Andreas Dorau - Das Wesentliche

by Maarten Schiethart

published: 4 / 7 / 2019

Label: Tapete Records
Format: CD

Mesmerizing latest album from German pop singer Andreas Dorau, who leaves out on this record choruses

Review

Once every four or five years, Andreas Dorau unleashes a mesmerizing collection of songs which makes one wonder how on Earth Rammstein could ever serve as the worldwide protagonists for the German Language. A preacher’s son, Herr Dorau, a stubborn Zodiac Capricorn Sign Artist like Captain Beefheart, tests a new format in songwriting on ‘Das Wesentliche’. Dorau leaves out choruses. Useless, superfluous and of use only serving drivers stuck in a traffic jam to sing along to, Dorau thought it was about time to get down to essentials. The end result is one of strikingly snappy songs, most under 90 seconds. This refreshing approach doesn’t even require a fluent command of the language of Dorau, Goethe or Kafka to fully understand. Dorau’s lyrics sooner resemble the universal Dada of, for example, Zürich’s original Cabaret Voltaire verbal acrobats from about a century ago. “Die Welt ist meistens ungerecht. Laßt es bitte sein.” The way of the world is unjust but let it be. Sein, and nein words to coin, though bear in mind in German there’s this terrific eponym ‘Jein’ – contaminating ‘Ja’ with ‘Nein’. Yes and No in plain non-convergent English. A virtuous wordsmith, Dorau shows exactly how refreshing songwriting without choruses can be. ‘Das Wesentliche’ is a particularly striking album since the abstinence of choruses appears in such subtle fashion. Bearing in mind how extravagantly awful the German entry in the Eurovision Songfestival was – zero points from the audience – any track culled off ‘Das Wesentliche’ could have figured strongly. You’d need to learn German to understand how close Andreas Dorau stands to, for example, Jarvis Cocker. And even if you don’t, his corny take on typical German Schlager Musik is something to treasure.

Track Listing:-

1 Nein
2 Unsichtbare Tänzer
3 Identität
4 Menschen tragen graue Hüte
5 Wieso
6 Dinge können sich ändern
7 Gebrauchtes Herz
8 Du bist eine Insel
9 Naiv
10 Vielleicht
11 Hey Tonight
12 Fallen
13 Instant Magic
14 Schwierigkeiten
15 Was immer Du auch vor hast