Silly: Alles rot
Every once in a while a great old band like Fleetwood Mac or Jefferson Starship (or is it Airplane? Jefferson Airplane? just Starship? what day is it?) get together and do a concert tour or put out a new single. More often than not, this is a pleasant trip back down memory lane for us aging folks who enjoy revisiting the music of our youth. At the same time, while these great bands are still able to showcase their musical chops, they are tied by their fans and by label expectations to return time and again to the tried and true sounds of their successful past, rather than moving into new musical landscapes.
So it is with Silly and Alles Rot.
For those of you who may not already be aware of them, Silly has been around since the late 1970s. Originally based in the East Berlin of Erich Honecker, Silly was able to build a solid following while maintaining an uneasy relationship with The State. Fast forward to 2010, and Silly is still around (with some key changes in personnel) producing music that still appeals to their original demographic of Germans in their late 40s, 50s, and 60s. Alles rot falls right within this paradigm. It's a well crafted song, performed by musicians who have been around the block more than a few times. That having been said, listening to Alles rot takes me back to the 80s. It doesn't make me think of the new modern Germany - or modern anything for that matter.
Prediction: Silly's Alles rot is a nice sentimental journey, just as the latest Fleetwood Mac reunion tour was a nice sentimental journey. But, for all of the pleasure that it provided its fans, the latter hardly set the musical world on fire, and the former hardly will either. Alles rot is an enjoyable diversion to a bygone age, but listeners under the age of 40 will wonder what all the fuss is about. I predict Alles rot will appeal to enough fogies like me to get it out of the bottom third, but it won't go any higher than that.
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