Tag: Ben Zucker

Ben Zucker – Wer sagt das?!

“Who say we can’t trust our luck, who says we can’t give it a go, who says anything?!”

Tim: Sit back and relax, because it’s HUSKY MALE GERMAN time. His first album was called Na und?! Sonne! (So what?! Sun!),and here’s the title track from his upcoming second, translated as Who Says That?! Do you think there’s a pattern emerging?!

Tom: I don’t know, maybe?!?! But it’s always a good sign when you send me a video from this channel, because it’s almost certainly some Quality Schlager.

Tom: The track record stands! And you’re right, that’s the sort of HUSKY MALE GERMAN vocals that don’t seem to work for any other country. And which always seem like they should be hurting his throat.

Tim: Upsettingly, the lyrics don’t involve him taking apart his ex’s rejection message line by line and pointing out nonsensical bits in it, or breaking up with someone because they’ve just started spewing rubbish, as both of those could be entertaining! Instead, it’s a heartwarming hopeful number – who say we can’t trust our luck, who says we can’t give it a go, who says anything?!

Tom: I mean, at least the words match the style for once.

Tim: But let’s move on from the lyrics, because that music’s great isn’t it?! Beefy, bolshy, rock with a slight dancey twist which I’m all here for!

Tom: Yeah, I genuinely like this, although I am worried about quite how much you’ve been infected by the enthusiastic punctuation marks. It’s catchy and memorable.

Tim: It’s unusual for me to get a foreign language track stuck in my head after just a couple of listens, but this has done it! And yes, I seem to be infected! Isn’t it worrying?!

Ben Zucker – Was für eine geile Zeit

“He’s never smoked and drunk massive amounts of whiskey – his voice is just naturally like this.”

Tim: This guy’s off Berlin, and this is his second single, following last year’s fair well performing “Na und?!” According to his Wikipedia page, he’s never smoked and drunk massive amounts of whiskey – his voice is just naturally like this.

Tim: Isn’t that good?

Tom: Oh, that is a heck of a voice. Admittedly I want to clear my throat now you’ve pointed it out, but yes, that’s a proper Blues Singer voice being applied to pop, which is fun.

Tim: Title translates to “What A Great Time”, and the song’s basically about a load of friends getting back together for a party, and, whether it’s intentional or not, the musical progression of this song sums the whole situation up perfectly. We start out as a fairly standard light rock track that you get when everyone’s “hey, how are you doing, what are you up to?”, gradually becoming a little more boisterous for the “wait, you really did do that? With her?” period, before the massive breakdown when basically everybody’s losing their shit on the dancefloor, and he’s doing that with her all over again.

Tom: That sounds like a personal story there, but, yeah, sure.

Tim: A great time indeed, and Ben, you’re very welcome to nick that concept for the music video.

Tom: This isn’t immediately going on my playlist, but there’s nothing wrong with it either — I just feel it needs something a little bit more.

Tim: Well, this isn’t the version I first heard and which inspired me to post this; that version is the Darius & Finlay Edit, which adds in a fabulous string backing and has an even better post chorus, but sadly it’s not on YouTube. If you’ve got a streaming service near you, do yourself a favour and play it now. You won’t regret it.