Wow!
POPPERKLOPPER have been around for 33 years now!!
33 years!!
I'm losing it.
If you, like me, don't feel as old as the age on your ID and then see how long the bands that have accompanied a significant part of your life have been around, it's quite shocking.
Then you come back down to reality.
POPPERKLOPPER are releasing their 10th album, “Lost and Forgotten.”
POPPERKLOPPER are known for their hard, uncompromising German punk. A sound that quickly earned them much recognition, especially in the first ten years. Of the three founding members, Lars and Carsten are still around, having started in 1989. Just as constant as the lineup, POPPERKLOPPER have remained consistent in their style.
The tempo may have slowed down a bit. The vocals may not be as impulsive anymore, but clearer and stronger. They are still angry.
Of course, life experience also flows into the songs. At 20, you write different lyrics than at 30 and 40. However, I always have the feeling that not much has changed with POPPERKLOPPER. The anger may have quieted down, but it’s still there. Along with that, sometimes despair and resignation have crept in. Otherwise, almost everything has remained the same.
On “Lost and Forgotten,” you get what you know and expect from the band. The fifteen songs are presented partly in English and partly in German. When I think back to the conversations I had with Carsten, Lars, and myself when I asked them why they are now also singing lyrics in English, I realize that was almost in a past life. Was that already in this millennium?
The lyrics, which I wanted to address, are typical POPPERKLOPPER. In touch with the times, with a finger in the wound, the questioning gaze around, and the questions are:
Why are you (the people) like this?
Why do you do all this?
What’s the point?
What are the answers?
Because we are like this?! Because selfishness, greed, and envy are human nature?
Yes! And the worst part is, we know this and don’t change it. So it’s no surprise that this realization made it into the lyrics of “Ego,” namely as follows:
You feel little solidarity
For human selfishness lives forever
The nature of man shows its face
My neighbor, that’s just me
Of course, POPPERKLOPPER wouldn’t be POPPERKLOPPER if they didn’t immediately follow up with the next song “Now or Never,” encouraging us. Giving up is not an option and should never be for us.
This big theme of fighting against injustice, against the omnipotence of capital, and against the system and society, or at least against (or for?) one’s own reflection, is the common thread that runs through all of the band’s albums. It sounds convoluted, but it’s not.
With this album, POPPERKLOPPER cement their status and show with the 15 songs what they were, what they are, and hopefully what they will be for a while longer. POPPERKLOPPER, a punk band that walks through life awake and refuses to accept the circumstances in which we live.
“Lost and Forgotten” is far from being the trio’s last work, and when I look at the concert dates, they are doing everything to ensure that this won’t change anytime soon.
POPPERKLOPPER, music for those who still feel something!
The vinyl release is available as a limited edition in red. 500 copies, no more!
