Copernicanism is the belief that the universe revolves around the sun. Pretty standard stuff these days but back around 1500 this was a very controversial subject as most folks tended to believe that universe revolved around the Earth. It was a radical enough idea that Copernicus kept his theory to himself all the way to his death bed. When Galileo championed his beliefs as accurate it infuriated the church and eventually led to him spending the last years of his life under house arrest.

I’m not being persecuted but I feel like Galileo when it comes to The Notwist’s The Devil, You+ Me. I know that it’s great, but everyone I ask about it thinks I’m crazy. I get responses like “It’s OK” or “I like Neon Golden” or at worst, “it sounds like emo meets electronica”. Ugh.

The opening track I’ll give you isn’t mind blowing but when track two “Where in This World” kicks in, the album begins to make a statement. The strings that open the song lead into an IDM beat followed by lead singer Markus Acher asking “where in this world could I go but to the plane” as he just wants to get away. His voice is haunting and the desperation comes through loud and clear.

“Gloomy Planets” has a bit of a Kings of Convenience vibe with a little reverb, a sound that is fairly consistent on the less electronic songs on the album. Acher spends a good deal of time trying to determine why things are the way they are before coming to the conclusion that there’s no way to figure the world out. To assign blame or responsibility is meaningless. Very post modern, they are German after all.

The Devil, You + Me continues to impress song after song and then you get to ”On Planet Off”, the song I heard from the album while in a record store. I had the CD in my hands and was at the check out before it finished. As a writer of record reviews, my job is to put into words what I hear in a song or an album and even attempt to interpret lyrics (see above). I can’t do that for this track, it still blows me away every time I hear it. The emotion in Acher’s voice and the power of the music is a perfect storm.

The only complaint I have about this record is that my copy has the digitized, Narrow Stairs-esque cover and I prefer the cool ducks, birds, guy in swamp cover. I won’t hold that against the Notwist though, and I may even pick up a second copy of the record with my preferred cover art. You can never have too many copies of the best record of 2008.