K.O.O.K [Import]

Tocotronic | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 10, 1999)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Universal/Polygram
• ASIN: B00002ZZNV
• Also Available in: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #634,016 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. K.O.O.K.

2. Das Unglueck Muss Zurueck

3. Jackpot

4. Die Grenzen Des Guten Ges

5. Let There Be Rock

6. Unter Der Schnellstrasse

7. Tag Ohne Schatten

8. Das Geschenk

9. Das Sind Keine Raetsel

10. Jenseits Des Kanals

11. Der Gute Rat

12. Um Die Ecke-Gedacht

13. Die Neue Seltsamkeit

14. Morgen Wird Wie Heute Sei

15. Die Grenzen Des Guten Ges

16. Rock Pop In Concert

17. 17

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dignity & Beauty, September 3, 2000

By 

Pat (Hamburg, Germany) - See all my reviews

This review is from: K.O.O.K (Audio CD)

To say it straight away, this is currently the world's best band. KOOK is their latest regular release (not counting their remix album, that is) and it is also their most sophisticated one by far, as far as arrangement and production are concerned. It has been sort of a watershed for people's opinions on the band; many that didn't like them before now do, and vice versa.

Tocotronic started out in a trashy Hüsker Dü/Dinosaur jr. tradition, mixing cheap guitar sound with tongue in cheek lyrics, but also being unbelievably sweet and tender from time to time. They have thus become strange kinds of sex symbols for the alternative German school girl.

However, this is pretty irrelevant. What is relevant is the fact that most of you won't understand the lyrics, as they are in German. This is a shame because their lyrics certainly rank among the best in German poetry. However, I think their music will pretty much make you feel the right way even if you can't literally understand what they're saying.

Take the record's best track, "17", for instance. It deals with the narrator being visited, in a dream, by a friend, who is, in fact, dead. He closes by stating, "Today I am happier than I've ever been". Even if you don't know this, the 11-minute-piece will drown you in slow sounds of beauty, sadness and the kind of dignity that neither an expensive suit nor altruistic behaviour will be able to bestow on you.

It is a record that abounds in great songwriting. There are many great love songs, but only few will actually make you feel like you're enthusiastically in love. "Jackpot" is one such song. "Let There Be Rock" might not sound like much when you hear it for the first time, but you won't be able to push it out of your brain once it's in, and you'll want to play it on your parties. "Die neue Seltsamkeit" is another one of those tunes that will go around and around in your head (though I doubt you'll play it on your parties), creating a strange atmosphere of unsafety and wanting to be optimistic in the face of growing unease.

I don't want to go on giving a song-by-song-review, wasting your time. This is a monolith of beauty and dignity. Buy it, steal it, I don't care. You'll make your life a better place.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Something vague, June 10, 2002

By 

Stefan Hirt - See all my reviews

This review is from: K.O.O.K (Audio CD)

Since 1996 Tocotronic is considered one of the best german-language bands. Most people are impressed by their ego-philosophical lyrics, their sad journey as lonely individuals for a place in a world they can't understand and which can't understand them either. Their words are pure magic, striking, touching and full of truth and especially this makes them so singular in the international music scene.

Still, nobody should put aside their music. Especially Tocotronics early work consisted of slow beats, sad melodies and hard guitar riffs, often expressed in long instrumental parts. K.O.O.K. and their latest, self-titled album, aren't going that way consequently. "Let there be rock" shows their gradual maturation and change towards a less-disturbing sound and more lyrical parts. If you like slow, sad songs, sometimes interrupted by fast punk music, and speak german, you really gotta get this one!

5.0 out of 5 stars pretentious german pop, August 2, 2005

By 

Enver Hoxha "Blauer Samt" (East Lansing, MI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: K.O.O.K (Audio CD)

Yeah not really,

Tocotronic is an amazing band. Their early stuff is loud, fast and low-fi in the most positive sense--and i've gotta give the nod to "Digital ist Besser" and "Wir Kommen um uns zu Beschweren" as my favorite albums--but K.O.O.K. is probably my favorite to listen to from start to finish.
I lost my copy in Prague and havnt had a chance to get another one back in the states, but if I ever stumble across enough to eat and buy this, i'd be very happy--
I lived in Germany and loved this stuff the second i heard it--as its somewhat reminiscient of an early german Weezer with a punk backbone--i brought their 6 full-lengths (7 now) back with me and stuffed them down my friends throats for a few months. Now i'll walk into a room and they'll, although they don't speak german, have the Tocos rockin out--
so give it a try if you don't speak german, and if you do--
GET THIS THING--and get all of it--you really can't go wrong.