Andreas Dorau
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Ich Bin Der Eine Von Uns Beiden
published: 8 /
9 /
2022
Andreas Dorau's re-released 2005 LP finally makes sense to Maarten Schiethart
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I must admit that after eight years' wait, when I first listened in 2005 to Andreas Dorau’s album 'Ich Bin Der Eine Von Uns Beiden', it came as a disappointment. Dorau's masterpiece '70 Minuten Musik Ungeklärter Herkunft' - of unspecified origin - lovingly lasted many years after its 1997 conception.
Culled from that album, Dorau's 'Girls in Love' managed to reach the official top 10 in France, even though in other countries the number of hit songs sung in German could (and still can) be counted on the fingers of one hand.
The '70 Minutes' double LP built into the perfect combination of extremely catchy melodies with tongue-in-cheek philosophies, supported by wonderful wacky beats. Eight years later, he released his next album on Mute Records (which back then also held offices in Berlin, where Dorau lived for a while). In my narrowed perception it was very much a wee effort.
Forward another 17 years, from summer 2005 to summer 2022, and 'Ich Bin Der Eine Von Uns Beiden' has been re-released by Tapete Records. The lightweight electropop instrumentation of the album (think maybe of fellow Mute Records artists Depeche Mode) no longer annoys me.
Stripped of my prejudices now, at long last I perceive the clarity of the songs, which he calls 'Schlager', a word that literally means ‘hits’ in German but is more usually used to refer to tacky pop tunes, as you might if you were to describe the music of Bucks Fizz.
Dorau's bouncing songs dig much, much deeper than that, though. The son of a preacher, his lyrics are witty sidesteps full of slightly absurd irony and sometimes of irate sarcasm. Impossible to compare with, his naive ditties come with utterly sane wisdom and gentle charm.
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