Okay so I have to admit I've never got Rammstien not in the slightest. I understand the intellectual premise for many of their songs, but always found their industrial bluster retrospective, dated and ultimately dull, but for some reason that I can't begin to comprehend their world straddling superstars. Take the Download festival, there isn't a year that goes by where they don't run away with the "Who should headline polls", but seriously what makes them headliners? Certainly not their musical back catalogue, there are some undoubted highlights but nothing that demands headline status. They have a world renouned live show, but it seems to be based largely on gimmickry and the show aspect, which is fine enough but where is the substance? Well as a reviewer I'll do my best to be fair in my coverage and have reviewed many acts that simply aren't my cup of tea, so why not absorb myself within the new single.
I have to say on first listen I loved what they were trying to do on an intellectual level. Similar to Amerika they pull no punches, they state their message plainly and boldly, with nothing to hide, it's Green Dayesque sloganeering at it's finest. Pussy I initially thought was a ballsy attack on Western culture, the way that romance has been completely stripped away, and sex has become purely primal, emotionless and cynical. However, while these themes are on display, it appears things are a little more local, as they are actually commenting on the free sex culture in German and particular the legalization of prostitution in 2002. The song still has a powerful effect in this way, yet the approach is fatally flawed. It's similar to the work of the artist Banksy, it only works on one level, it has a big bold brash statement, laced with humour, but beneath it there is nothing, their is no subtly, there is no reason to come back to the piece after the first look or in this case listen. The ludicrous X rated video adds to the effect, it's big, it's simple, it's shocking but it lacks complexity, in many ways it's an apt analogy for 21st Century culture. Musically it's definitely old hat, dated industrial, synth rock, it feels like a band on autopilot, relying on shock value rather than ingenuity. While it certainly raises a smile on first listen "You've Got A Pussy, I Have A Dick-Ah", in a German accent that's pretty hilarious, but by a third or forth listen, the joke is more than tired. So it's a novel attempt from Rammstien, but ultimately this accounts to nothing but more of the same old shtick.
Here is the music video, be warned this is pretty much Porn, especially the end of the video, so if this is likely to offend your better off just using youtube and searching for it: http://www.visit-x.net/rammstein/
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