album for months (I didn’t preorder this time because I was very hesitant) for it to be only half an hour long, with basically 6 minutes of new, refreshing music and the rest being the stuff I’ve been listening to on Tidal for months already? Can’t say I’m a fan of the modern music culture. Very sad.
Other than that … song-wise I am still a huge fan of RATATA, Elevator Operator and Revery, which are absolutely amazing songs with great energy. I think I might’ve mentioned my feelings towards TANZNEID back when it was released and things haven’t changed much: The song still doesn’t quite catch me. I can see their vision, but it doesn’t touch my heart. It hasn’t gotten any better, TANZNEID is supposed to be energetic, but for me it’s plain boring.
Hypercharged is a similar phenomen. To me, the song has so little identity that I don’t even remember what it sounds like right after listening to it. Plus, I think I’ve also mentioned that before when the song was released, I am on a personal beef with Brawl Stars because as a teacher, I’ve seen firsthand how addictive this brainrot game is. It doesn’t get any better when one of my favourite bands makes a song for / about it. Strong dislike.
Let the Good Times Roll is a good song, but nothing outstanding. It’s good. Average good. Nothing super exciting. One of the better later releases I’d say.
Heartclub is one of the previously unreleased songs and while I am listening to it for the first time RIGHT NOW I gotta say it’s one of the better songs on this album. More of the Electric Callboy that I love. It has a good beat and a pretty good mix of clear vocals and screams/shouting. My fave EC songs have usually been the harder ones (like Hate/Love, Parasite and Mindreader out of their more current ones) and Heartclub as a sufficient amount of heaviness. I think it’s one of the songs I can grow fonder of. Also because it has nice electronics that are fairly danceable I guess.
Now the thing with The Way You Are is that I see their vision. I am not surprised they tried to pick up the boyband-thingy. They’ve been covering Backstreet Boys songs for quite a while now. And I also love the breakdown / heavier part because it reminded me of what I love most about Electric Callboy: Kevin Ratajczak. His time to shine. The boyband part is entertaining, the core (or gore?) part is really nice. But in the end there is absolutely nothing surprising about this song because it was clear from the very beginning that this is going to be Hurrikan 2.0. It’s kinda said because the song has a lot of potential, but it’s just a recycled idea and hence the song doesn’t really get its time to shine. The whole clash-of-worlds was fun when they did it for the first time with Hurrikan, but the effect has worn off. Too bad because this could’ve been a good song.
Still Waiting has a nice vibe – but it’s just a cover after all, which basically makes the whole album disaster even worse for me personally. Because I personally think it’s not even as much of a great cover as their take on Everytime We Touch. It’s safe to assume they’ve mostly done it because they’re now working with Frank Zummo. And personally I’m not that much of a Sum41 fan, so it doesn’t really excite me that much. It’s a song that works well when played life and yes, covers somehow deserve their spot, but THE ALBUM IS ONLY 30 MINUTES OF INDIVIDUAL SONGS ANYWAY 😭
The Savior: Same thing as with Heartclub: I’m listening to the song for the very first time while writing these lines and so far it’s entertaining. It’s kinda nice. Maybe better than some of the pre-released stuff. I think I can get used to it. It doesn’t excite me all that much though. But it’s nice.
And finally Revery, which might be my favourite song on the album because it carries on the Mindreader and Parasite vibe. I love this song so damn much I cried at TUSKA when they played it live. I also cried when I saw them in Düsseldorf and they played it, but that was a whole different story because that night was already my personal goodbye to Electric Callboy headline shows. But I’ve had really high hopes for this album after the first few releases and in the end, the album is … pretty much average (in my very own humble opinion).
So … yeah, Idk, I guess I will listen to the stuff that I like and continue following their musical path, but to some extent this feels like another coffin nail to my excitement about Electric Callboy. Kinda sad.
