Element of Crime
There aren't too many German pop bands that can be said to have a sound all their own. Some even claim that there is only one. Albums like "Weißes Papier" or "Romantik" speak for it, Sven Regener's laconic and brilliant lyrics anyway. But perhaps it becomes clearest on that very album, which does not contain a single song of the band's own: Whoever listens to "Fremde Federn" hears Element of Crime - and only very late: Dylan, the Pet Shop Boys, the Beegees. Udo Lindenberg, Wham and Kurt Weill, Gainsbourg and finally even the Beatles. Element of Crime didn't cover their songs, but stole them and embroidered their own name on them. Live, to top it all off, any suspicion of melancholy is rocked away. Always there, where they are, is the center of the world.