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Madsen

574 words on ,

Madsen are a young-ish German band which has been hyped a bit recently – with the typical load of interviews and home visits cashing in on the fact that three band members are brothers. Yawn. Listening to their songs – which might be called ‘power-pop’ if you’re inclined to use strange jargon and be a bit mean, i.e. they could be considered a bit poppy and cheesy, but there’s also quite a bit of shouting and screaming going on – left a mixed impression with me.

Madsen cover art In a way I think that I’m a bit too old for that stuff by now and that in many places small snippets of the melody of pieces of text remind me of of other German bands, making it seem a bit generic. But in a different way I’m finding it quite addictive. Perfect music to listen to loudly while sitting in the sun. This starts feeling like one of those ‘guilty pleasures’.

While lacking the sophistication of other bands lyrics-wise, their lyrics can still be funny in places and work well with the shouting that’s going on. And looking at the recent offerings of Tocotronic who used to be the masters of German lyrics and Wir sind Helden who did fantastic lyrics as well suggests that overly focusing on sophisticated lyrics may spoil the songs…

Wo kommst Du her?
So was wie Dich habe ich noch nie gesehen.
Voller Glanz, wunderschön
Dir kann keiner widerstehen,
Nicht zu gut, nicht zu schlecht,
nicht zu falsch und nicht zu echt.

Du bist perfekt, makellos,
Du bist besser als gut.
Du bist perfekt, einfach groß,
ich wäre gern wie Du.
Du bist die Perfektion, die Perfektion…
Du bist die Perfektion, die Perfektion…

Lückenlos, narbenfrei,
glattpoliert, schön und reich.
Was Du brauchst, wird gekauft.
Ich seh gut aus, bitte kauf mich auch.
Nicht zu gut, nicht zu schlecht,
nicht zu falsch und nicht zu echt.

Du bist perfekt, makellos,
Du bist besser als gut.
Du bist perfekt, einfach groß,
ich wäre gern wie Du.
Du bist die Perfektion, die Perfektion…
Du bist die Perfektion, die Perfektion…

Nicht zu alt, nicht zu jung,
nicht zu schlau, nicht zu dumm.
völlig normal, exakt neutral,
völlig banal, völlig egal.

Du bist perfekt, makellos,
Du bist besser als gut.
Du bist perfekt, einfach groß,
ich wäre gern wie Du.
Du bist die Perfektion, die Perfektion…
Du bist die Perfektion, die Perfektion…

Madsen, Die Perfektion

In English, that’d be…

Where are you from?
I’ve never seen somebody like you.
Shining and pretty,
nobody can resist you.
Not too good, not too bad,
not too fake, not too real.

You’re perfect, unblemished,
you’re better than just good.
You’re perfect, just great,
I’d like to be like you.
You’re the perfection, the perfection…
You’re the perfection, the perfection…

Unbroken, without scars,
smoothly polished, beautiful and rich.
Whatever you need will be bought.
I’m good-looking, please buy me as well.
Not too good, not too bad,
not too fake and not too real.

You’re perfect, unblemished,
you’re better than just good.
You’re perfect, just great,
I’d like to be like you.
You’re the perfection, the perfection…
You’re the perfection, the perfection…

Not too old, not too young,
not too smart, not too dumb.
perfectly normal, exactly neutral,
perfectly banal, perfectly indifferent.

You’re perfect, unblemished,
you’re better than just good.
You’re perfect, just great,
I’d like to be like you.
You’re the perfection, the perfection…
You’re the perfection, the perfection…

June 20, 2005, 0:33

Tagged as lang:de.

Comments

Comment by Dave2: User icon

That’s great! I sing something similar to myself in the mirror every morning. :-)

Do they actually sing an English version of the song, or were you just translating for our benefit?

June 20, 2005, 5:16

Comment by ssp: User icon

They’re singing in German only.

But with mostly English readers here, the translations make sense and the older ones I did seem to be moderately popular with English-speaking people returning from holidays, exchange programs, whatever…

I also quite like the idea to make it easier for people to get used to music from other countries.

June 20, 2005, 10:01

Comment by Grimm: User icon

Thanks so much for posting this. I was looking for the lyrics, but you threw in a translation too. Awesome. (To be honest I’m a bit disappointed with the lyrics, heh.) I love that song you chose. Thanks again

August 4, 2005, 6:15

Comment by Brooke: User icon

hi, in my german class today at school someone taped Madsen’s video “Immer Mehr” for us to watch and i really liked it, so i searched for them and ended up here. Are there any websites that sell german music and are in/have an english version?

November 18, 2005, 4:23

Comment by ssp: User icon

Brooke, that can be tricky and depends on where you are. I don’t think that Madsen are well-known enough to have worldwide distribution or whatever. amazon.uk seem to sell the imported CD at an increased price. The amazon.de website in Germany only, so that might be a bit tricky. At this point in time it might be easier to just try to nick the CD off some P2P network.

November 18, 2005, 8:49

Comment by Brent Telle: User icon

I went to www.amazon.co.uk and the madsen cd was available. (for those who can’t find it). Apparently, it is not available in the U.S., so you have to buy it from Europe (online).

January 23, 2006, 19:12

Comment by Rammsteinluver: User icon

This group is pretty good, I heard them on a german radio station when I went there to see Rammstein. Good group

January 24, 2006, 4:40

Comment by Das ist keine Leibe.: User icon

If you are really desperate to have the songs go to limewire .com and download them for free, just a suggestion and its probably the easiest way to get them. My favorite songs are Immer Mehr and Vielleicht.

May 4, 2006, 5:38

Comment by Brittany: User icon

I love Madsen. They’re a great band. I was disappointed in the lyrics to Die Perfektion, but I think I only want to hear it in German anyways(even though I can’t speak it).

May 12, 2006, 20:55

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