New Wanda album: men and their self-pity

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cultural New Wanda album

men and their self-pity

Toxic fraternization?  The band Wanda Toxic fraternization?  The band Wanda

Toxic fraternization? The band Wanda

Source: Tim Bruening

Once again the Austrian rock band Wanda sings about men who drink, fight and stick together while the women cry. How problematic is that? And why does it work so well? A guide against the hyper-correct zeitgeist.

When a band made up of men in their 30s sings about men who start fights while their wives cry in the bathroom, they have to ask themselves how affirmatively they mean it: Jordan-Peterson, Houellebecq or Bukowski -affirmative?

The song ” Eine Gang ” can be sung excellently at the regulars’ table, arm in arm in a row and swaying, at the Oktoberfest, just before you are thrown out of the tent and move on to the club, a catchy, sentimental hit song of masculinity revolving around itself. “One gang and we’ll stick together / no matter what happens, we’ll stand hand to hand” sounds like soldierly self-assurance on the one hand – an interpretation that is all the more appropriate in view of the current war. At the same time, the invocation of heroic brotherhood also calls up toxic ideals in which “man next to man” means something like “man in front of woman”. Or is it rather ironic role prose at work here? The alcohol-soaked self-pity a joke alternating between longing and criticism?

In the course of a fabulous renaissance of Austropop in recent years, which also includes Seiler und Speer, Bilderbuch and Der Nino aus Wien, Wanda stormed the charts in Austria, Germany and Switzerland with her debut album “Amore” in 2015. Borrowing from indie rock, Viennese dialect and brash one-liners, they managed to express an attitude to life of hedonistic resilience against a hyper-correct zeitgeist. When the scandal writer Rainald Goetz was awarded the Georg Büchner Prize, he sang the last words of his acceptance speech: “If someone asks what you stand for, say Amore, Amore.” An imperative, so cheesy and forgiving on the one hand and so striking cocky on the other hand.

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The new album is simply called “Wanda”, like the band itself. When they formed ten years ago, they borrowed the name from a deceased madam from Vienna. They have not discarded their wickedness to this day. Where her debut began with the confession that she would like to sleep with her own cousin, but didn’t dare, “Rocking in Vienna” begins with a sober diagnosis of the present: “One after the other stops smoking and drinking / And everyone Go jogging in the park/ Tragically, I’m in a different mood/ My faith is vodka and vodka is my grave/ Don’t stop the rock/ Keep on rocking in Vienna”.

As is known from the band, every fragile declaration of love that they smash into smoky pub toilets is also a hymn to the city. Of Vienna, which they helped to create a shabby and sexy image in a way that was hardly thought possible until then. One of the highlights is the song “Wir sind Lost”, a wonderful challenge to morality: “And we do what we want because we know how to do it / It’s harder when you live right … Hold on to your love / When.” no one crashes/ wasn’t it real”.

On Monday night, just four days before the album’s release, the group announced the death of keyboardist Christian Hummer. The 32-year-old succumbed to a long, serious illness. Dying has always been a theme that ran through Wanda’s work as a leitmotif. Against the background of the new loss, it seems to be felt even more clearly now. “What remains of us when we leave / who knows us honestly, who can see us” is the motto.

Or: “The world is a sad place/ A murderer who brings a child into this world”. And: “The living ones remain unbeatable/ And proud as the candles in the wind”. They only seem to be wrong with one prognosis: “Nothing we do will ever become a legend/ We’ll be glad if we only die at the end”. Wanda has long been a legend, also thanks to Christian Hummer.

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