The Notwist - The Devil, You + Me

having been very excited about the idea of this earlier in the year, i forgot all about it. it's on iTunes, i see. i'll get it at some point but i really do need to be conserving cash right now (and this is one i'd feel bad about acquiring without paying for).

this thread, i have to say, hasn't exactly done much for my rekindled anticipation levels.

i picked this up the other day and have yet to listen to it. will do so asap.

sounded like a snooze at the record store the other day. like, a total too little too late snooze. dudes at the record store put on new steven malkmus after this and it was a big relief! even the new malkmus songs that just sound like bad pavement songs were a relief.

anyway, definitely not another neon golden.

yep, definitely on the boring side. sounds sterile next to "neon golden."

Is it pronounced No_Twist or Not_Wist?

I think from watching the Neon Golden dvd it's Not_wist, although I'm not totally sure. Helpful post.

I think I say it Not_Wist generally.

me too

I say Not-wist. But they're German, so I sometimes wonder if it shouldn't be Not-veest or something.

I've always gone with No-Twist.

I don't remember if they introduced themselves when last I saw them live.

"I asked Markus Acher how to pronounce the Notwist when they were setting up at ATP. It's "no twist". Some of the Americans I was with thought it was "not whist". Eejits." Source, fwiw.

So this might be my favourite album of the year; certainly running very close with Shearwater and probably edging out Elbow and The Do as the year rolls on. There's something really beautiful about it, both... phenomenologically (?) and emotionally. It's not got the outright POP moments that Neon Golden had, but there are some exquisite electro/acoustic arrangements on here, that at times recall Talk Talk somewhere between CoS and SoE only... lighter, more resigned, less intense, more 'pop' -but not POP - the pop on CoS is a desperate, climactic pop, whereas this is gentle (predominantly - there are enough jarring textures and rhythms and little dynamic explosions here to prevent it being soporific). So yes, this is beautiful, and low-key, and I can play it almost regardless of my mood or current aesthetic impulse re; music and still enjoy it, which is a great sign.

bought this at Amoeba Hollywood the other day but have yet to listen to my purchased copy. remember liking it a lot but doubt it will make my Top 10.

Lack of love for this saddens me.

It's an album that only shows it true self with repeated listens. It took me a while to realize just how good it is; maybe a dozen times before it differentiated itself enough from Neon Golden for me to appreciate it on its own terms. Like you, it has become one of my favorites of 2008.

it's funny reading all the belated-appreciation for this record, because i've only just heard it and think it's pretty zeddin'. a lot of the production sounds kind of dated, with nyow-nyow guitars and too much fractured bleepiness. but then i can kind of trust a lot of the people who love it now, so i'll persevere.

Maybe I need to listen to it more, but I was really bored with it. I think of it more as Neon Golden 0.7 - somewhere between their OK EPs and Neon Golden, which was GREAT soft pop. It was also very new at the time, and I think this new one is nothing really too new. Call it critically stereotypical, but the electronic music world in the years since Neon Golden has gone through leaps and bounds (DFA, discopunk, dubstep, minimal, electro, electroclash, and all the house music that's come out in droves since then, etc.). While none of those directly affect Notwist's trajectory, it's weird hearing something that sounds just like 2002.

this would make my top 15 of the year, and i've probably heard 50-60 albums this year. so it's up there in the better stuff. not top 10 material yet but that may speak to how good the other stuff is.

Hi Louis.

"Pilot" is one of my favorite songs, haven't listened to it in ages

I find a lot of their other stuff boring, though

― Curt1s Stephens, Thursday, 1 May 2008 14:15 (10 months ago

Curt1s Stephens OTM in May 2008.

This album is really boring compared to Neon Golden, and that had a lot of clunkers on it, but The Pilot is incredible!

hi nick

it certainly seems, on first listen, to be better than the majority of ILXors give it credit