Thoughts on Hurricaned and Suns
Tokio Hotel ’Hurricanes and Suns’
I like it. Let’s start off with this. And many people are going to like it, people who don’t normally think much of Tokio Hotel. The song is a perfect construction, the result of years of struggling to get to this point: to make Tokio Hotel mainstream. It can’t get any more mainstream than this. Do I mind?
One part of me does, of course, the part of me whose infatuation had originally been caught by four German teenagers and their German songs. By default, the very fact that they sang their songs in German more or less disqualified them from the mainstream league, which their fans didn’t mind all that much. They had discovered something unique, they could claim they belonged to a secret club. The language barrier separated these privileged few from those who did not speak German or who simply didn’t care for music not sung in English.
But Tokio Hotel had revealed previously unexpected potential. They were supposed to be a one-hit wonder, a BRAVO band, hyped up solely for the German teenyboppers. No one could have forseen the tidal wave that had swept over Europe in the wake of the first two albums. It seemed there was no limit to how far these boys could make it. The project had changed, they started to aim much, much higher, so the language barrier had to go. Global is English. Not German.
But if you think it’s that simple to get rid of who you are as if it was just a change of clothing than you are sorely mistaken. You want to go mainstream? Then you need to unload all the unnecessary baggage that’s been dragging you down all along. You are four small town boys from East-Germany? You may be able to deny that in your heart, but peeling yourself out of this identity takes a lot of time and a lot of effort. Remember that guy, Robbie Williams? He wanted to go global with his music too. He wanted to become an international superstar. He had the potential, everything had indicated that he would make it. He didn’t. He was too British. And he couldn’t or wouldn’t cast it out of himself. The pill he wanted to stuff down the world’s throat remained rough around the edges, not smooth enough for anyone to swallow.
It has to be perfectly smooth, you see. Smooth as the surface of a mirror in which anyone can see themselves reflected.
The whole history of Tokio Hotel has been a continuous struggle against their German heritage. And with ‘Hurricanes and Suns’ they have finally arrived to the point where the project is smooth enough for the world to swallow. Even the cover art of the Best of Album is minimalistic, no sign of the excentricity of the Humanoid era, no tubes and wires and clothes that look like disjointed pieces of a washing machine. I would not be surprised if Bill’s look became a bit more understated than before. He will remain extravagant, I’m sure, that’s his hook, and that’s such an intimate part of him he simply can’t cast it out for reasons that, in my opinion, have to do with his sexual identity.
But there will be no more Aliens. Mainstream can’t be alien. Mainstream is US. Alien is THEM. You can’t be an alien if you want to be mainstream. Humanoid was the ultimate death throw of Tokio Hotel’s German identity. The music was already mainstream, only the packaging didn’t fit.
So, all is set. The twins are in L.A.. The direction is given.
Now it’s up to the world to swallow.