The Notwist–The Devil, You + Me
Six years ago The Notwist released Neon Golden, the best album of that year. Mixing beautiful songs with glitchy beats, they beat The Postal Service to the punch and, in my opinion, their songs have remained fresh while those of Gibbard and Tamborello have faded. A good part of the reason is that The Notwist uses guitars to excellent effect, both in establishing rhythm and in supplementing the melody. This summer sees the band return with more of what makes them great. Markus Acher’s songs are as strong as ever, with lyrics that remain intriguing by dodging the obvious and with tunes that have to be forced out of the head before they take it over. The Devil, You + Me doesn’t knock me over like Neon Golden, but that’s a lot to ask Expectations are high, and to be sure, music has moved on a bit since 2002, so there’s no revolution coming with this album. Nevertheless, it’s bound to be one of my favorite albums of the year, and I suspect that if its ranking is determined purely by number of spins in my player it will be a competitor for the very top place.