The song “Menschen”, number 3 on the album of the same name by Klaus Pruenster, the guitar howls to your heart’s content. Pruenster beams into the heyday of the electric guitar. what was there again
Hendrix’s ecstatic guitar shrieks, then ’70s ‘art’ and progressive rock. Thanks be to Punk that there was a good amount of spit in between. Hard rock followed by questionable soft rock. Then punk again, thanks again!, in grunge garb.
Where does Pruenster fit in? On “People” somewhere between 70’s and 80’s. That’s okay, because today the word “retro” doesn’t even apply to it anymore. Retro is pretty much the norm in pop. So Pruenster starts with “People are so strange/People are so wonderful”, evokes a blissful you: “Let’s dream/ Let’s never lose our dream”.
Is that kitsch? Anyway, pop is kitsch, keep it up. Pruenster was born in Vorarlberg, four decades in Linz have had an impact. The lyrics have a “steel city” directness. Wishes, dreams, hopes — it doesn’t matter what others think about them.
Pruenster wrote and composed “Menschen” during the acute Corona period, the — retro? — also itched the gesture of protest. “Everyone sees red / The rule of law is in trouble,” he warns in “Helden und Idiot”, which was already published in 2021, also on “People”. True heroes fight lonely, “idiots scream together”. Hardly anyone says that publicly these days. People are easily offended.
“People” fits strangely into the present. General excitement (Corona!), inability to engage in discourse and lethargy, above all the horror of a war in and against Europe. Pruenster’s current single is called “Everything will be fine”, he rhymes with it “at low tide and also at high tide” and sings: “Let’s be brothers and sisters”. Hm. There is nothing to be said against that. Still sounds stale.
Off to the dream world
“Wunderwelt” was the name of Pruenster’s big hit (1982), which helped shape the lively years of Austro-Pop. Technoid instrumentalisation, sharp and memorable rhythm and lines for pop eternity (“I live like this/ As I like it”). “Wunderwelt” is a product of its time, when freedom was very popular. It only sounds sticky now, since it was taken over by the movements that are still allowed to be said.
Surprisingly, however, “Wunderwelt” works again today – as a metaphor for virtual bubbles in which, decoupled from haptic reality, any dream world seems possible.
Dream worlds: The album “Menschen” provides plenty of that. It ripples pleasantly. The song “Es ist Zeit” is a low point, instructive. Strangely, the thematically similar “We Accuse” works great. The best number on the album, “We Accuse An” has energy, decisiveness, is enormously melodic and even danceable. The sea accuses, the earth accuses, the children accuse. And yes, freedom also accuses.
“Menschen” is a return to Pruenster’s pop music work and to an idealism that seemed finally done with the merciless sarcasm of the pop world of the 90s. Will “People” make the world a better place? Everything is so confusing, everything seems possible at the moment. Please, you’re clutching at every straw.
By Christian Pichler