GRAUPAUSE from Lüdenscheid will release their second album on September 16, 2022.
When it comes to a second album, one automatically thinks it must still be a young band. After all, it’s only the second album. However, this is not the case here.
GRAUPAUSE recruited from the well-known band Kleinstadtchaoten around Lüdenscheid. It’s one of those stories that carry the headline “Once a musician, always a musician.” Once you’ve tasted blood, many can’t get away from it, even if they try. This is also the case here, and it’s no surprise that what comes out of the speakers sounds very professional. Professional in the realm of German-speaking punk rock. Well, one might wonder if the writer has overstepped here.
“Yesterday Will Be Great” offers twelve songs produced by Michel Czernick. Guests include Carsten from Popperklopper and Gunnar from Dritte Wahl. Michael Czernick has also produced albums for Rogers and Alarmsignal, among others. Those were also my first associations when I heard the album for the first time. What comes out of the speakers sounds like Alarmsignal, not quite as fast, but stylistically very similar. Now, fast, melodic, and political German-speaking punk rock is not a unique selling point of the band from Celle, but this band has been around for so long at a high level that they now represent a benchmark for this type of music. Compared to the guys from Celle, the production is smoother and offers a fat sound, which, despite the band’s great efforts, has been polished so much that all efforts and all power have been dampened. That’s very unfortunate and sadly not a unique selling point. The same effect can be heard with the Austrians from MISSSTAND.
That’s very unfortunate because the band is really trying hard to release a record that has impact and power. Lyrically, it’s definitely clear where the journey is headed, but unfortunately, the sound doesn’t match perfectly. Maybe the band wanted it this way? It could be, as the homepage welcomes you with the big exploitative companies of the music industry. Do they want to present themselves positively here? Preferably not too harsh to get nicely onto the playlists and to arrange themselves with the algorithms? Must it be?
Is this still punk rock?
As a bonus to the album, there’s also the debut album of the Lüdenscheid band included. This one is titled “Damned Styles” and offers stylistically similar fare. Not quite as heavily produced, but otherwise, there are very large similarities to “Yesterday Will Be Great.”
Overall, there are two albums in a beautiful digipack for the price of one. That’s fair and very kind from the label and certainly earns more than one sympathy point.
How to view the overall work? Well, I would diplomatically say:
GRAUPAUSE is suitable fare for fans of Missstand and Alarmsignal.
