Lolch, this is a genus of plants from the family of sweet grasses. What were the artists, in this case the four guys from Bitume from "Punkrock Motorcity" Oldenburg, thinking when they titled their fifth album "Lolch," which will be released on November 5th?! The album doesn’t provide an answer, but it does offer 13 tracks. "Lolch" is being released on Rookie Records, just like the 2007 album "Gut im Trend," although Bitume started out back then in the former home of, among others, Skin of Tears and the Wohlstandskindern. And it’s in the pop-punk direction of the earlier years of both bands that we head here as well. While I found "Gut im Trend" too poppy and overall too boring-slow, we’re moving away from the 2007 "Trend" and on "Lolch" we also hear pleasantly fast pieces again. The overall work is well-produced as well.
I quickly got into the album; it’s certainly not heavy fare, but it’s also not to be overlooked, as it is listenable from start to finish. However, many of the rhymes do seem quite forced and lack depth, like "Now I stand here, a goal of my dreams – Finally got it: No forest without trees." (Song 3, "Einer von Vielen"), these are not exactly the crown jewels of rhyme artistry. Lyrically, "Lolch" comes across as apolitical, dealing with emotional resignation scenarios, that everything is new and logically the old is gone. Just "Stories that life writes" (Song 7, "Alles weg"), but that feels too general over time, especially since it’s not described in particularly vivid language. Between "polished face and bouquet" (Song 5, "Shananana"), it’s overall: At times it goes quite well forward to the face, but overall it’s more of a bouquet: Nice to look at, sometimes quite beautiful, but after a few days every bouquet wilts and "Lolch" didn’t stay long in my CD player either. With two exceptions, I feel like I’ve already heard and known the CD in all its elements after just one listen, but two nice earworms ("Es regnet Scheiße" and "Katastrophen & Kometen") have nonetheless made their way onto my permanent playlist.
