24. March 2025
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Media Review

J.B.O. – Planet Pink

Florian Buechtingby Florian Buechting

J.B.O. - Planet Pink

J.B.O. - Planet Pink
2.6

Rating

 2.6/5

Flyctory.com Pros

  • Some good songs at the beginning

Flyctory.com Cons

  • Very weak second half of the album
  • The album cannot connect to the great releases of this band

J.B.O. are one of the key players in the German fun metal scene. Over the last decades, they steadily grew their fan base under their pink signature band color. However, they struggle a bit in recent years, Thus, I have been really curious about Planet Pink. J.B.O. had to move the release date twice, from mid-March 2022 finally to 13th May 2022.

 

J.B.O. – About The Artists

The “James Blast Orchester” has originally been founded by Hannes G.Laber Holzmann and Veit Vito C. Kutzer in Erlangen, Franconia, in 1989. The band has originally been a fun project, but already the first gigs and song releases showed that there is potential for more. Especially their cover of No Sleep ’til Brooklyn by the Beastie Boys, No Sleep ’til Bruck (with Bruck being a borough of Erlangen) gained some popularity and airplay in a local radion station. Their first two albums, Explizite Lyrik (1995) and laut! (1997), both lead to golden records in Germany. Since 2009, no J.B.O. album missed the German album Top 10. Thereby, the band covered a lot of national and international acts – there is even a Weird Al Yankovic cover.

 

J.B.O. – Planet Pink – Track by Track

The 12 song album lasts 43 minutes.

1. Planet Pink

The album opens with a typical J.B.O. track: the German fun metalheads take Eiffel 65’s Blue and turn it into their Planet Pink. Works somehow well – even though I feel they did much better in their band history.

2. Rockmusik Hat Mich Versaut

The second track feels much better to me. The song praises rock music in the typical style of the Franconians (“Rock music has spoiled me”) in a nice, guitar driven hard rocker. The lyrics come with their signature irony. Thumbs up.

3. Metal Was My First Love

There is a dedicated posting about John Miles’ Music in the Songs of my Life. Thus, it is not too surprising that the J.B.O. cover is a special track to me as well. The fact that they more or less just had to replace Music by Metal in the lyrics shows how genius the original is. Or, simply, that this track is one of the best of the whole album.

4. Immer Noch Am Leben

Immer Noch Am Leben – “Still alive” – is a looking back to band’s history. A list of challenges alongside 33 years. The song itself is rather thin, unfortunately.

5. Einhorn

This song deserves the “Explicit Lyrics” sticker in full size – but it is one of the highlights of Planet Pink. The melody is a bit of thin and repetitive – but the lyrics are too nice.

Ich bin ein Einhorn
Aber nur wenn ich Dich seh’
Ich könnt der Star im Märchen sein
Doch geht das nur mit Dir allein
Nur Du kannst diese Kraft entfachen
Nur Du kannst dieses Horn mir machen

(“I am a unicorn
But only when I see you
I could be the star in the fairy tale
But this solely works out with you.
Only you can create this force
Only you can do that horn to me”)

Any more comments necessary?

6. Expeditionen Ins Geistreich

J.B.O. albums always come with spoken word, humorous sections. This one is rather thin, playing with similar words until their reach the right keywords for the next song, Klassiker!

7. Klassiker!

The idea of the song is not too bad. J.B.O. metal-covers several piece of classic music and puts some lyrics around it. Unfortunately, they push that idea too far. Latest when they are talking about “classic” German jokes, you have a tough time listening to the full 3:22 minutes.

8. Nicht Doof

It is quite surprising that J.B.O. released this song as a single. The ballad Nicht Doof is neither very catchy in melody not very funny in the lyrics. I feel that this song is the worst one on the album.

9. Mi-Ma-Metal

The song comes in the style of a children song (but with sufficient metal song). Entertaining , but I can’t imagine that the smile you have while you listen to Mi-Ma-Metal for the first time lasts on too long.

10. Glaub Mir Lieber Nicht

The more songs of the second half of the album you are listening to, the more you wish that the Germans would have released Planet Pink as an EP… and skipped some of the songs. Glaub mir lieber nicht does not hurt, but there is also no reason to listen to it again after the first time.

11. Wir Kommen Alle In Die Hölle

The title (“We are all getting to hell”) has a lot of potential for a good experience. The chorus has a nice melody, at least. Could be a good song for the encore of the current J.B.O. tour… Good sing-a-long after some beer.

12. Volks-Prog

The Volks-Prog has a potential to at least finish the listen with a smile – but it is just too artificial, has too many breaks. The track feels confusing to me.

 

J.B.O. – Planet Pink – Spotify

Here is Planet Pink on Spotify:

 

J.B.O. – Planet Pink – My View

I really love the 1990’s and 2000’s releases of J.B.O.. But Planet Pink does only show very few moments, which connect to the genius moments this band has been releasing. Yeah, they state that they are Immer noch am Leben – but they need to take care that they become a meaningless band. J.B.O. definitely does not deserve that.

 

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