US - Scream disponible chez Walmart
How hard is it for a German rock band to break it big in the U.S.? For most, even conquering Europe is still no guarantee that label executives here will see and hear anything original, groundbreaking, or just plain good enough to warrant a contract.
German emo quartet Tokio Hotel is the first to do so in a long, long time and they’re breaking down barriers in a huge way, making new fans here as readily as U.K. acts have done for ages.
A lot of their success can be chalked up to the androgynous charisma of their teenage frontman Bill Kaulitz, who appears on the album cover with his trademark giant hair, looking like an angry, punk-y, elf.
Their debut single, the angsty, tense-yet-rollicking “Ready, Set, Go!” is not only on the charts, it was incorporated in an episode of The Hills.
The band shows its depth (the degree of which is remarkable when you consider that these are very young men) on their second single, the non-sappy, shimmering ballad “Monsoon,” where stacks of processed guitar chords shimmer and throb on the chorus.
Tokio Hotel really writes to the song, allowing whatever they need to stylistically to carry it off. Sometimes they’re emo, sometimes more punk, sometimes more bubblegum pop, other times more glam-sounding or even Detroit-style garage. Maybe here or there a flourish of electronica would serve nicely, or a strain of somber cello… no problem. They add it.
But the common denominator is that their music is well written, melodic, and original. Three attributes that will get you noticed in the music world. And Scream has landed inside the Top 40 of the Billboard 200 album chart, and also made them household names across Europe and in Canada.
Kaulitz’ voice is fantastic, and adding charm to it is his slight accent. This is, after all, their first English-language album. But there is also no dead weight here. Guitars, drums and bass are handled with chops and maturity of music school grads.
Fans of guitar-based rock and hooky melodies, but who don’t want to rot their teeth on overly-sweet confections of many axe-wielding pop ensembles, will love Tokio Hotel: a band that can start an ultimately hummable tune with a blast of ferocity.
Tokio Hotel is surely a band to watch in the future, but more important, a band to hear right now.
By Todd Spencer
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