Kings of Suburbia: A Track-by-Track Analysis of Tokio Hotel's New Album

by Justine

FIVE YEARS! It's been FIVE YEARS! Tokio Hotel have sure taken their time in producing their latest album Kings of Suburbia but just one listen through the album will tell you why. The twins, Bill and Tom Kaulitz, relocated to LA not long after the release of their previous album, Humanoid. Contrary to what normal people may believe about LA, it seems the city provided them with a much more "live-able" lifestyle. In Germany it didn't seem like they had much chance to leave their homes or live like everyday people (I'm guessing that's what World Behind My Wall was about). The G's, Georg and Gustav, remained in Germany but the twins seem to have found a more comfortable and free lifestyle in the US. Undoubtedly, this fuelled a new kind of creativity of which the product is Kings of Suburbia. The boys have certainly shocked with their drastically different sound but once over the initial "what the hell?!" this album is actually quite good.

Feel It All

The song starts with a soft electric sound followed by a drum beat and a rather different sounding vocal from Bill. It's not nearly as auto-tuned as the other songs on this album and you can actually hear Bill's voice. It has a fairly simple structure with a very electric and "studio produced" feel rather than their trademark "live rock band" sound. While it's not exactly a stand out on the album, I find it easy to listen to and quite likeable. It's a good opening track as it's a subtle introduction to the new sound.

Stormy Weather

SO MUCH AUTO-TUNE! I sometimes wonder how on earth Bill is going to perform some of these songs live! Not that I don't doubt he can hit the high notes (he did manage to get that extremely high note in Love and Death on their Welcome to Humanoid City Tour after all). BUT, that being said, I actually really like this song. I like the low tones at the beginning of the song and the fact that the electric guitar actually plays a role in the song. The beat is great and it has a lot of power. It's one of my favourites on the album. My only criticism would be the lack of inventive lyrics in the chorus and the poor grammar (It is "a" stormy weather? Just no...). I can imagine them rocking out to this in concert - in fact I think it would be a great opening number for their tour (*hint hint*).

Tokio Hotel: Girl Got a Gun

by Justine

I had originally planned to write on a completely different subject this week, however, Tokio Hotel just happened to release their new video for second single Girl Got a Gun from their long awaited album (I'm talking 5 years here!) Kings of Suburbia.

The boys have announced that they will be releasing three singles before the whole album becomes available in early October. The first single released was the very un-Tokio Hotel song, Run Run Run. Now I admit, upon hearing the song for the first time, I wasn't quite sure. My favourite TH songs had always had more of a rock feel and I loved the messages in the lyrics. It took a while for the song to grow on me but eventually I was able to accept that a lot can change in five years. They grew up in that time so naturally the music should be different.

I know a fair bit of TH fans were disappointed upon hearing Run Run Run as Georg and Gustav (the G's) seem to have been excluded. The music video released shortly after only featured the twins; Tom on the piano with a cigarette close by, and Bill sitting on a speaker wearing insanely high heels and sporting a short, blonde look - significantly different from the mohawk and lion's mane us fans were used to. The video is completely in black and white with a play on light. Bill's voice sounds quite different although it's probably the result of some auto-tune. The lyrics however did seem to have some resonance with the past TH but it still took some getting used to.

Now, onto Girl Got a Gun. The single was released last week and I was thrilled to have it pop up on my phone that morning. I was a bit disappointed at the song length (2mins 46? Really?) but in any case, having earlier accepted that TH have changed, I took to this song more easily. It certainly didn't sound like anything that they'd done before but it was catchy - especially considering the chorus only consists of the words "Girl got a gun, girl got gun gun gun, girl got a gun, girl got a gun, bang bang" repeated over an over. It's like some strange tongue twister! The rhythm and beat are pretty good so no complaints there.

Naturally, having taken to the song, I simply could not wait until the release of the video! In my head I was picturing the production that was Automatic or Monsoon. I had been obsessively checking YouTube and their website until they finally announced that it would be release on the 23rd of September.

What. The. Hell. Did. I. Just. Watch.