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Das Pop

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I first encountered Belgian band Das Pop in early 2003, buying their 2001 CD I on a whim in Groningen.

I Love Das Pop album cover. It's a very nice album. The cover and artwork is pretty and literally shiny. The girl on the cover is lying on what looks like airport floor and that pattern is used as a background for the whole cover. They also took the whole I theme far enough, having the T-shirts for sale and everything. The CD I got actually contains an additional live bonus CD, which is nice.

The music is on the bright, poppy side with a few bits of odd and electronic sounds and keyboards thrown in. I have phases of listening to it a lot and phases of mostly forgetting about it. Must hear tracks are the opener The One, the distinctly clicky and beepy The Love Program and the bonus tracks tracks including Electronica for Lovers which are sneakily placed at tracks 97 to 99 of the CD.

I recently had the opportunity to see the band perform live at the Haldern festival. The setting for that gig was very cool: It was the very last concert to be played, starting at around 3:30 in the morning. It wasn't open air but took place in a historical tent with suede ceiling lining, mirrors, colourful windows and wooden decorations with only a few hundred people fitting in. And, best of all, the band played brilliantly. They really managed to use the nice venue and connect to the audience, engaging everyone despite people being exhausted from the two preceding days of festival and it being in the middle of the night. It got me hooked on their music again.

They also played some songs of their latest album, The Human Thing (fun review), which has been out since last year but still isn't on sale in Germany. You can still order it from Belgium, along with other stuff. Which I did, ignoring Richard's warnings that he's suspicious with respect to that album as he couldn't recall any reviews or songs of it.

It turns out that he was in part right. I think the album isn't as good as its predecessor, with quite a few songs which I consider mediocre, boring or just too long. Many little bits of songs also remind me of other pop songs, for example the very beginning of Another World scaringly reminds me of November Rain.

Fake The Human Thing cover art The CD itself is nicely designed again. The CDs name is printed on the plastic cover itself and the first page of the booklet is a closeup of a face of a band member. Accordingly you see the back of a head on the back of the CD. And, as with the other CD, they include complete lyrics in the booklet, which is a service that I always appreciate (although the singing is very clear and you don't need them at all).

At least two songs are very nice on the album. One of them is the opening song You, which the singer charmingly sang in German, very good German with a tiny bit of that ever so smart French-ish accent, at the gig I saw.

You, You break my heart.
You tear me up in so many parts.
One part for you and one for me.
That is how it ought to be.

You, You know my sins.
You know that I will do them again.
I'll do one for you and one for me,
and that is how it ought to be.

-- You struck me.
That is why I'm standing here.
-- You struck me.
You are everything I fear.
-- You struck me.
Since you're gone our home has changed.
-- You struck me.
I just wanna get outta here.

You, You break my heart.
You tear me up in so many parts.
One part for you and one for me,
That is how it ought to be.
-- You struck me.

You, You break my heart.
Oh you, oh you.
Yeah you, you break my heart.
Oh you, you break my heart.
You tear me up in so many parts.
One part for you and one for me,
That is how it ought to be.

Das Pop – You

The other great song is The Human Thing. Oddly for a title song, it's only track 13 on the CD, the second to last track. It's not as bright as many of the other songs but could potentially send shivers down your spine.

I noticed both those songs during the gig, which is why I wanted the album. Given the nature of good live concerts they were better and more energetic when played live – particularly given the energy the singer put into doing his job.

Wake up to the distand noise
of dirty dogs and teenage boys,
and still there's nothing.
Modern days are on the rise,
watch the European skies,
tonight.

This is the human thing.
Let's just get out of here.
Stop being interesting.
Let's do the human thing.

Did your computer give
you good news about your life?
'Cause you deserve it.

You never got the human thing,
commiserate with anything,
nothing special.
You need to need, or so they say.
You have to feel,
you do these days.

This is the human thing.
Let's just get out of here.
Stop being interesting.
Let's do the human thing.

This is the human thing.
Let's do it twice a week.
Baby, we're ravishing.
Let's do the human thing.

Write about the things you know.
You catch it all on video,
all the time.
You need to need, or so they say.
You have to feel,
you do these days.

This is the human thing.
Oh, this is the human thing.
Let's get out of here. / This is the human thing.

Das Pop – The Human Thing

... and they say Belgium is just about lit motorways, EU bureaucrats, waffles and chocolates (though I never really thought the latter were any good). But there's music as well. Next we could try dEUS, whom I wasn't too impressed by, Soulwax, whose new album cover is so cool and dizzying that I may need to get it just for that, and their alter ego 2 Many DJs or Ghinzu, whom everybody seemed like.

August 30, 2004, 0:03

Tagged as music.

Comments

Comment by Ozge: User icon

I wanna thank u so much. Because i love this song “you” and i didn’t know it’s name and also i needn’t know how to find out.. Thanks very much…

June 5, 2005, 0:56

Comment by Natalie: User icon

I loove Das Pop.

December 10, 2005, 20:46

Comment by Anonymous spanish one: User icon

Thanks a lot for the lyrics. Like Ozge, I was looking for the name of the song, because the girl who broke my heart last week copied it and put in her subnick on messenger. Thanks a lot, man.

June 22, 2009, 16:56

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