The blurb states that “Dan Edelsteyn is a space-age renaissance man who writes pop oddities that are reminiscent of Sparks and Beck, and the Germans in Space is a historical sci-fi fantasy based on the notion of a group of German scientists who escaped the holocaust”
Weird indeed! I’m sorry, but I just don’t get it. The track starts off with some good rock guitar and some space age noises, and yes, when he sings, there are definite similarities with Russell Mael at times but the vocals are disjointed and don’t really make any literal sense. “Germans in space, make me feel so tender”. This is as if sentences have been thrown together for effect. If the lyrics had been clearer in both their meaning and their directness, then this could have been far better.
The B side ‘Psychotown’ again starts of well with some great fuzz guitar and the lyrics start off quite well “Trip to Soho, Peeping Tom, Girls,girls,girls, What shall we do with ya?” which is a little unsettling, but this effect is spoiled by a laugh along chorus that name checks Jack the Ripper and Emma Brown “now they’re leaving town, in the psychotown”. The chorus just drags the song down to a novelty level that means that this may occasionally get played alongside “Monster Mash”. This could have been so much better.
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Ah well, Dan Edelsteyn is also importing vodka from his Russian great-grandfather’s distillery, on the whole I would have preferred a bottle of that to the single!
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