PRUSSIA "Pain and Hallelujah" Kitchen Records 2009 album review by John Ste… Read Full Bio ↴PRUSSIA
"Pain and Hallelujah"
Kitchen Records 2009
album review by John Stewart
With more than ten years having elapsed since their last official release it’s good to hear that Prussia are still alive and kicking.
In this new 2009 collection (a mixture of old and new material) we get the sweetly melodic, yet darkly sinister, “Sanity”, the dark, funereal throb of “Creeps in Slow”, and the pained, agonised lament that is “Make it Last”. In short, we get all of the dark and timeless elements we’ve come to expect from this great Berlin band.
In the psychobilly thrash of “Princes and Queens” we are privy to the futile hopes, dreams and desires of a 21st Century everyman, looking for everything and wanting it all but destined of course to find nothing. But let’s not get too downhearted for him because he’ll soon be on his feet again for the wild, electro craziness of “Carnival is Over”, a positive head-rush of a song, frantic, frenetic and frankly perfect for kick-starting any Saturday evening – even for a sad, old 21st Century man. Featuring some dazzling fretwork by long-time collaborator, Little Mike, this is a real party animal, with its loops and its wails and its juddering pulse-beat you can be sure that the carnival is only just getting started.
Elsewhere, “My Sickness” pleads for answers to some eternal questions concerning the tangled relationships into which we weave ourselves, while “Colours” - with its effortless vocals and lazy delivery – offers a psychedelic journey to the junction where Carnaby Street and Haight Ashbury meet in Manchester sometime during 1989.
Then we have “Satellite”, to lead us further down psych alley with a cry and a wail and some positively disturbing dreams.
So far so good, I hear you cry, but is there anything else?
Well, thankfully they’ve included that perennial favourite “Pain and Hallelujah”. All hail the new-age messiah, say I, and praise be for grand and expansive songs like this one. Newly remixed it has lost none of its awesome power. 20 years on and still it sounds like God is in the house, swigging from the bottle and getting down and dirty. Hallelujah indeed.
“Back on Track” then, describes quite literally where this band are right now; let’s give thanks for it. They’re just the tonic we need in this age of “here today, gone tomorrow” gimmick bands with two half decent songs on fifteen-song albums. With Prussia we have the real deal.
Give thanks especially for new gems like the opener; “Stranger Girl”. This is classic Prussia material; a throbbing, driving bass line, rumbling low behind that rich, sonorous vocal, deep, dark and just a little dangerous. Strange events and sinister sounds; Rock’n’Roll doesn’t get much better than this.
So there you have it, twenty years and still going strong. Twenty years of passion and experience distilled to its purest form on an album you really can’t afford to live without.
So go on, nab one quick. You owe it to yourself.
p+c Kitchen Records 2009
www.kitchenrecords.de
OUT ON 10th DECEMBER 2009, remastered from Downloadstations worldwide!
"Pain and Hallelujah"
Kitchen Records 2009
album review by John Stewart
With more than ten years having elapsed since their last official release it’s good to hear that Prussia are still alive and kicking.
In this new 2009 collection (a mixture of old and new material) we get the sweetly melodic, yet darkly sinister, “Sanity”, the dark, funereal throb of “Creeps in Slow”, and the pained, agonised lament that is “Make it Last”. In short, we get all of the dark and timeless elements we’ve come to expect from this great Berlin band.
In the psychobilly thrash of “Princes and Queens” we are privy to the futile hopes, dreams and desires of a 21st Century everyman, looking for everything and wanting it all but destined of course to find nothing. But let’s not get too downhearted for him because he’ll soon be on his feet again for the wild, electro craziness of “Carnival is Over”, a positive head-rush of a song, frantic, frenetic and frankly perfect for kick-starting any Saturday evening – even for a sad, old 21st Century man. Featuring some dazzling fretwork by long-time collaborator, Little Mike, this is a real party animal, with its loops and its wails and its juddering pulse-beat you can be sure that the carnival is only just getting started.
Elsewhere, “My Sickness” pleads for answers to some eternal questions concerning the tangled relationships into which we weave ourselves, while “Colours” - with its effortless vocals and lazy delivery – offers a psychedelic journey to the junction where Carnaby Street and Haight Ashbury meet in Manchester sometime during 1989.
Then we have “Satellite”, to lead us further down psych alley with a cry and a wail and some positively disturbing dreams.
So far so good, I hear you cry, but is there anything else?
Well, thankfully they’ve included that perennial favourite “Pain and Hallelujah”. All hail the new-age messiah, say I, and praise be for grand and expansive songs like this one. Newly remixed it has lost none of its awesome power. 20 years on and still it sounds like God is in the house, swigging from the bottle and getting down and dirty. Hallelujah indeed.
“Back on Track” then, describes quite literally where this band are right now; let’s give thanks for it. They’re just the tonic we need in this age of “here today, gone tomorrow” gimmick bands with two half decent songs on fifteen-song albums. With Prussia we have the real deal.
Give thanks especially for new gems like the opener; “Stranger Girl”. This is classic Prussia material; a throbbing, driving bass line, rumbling low behind that rich, sonorous vocal, deep, dark and just a little dangerous. Strange events and sinister sounds; Rock’n’Roll doesn’t get much better than this.
So there you have it, twenty years and still going strong. Twenty years of passion and experience distilled to its purest form on an album you really can’t afford to live without.
So go on, nab one quick. You owe it to yourself.
p+c Kitchen Records 2009
www.kitchenrecords.de
OUT ON 10th DECEMBER 2009, remastered from Downloadstations worldwide!
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Pain and Hallelujah
Prussia Lyrics
Carnival is over Carnival is over Carnival is over - Over and over Carniva…
Pain and Hallelujah Pain and Hallelujah Oh is it true that we still love Oh…