Rating: 9/10
Release: 20 December 2024
Label: Napalm Records

PREMISE: I took a lot of time to better listen to the album and understand the lyrics. This is to prevent the fan of Subway To Sally in me write things that were not so credible. That said, we can go to the review.

The Potsdam-based band Subway To Sally is back with a new album called “Post Mortem”, and was released on the 20th of December through Napalm Records, one year after the previous “Himmelfahrt” (that was secretly intended to be the final album of their over 30 year career and this explains the symbolic title). Rumored to be finished, the band gives a strong answer to that, and that is “You wish!”.
“Post Mortem” has 13 songs, which every one of them unleashed an unstoppable lightness,
energy, and contagious enthusiasm that everyone involved could feel. There are some songs that stand out. For example: “Phönix”, that is translated into “Phoenix”, celebrates the creative rebirth of the folk band; “Wunder”, “Nero” and “Lumpensammler” in which we can hear the band’s signature soundscape while exploring socially critical themes without moralizing in the lyrics. The German band says: “The world around us is still in flux. The prevailing feeling is that nothing is getting better; on the contrary, it seems to be getting worse. The ‘Black Death’ is over, but the long-awaited Freedom Day after COVID never came. Instead, one problem seems to replace the next. We are living in times of grand failure. Everything swings between darkness and euphoria. People long for distraction, for forgetting, for celebration and freedom – even if only for a moment”. There’s also a space for a ballad (“Herz in der Rinde”), and for songs like “Atlas”, that is about Greek mithology with a hint of melancholia, and “Kummerkind” in which Subway To Sally tackles mental struggles that many people can’t escape, once again proving their precise grasp of the zeitgeist. “In this world of contradictions and changes, finding a voice seems difficult. But upon closer inspection, one finds parallels in history and art. What do Putin and Nero,
Oppenheimer and Prometheus have in common? What rises from the ashes of Rome? Does history truly repeat itself – once as tragedy, the other time as farce?”, the band says.
In conclusion, in “Post mortem”, Subway To Sally skillfully explore the visible tension between past, future, and present, art and political reality with their music, making it clear that they are more alive than ever before. In their own words: “In our music, we address the desires and fears of people, but also their hopes and dreams. In a time when the world seems to be falling apart, we want to be a constant – a voice of authenticity and humanity amidst the turbulence of life”.

Long live Subway To Sally.

Tracklist

1. Introitus
2. Phönix
3. Post mortem
4. Wunder
5. Nero
6. Unter dem Banner
7. Herz in der Rinde
8. Lumpensammler
9. Stahl auf Stahl
10. Atlas
11. Kummerkind
12. Eisheilige Nacht
13. Die Erde bebt