Smack Smash

20 in 2024: Smack Smash

Beatsteaks are a German punk rock band formed in the 90's, and their 4th album Smack Smash came out on March 2nd 2004.

This album is a brisk listen, filled with rowdy punk-flavored rock music that's got your familiar formula to what makes the genre appealing. You've got your simple but loud guitars, rumbly bass, powerful drumming, and a decently energetic vocalist to round it all out. This album was a decently fun listen, but further digging kinda revealed it's flaws super quickly.

So for the good, on the surface this album is pretty fine. If you come into this thing just expecting a simple rock album with catchy songs that will get you amped up, you'll more than likely walk away from this satisfied. Songs like "Monster" and "Loyal to None" are full of frenzied energy with rebellious shouting and loud playing that will sure to annoy your neighbors. The album is also not without one or two more subtle rock tracks, "Hello Joe" is a tribute to the late Joe Strummer, which attempts a go at writing a song similar in style to what The Clash would do. I would say it aptly succeeds. "I don't care as long as you sing" was a single released for the album, and it's a bit of a more lowkey song but it's effective in providing a danceable rhythm on top of the alternative and punk rock aesthetic.

My main issue with this album and what prevents me from raving on about it, is beyond the rather milquetoast style of Punk music they play, the songs themselves are pretty uninteresting beyond being loud and energetic. The band is from Germany, so English is not their first language. The songs are all sung in English, but the lyrics don't make much sense, and even when you can decipher them there really is no meaning to any of the music beyond simple messages of inspiration. This leads the music to feel rather shallow and as an English speaker, a little distracting from being able to just enjoy the music. I can't really complain too much because I understand English is a really tough language to master, just part of me wishes this was in German instead.

Outside of my gripes, there's stuff to enjoy to here. It's not gonna blow you away, but as far as rock music from this time I think you can do much worse. After twenty years I think this album does show it's age a bit, it's very simple and feels stuck in a certain outdated view of what punk music is, but I suppose if you are curious about music from Germany this isn't a bad place to look.

"AH AH KICK IT OH KICK IT AH OH"