KAPELLE VORWÄRTS has actually done everything right, yet I still feel like something is missing.
But let me start from the beginning.
The 10 new songs on the second album of the Bielefeld band KAPELLE VORWÄRTS are fundamentally based on a good punk rock sound, which sometimes drifts into ska territory, including brass instruments, or is accompanied right from the first song "Es gibt Träume" by a violin played by the probably most famous street musician in the country, Klaus, der Geiger, who also sings along in the song. In fact, there are many fellow musicians featured on "Solidaarisuus," such as Sigi Maron, Attila the Stockbroker, and David from ARGIES, who sings the Spanish part of the second song "El Pueblo unido." The guest musicians take turns on the album during its 32 minutes. Almost every song features a friendly musician. I think that's great and fitting for the protest and resistance songs of KAPELLE VORWÄRTS.
However, I can't connect with all the lyrics, such as in the cover song of Bertholt Brecht's song about the "Inadequacy" of human striving, with the lines: "Man is not good at all, so hit him on the hat, if you hit him on the hat, then maybe he will be good." I find the lyrics banal, but it's by Brecht... But even if the lyrics were by James Hetfield, I would still find them flat. If Brecht, then the "Einheitsfrontlied" (and because man is a man...), the lyrics at least make sense and have meaning!
That KAPELLE VORWÄRTS can also do good cover songs is shown in the song "Sacco und Vanzetti" (originally by Joan Baez and Ennio Morricone), which is about two Italian immigrants who fall victim to a politically motivated judicial murder in the USA in 1927. Appropriately, the Bielefeld band is vocally supported by the Italian Filippo Andreani, who is quite well-known in Italy, though I have never heard of him before.
So far so good. Unfortunately, as I mentioned at the beginning, I feel like something is missing in the songs. However, I lack the arguments for that. I simply don't know why the album isn't worth a full score to me, aside from the B. Brecht cover song. I only find small clues for this, such as that I don't really like the singing of Klaus and Mary that much and that Charles (who also plays drums in ZZZ HACKER) can only play his uffa-uffa on his drum kit. And that I miss a bit of passion in the songs. But these are all subjective impressions and minor details, yet there are several of them.
That's why I can only give 7 puntos…..
