Tokio Hotel's highly anticipated new release is a heavier, guitar laden album that draws its influences from the world of science fiction.
German emo band Tokio Hotel won over the hearts of fanatical teenage girls with Scream, their first English language album release. Now it seems they're targeting the boys, and growing their fan base even larger with the release of Humanoid.
Humanoid: The Album
Humanoid is Tokio Hotel's second English language album, and fourth release in German. The album, produced by David Jost,is scheduled to be released in the U.S. on October 6th, 2009.
The tracks on the album range from heavy rock songs like Automatic and Humanoid to softer ballads such as Forever Now and World Behind My Wall. Also featured are some more alternative style songs, like Dogs Unleashed and Human Connect to Human, which both have a distinctly 80's feel.
Human Connect to Human has a beat that will sound distinctly familiar to Depeche Mode fans. The song sounds somewhat similar to Depeche Mode's hit song Personal Jesus.
With so many different styles of music happening in this album, it seems the band has yet to really pick and focus on one specific genre. It's as if they are trying to please everyone by offering a wide variety of songs, and haven't quite decided what type of music suits them best.
The Sci-fi Influence
Drawing upon influences from the sci-fi world, some of the songs on Humanoid have a heavier, metal influence with lots of guitar and highly repetitive lyrics. The highly hyped song Automatic is heartlessly commercial, and monotonous, while the metal influenced track Humanoid, seemingly lacks originality.
The sci-fi influence is also present on Humanoid's album cover which features lead singer Bill Kaulitz transformed into a silver cyborg of sorts. The futuristic cover art shows Kaulitz with one glowing blue eye, and in place of where his wild hair would be are several electrical cords and wires.
The Bottom Line
Tokio Hotel is a band with an enormously captivating stage presence. The challenge for this band is to be able to connect with listeners who just hear their album in a store or on itunes, in the same way they do in their live shows.
Humanoid is not a mind blowing album, it will appeal to the younger set, and possibly gain more fans in the teen male category due to it's heavier rock anthems and sci-fi influence. Fans of Tokio Hotel, will most likely be drawn to at least some of the songs on this album, although which songs those are will be entirely dependent on the listener.
The copyright of the article Tokio Hotel: Humanoid in Current Pop Music is owned by Minka Gantenbein. Permission to republish Tokio Hotel: Humanoid in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
I find this to be a pretty good article, seeing as I wasn't a big fan of
ToHo before I saw them live. The singer does have an extreme look that
seems to make many girls crazy. As a guy, I don't feel it and just think
he's a cool dude. The others, Georg and Gustav are more normal and appeal
to regular Joe's like me.
I'm looking forward to buying Humanoid
next week and we'll see what happens when I give it a listen.
Oct 3, 2009 12:25 PM
Guest :
I only became a fan of Tokio Hotel almoust a year ago and going to get
their new album. I liked what they did before,but I like what they are
doing now too. and to be honest I think that they are also expanding in the
age category that they attract because I'm 20 and love this guys and I know
other people my age that listen to them too. Including guys even if they
don't always admit to it :P Over all I tought that it's a very good
review. I'm not big on the songs you have mentioned either,but the album
has WAY better songs than that to offer.
Oct 4, 2009 2:57 PM
Guest :
I just bought the album and I think it's awesome! Tokio Hotel have
experimented a lot with their album, adding new sounds. It shows that now
that they've grown older and more mature they are trying out different
things. When compared to their previous album "Scream" it is
definitely more on the sci-fi side of life. Scream was more rock. All in
all though Humanoid is an album worth listening to =]
Oct 7, 2009 6:19 AM
Guest :
I just bought Humanoid yesterday and i'm loving it..Scream was awesome
too...My three year old twins sing "Monsoon" word for
word...that's their favorite song...btw, i am 36 years old so I think TH
appeals to not only the younger crowd but the older ones too. (not that 36
is old and btw, i love Bill...oh to be 15 years younger...LOL)..even my
husband is a fan. Keept it up TH....you're awesome!!!!
Oct 14, 2009 10:34 AM
Guest :
I love TH since their first album in German and I actually think the songs
are way better in German than in English. Bill attracts more women
than men indeed because of his androginous appearance, but there's always
Tom to appeal to the guy too, and the rest of the band is rather normal. As for Humanoid, I think the songs are more mature, but the lyrics aren't
as well written as the previous ones. The songs are good to, although my
favorite album is still Schrei (the German one, that's right)...ah, but I
think bIll improved a lot his vocal skills!
