Album of the Year: "Broken Machine" by Nothing but Thieves

Since the Year is slowly coming to an end, I thought I would look back on the newly released albums in 2017 and pick my favourite for this year.
And the winner is the second studio album of one of my favourite bands: "Broken Machine" by Nothing but Thieves. The Album was released on September, 8th this year via the American record label "RCA Records".

https://www.reddit.com/r/NothingButThieves/comments/6ns9ut/broken_machine_album_covers_standard_and_deluxe/

Nothing but Thieves are a five-member alternative rock band from England that formed in 2012. I was already a big fan of their debut album "Nothing but Thieves" which was released on October, 16th 2015. But compared to their debut album, I feel like "Broken Machine" feels more like an album. On "Nothing but Thieves" the songs stand more on their own whereas the songs on "Broken Machine" are harmonically conected with each other. Don't get me wrong, the songs on the album are all very strong and can easily stand for their own. I just feel like the harmony between the songs is stronger and thus makes it more to a coherent whole.

On the deluxe version of the album are 15 songs. The first 7 songs are very dynamic songs and all have the potential to be a hit single. No wonder the pre publicized singles of the album were songs number 2, 3 and 7: "Amsterdam", "Sorry" and "Not made by Design".
The second half is more quiet and not as easy to get into, but after listening to the songs a few times and finding access to them, you'll notice that they are just as strong as the first half just in a more unique and noncommercial way. This is also great because -at least that's what I felt like- every time you listen to the album, you discover a new song that you love.
Therefore I can say that the album is overall very strong and processes important, political and self-reflecting topics with catchy and some very special lyrics.

If you haven't heard "Broken Machine" yet, you should definitely check it out because it truely is a great album and I see the next big alternative rock band in Nothing but Thieves. With their catchy and yet serious and unique music, they have a high chance of becoming very successful. Especially because they are also a very strong live band and have broadened their fan base by playing on several festivals this summer. They have just toured the US and Canada and are currently touring in Europe. You can find their tour dates here.

At least to me, Nothing but Thieves are already a very important band and their album "Broken Machine" is definitely my favourite album of the year 2017.


Below you can find the links to their youtube, spotify and soundcloud:

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/NothingButThieves
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1kDGbuxWknIKx4FlgWxiSp
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/nothingbutthieves

http://img2-ak.lst.fm/i/u/arO/501244129cf5eee500617b92d0164b24

Bands in Concert: The Neighbourhood

On Monday, November 16th, the Neighbourhood played at Postbahnhof, a venue that fits about 1000 people.

The preact 'Tunji Ige', an American rapper, started on time and fit to the music of The Neighbourhood hence the crowd was enjoying his performance very much. He was accompanied by a DJ, whose music helped entertaining the crowd even further.

After 40 Minutes of waiting, The Neighbourhood finally came on stage. Their entrance was musically underlined by the Intro of their song Ferrari, a song of their new album 'Wiped out', which was released October, 30th. It was a really good intro to the concert and made the crowd heat up even more.

Their concert was overall a good mixture of some old songs and songs from their new album. They played 14 songs of which 6 were taken from their new album.

Through out the whole concert, the band created a very special atmosphere and the lead singer Jesse made a very own version out of all of the songs. Due to that, the band rhythmically stuffed up once, but they didn't make a big deal out of it, they just confidentially interrupted the song and started anew. 

The band was also doing a great and very entertaining performance with a nice light show which I really enjoyed. Nevertheless, they still managed to focus on the emotions of each and every song and so it was a great balance of emotions and entertainment.

The only thing I found surprising was  that they didn't comment on the attacks in Paris even though the concert was only 4 days after. But maybe they just wanted the crowd to forget about it for a while and therefore didn't say anything. 

All in all, I can say that the concert was really enjoyable and unique. Due to Jesses very personal performance it was even better than I expected.

If you want to see 'The Neighbourhood' as well, go check out their website for tour dates. They will be touring some German cities next year in March, and the pre sale has already started.