Notwist

“1992’s Nook continues the band’s evolution, but only very minimally. On this album, the production is much slicker, more powerful, and is driven home immediately on the Mercyful Fate-meets-Helmet opening track “Belle de L’Ombre/Walk On”. However, the focus on the rest of this album is less on metal and more on the very-much-in-vogue American alternative rock, as songs like “Unsaid, Undone” and “No Love” take on a blatant Dinosaur Jr. quality, with the emphasis put on Markus’s slick guitar solos and laid-back, J. Mascis-like singing style. Meanwhile, “Welcome Back” and “This Sorry Confession” continue the same Fugazi/early Hüsker Dü obsession the trio showed on their first album, and hints of Sonic Youth’s dissonant experimentation start to creep into tracks like “One Dark Love Poem” and “I’m a Whale”. 
 
The most striking shift in style occurs on the great song “The Incredible Change of Our Alien”, which became a minor hit for the band. It opens with ominous, insistent acoustic guitar strumming, some dark, repeated bass notes, and an oddly incongruous banjo plunking away (presaging the similar use of banjo on the Neon Golden album nearly a decade later). The song then erupts in waves of distorted guitars, as Acher chants the surreal verses, repeating each verse twice before moving on to the next, the effect becoming almost mantralike, his chanting voice sounding like a male version of Eastern European chanteuse Nico: “He tried to be like us / He tried to kill all our friends / We locked him in a cage but he was still loud so we left / We don’t know him anymore.” Out of all the songs on both of The Notwist’s albums, this is the one that shows the band’s real potential the best, but as we all know by now, it’s barely the tip of the iceberg.” - Popmatters