Album Review: The Notwist- Close to The Glass

“Well, this Notwist album sure has a lot of beeps and boops on it.”

I think that’s something I tweeted as I made my first attempt (of many) to sit through the new album by German electro-post-rockers The Notwist—their first in over six years, and their first for Sub Pop, Close to The Glass. I’ve been sitting on this album since mid-December, because of how good Sub Pop is about locking things down prior to their release date, and I guess I still feel the same way if you were to ask me about it today—it sure has a lot of beeps and boops on it.

Let’s step back for just a minute though, shall we?

January 2005. I was a senior in college, and during the winter of my final semester, my friend Colin who was freshman then, but was really into Pitchfork bands before being into Pitchfork bands was a really widely accepted thing, gave me a copy of what is considered to be The Notwist’s breakthrough album—2002’s Neon Golden.

In fact, in Vice’s very brief write up on Close to The Glass (they gave it a yucky/barfy face and not a smiley face in their review), writer Genevieve May Dobbins said, “Yeah, yeah, Neon Golden.” But Vice is also not where I go to in depth reviews of records.

But I digress.

So anyway, Neon Golden. 2005. Winter. College. Listening to Neon Golden was a pretty eye opening record for me, for some reason. “One Step Inside” is an incredible opening track—the way it creeps and skitters along; and like bookends, “Consequence” is a gorgeous, delicate closing track. Then, of course, there is the album’s penultimate moment—“One With The Freaks.” It’s a near-flawless early 2000s “alt rock” single, full of angst and beauty, and unless I made this memory up, I feel like I had a super intense experience listening to that song on my headphones, walking across campus at night when it was snowing.

At the time, and hell, maybe it still is—Neon Golden combined a lot of different elements (post-rock, electronica, alt. rock) and really made the best of it. Like it could really be a hot mess, but it’s a moody, introspective, restrained effort that has  a lot of heart to it.

The Notwist- "One With The Freaks"

So let’s take a step forward to 2008, and The Notwist’s return with The Devil, You + Me. I mos def fucked with the single off of this album, “Good Lies,” which I seem to recall thinking took the most successful and powerful elements of “One With The Freaks,” and just kind of ran with it. The rest of this album though? Maybe I was just in a different place in 2008, but I was kind of “eh” about the rest of it.

But yeah, yeah, Neon Golden.

So now let’s take a step forward to present day, and the very present day beeps and boops on the band’s latest album.

Close to The Glass is by no means a horrible record. It seems like it’s the kind of complexly arranged affair that probably took a lot of time to put together. There’s a lot of elaborate things happening—like the world music influenced percussion on the title track, and then there are all of the keyboards and synthesizers that continue to produce the aforementioned beeps and boops.

There are two things that may be the problem with this record. The first is that maybe I am just not in a place where I care about The Notwist right now. But yeah, yeah, Neon Golden. Like that is still a pretty good record but I also have some pretty nostalgic feelings about it. Take those away and maybe I’d feel different?

The second thing is maybe this is just kind of a bland, phoned in album. It seems like it is really lacking the heart and energy that made be once really love this band.

There are some noteworthy moments though—“Kong” is a pretty catchy, rather straightforward alt. rock jaunt. I mean, it’s no life changer, or anything, but it was one of the only songs on my first listen through that made me stand up and take notice. And then in a surprising turn, later on in the record, “Seven Hour Drive” takes things in a bit of a My Bloody Valentine-esq direction, with some moderately interesting and successful results.

And upon closer inspection, some of the first half of Close to The Glass is better than I thought. Both “Casino,” and “From One Wrong Place to The Next” grew on me after I had originally written a bulk of this record off.

This however doesn’t make up for the rather diminishing returns on the back half.  A less than a minute interlude breaks things up, and the final four songs of Close really lack any kind of discernable character and energy. The nearly nine-minute instrumental “Lineri” plods along with a very simple pattern of programmed drums and more vintage sounding synthesizer boops driving it. It’s borderline somber at times, but it’s also uninteresting, and it’s the kind of track that Atoms For Peace could have had a much better grasp on as far as the mix of electronics and guitar-oriented rock music.

Close to The Glass finishes up with a somewhat glitchy “They Follow Me.” It’s the kind of song that seems like it was written with the intention to be the last track on album. That’s not really a bad thing, but it’s also not, like, the kind of song that’s going to blow you away. The problem is that it never goes anywhere; and that’s not for a lack of trying. It seems like it is going to take off on a few occasions, but then just opts not to do so.

The Notwist’s signing to Sub Pop is an interesting move, mostly because it will certainly allow them access to a larger audience. In America, Domino Records—certainly a well-respected independent label—had handled the band’s material but Sub Pop is, like, one of the HUGE indie labels. I don’t know if Close to The Glass is the kind of album that is designed to win new fans or find them a bigger audience, but it’s the kind of record that’s going to get a lot more exposure. It’s also the kind of album that’s not going to alienate or cost them any of their current fans—or at least people who listen to them more often than I do. It certainly lacks innovation, but it is certainly full of beeps and boops, and it sure sounds like a record that The Notwist would make.

Yeah, yeah, Neon Golden.

Close to The Glass arrives on the 25th via Sub Pop Records.