Ralphy's C.D. Reviews

Review date 21-04-1999: Guano Apes - C.D. Proud like a God

For the second week in a row I'm reviewing the debut album of an up and coming German band, although the order really wasn't right, since the Guano Apes have been at it a while longer than Liquido. In fact this album was already released in 1997, but it took until now for the rest of the world (in Germany the Apes are already huge) to discover this new musical quartet from Göttingen. The instrumental part of the band are Henning Rümenapp (guitar), Stefan Ude (bass) and Dennis Poschwatta on drums, but the face of the band is singer and lyrics writer Sandra Nasic, who has an amazingly powerful and wild voice for a female.

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I got acquainted with the Guano Apes through their premier single "Open your eyes", which made a great first impression and when I later found out that it was sung by a woman I was really surprised. Recently I borrowed the CD "Proud like a God" from a girlfriend and discovered there was more to the Guano Apes. They themselves call their musical style 'Crossover'. I don't really know what that means, but it includes a wall of drums and guitars and features the awesome voice of Sandra. Her lyrics are in (for a German) surprisingly good English, but the themes (if there are any) often illude me. In fact she herself said that it was easier to write in English than German, because in English even if you write about something dumb like a shoe, it can sound cool. Some of these cool songs on the album are the melancholy and fascinating "Rain", the simple (yet amazing) "Wash it down", the captivating "Maria" , the thrilling "Get Busy" and the more quieter "Scapegoat". Also worth a mention are "Crossing the deadline" and "Never born", but for me the best song is "Lords of the boards". This song which wasn't on the original album was written as a signature tune for the European snowboard championship and was (deservedly) the second big German hit for the Apes. Besides making a remarkable debut album, the Guano (Guano means penguin shit according to them) Apes have also established themselves as an awesome live experience (as I've been told) and I hope to see them somewhere on stage soon. I rate "Proud like a God" (a lyric part from "Open your eyes") with a 7.5.

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