25. March 2025
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Media Review

Helge Schneider – Torero

Florian Buechtingby Florian Buechting

Helge Schneider - Torero

Helge Schneider - Torero
4.5

Rating

 4.5/5

He is having the unofficial nickname The singing Gentleman’s Cake and had a huge song about a cat’s toilet – Helge Schneider is definitely one of the biggest “Love him or hate him” artists in Germany. However, his musical qualities, on which his unique songs are based, are undisputedly amazing. He is a very talented jazz musician. On 3rd March 2023, he is sharing a new album wih his fans. Here are my thoughts about Torero.

 

Helge Schneider – About The Artist

Helge Schneider is a musician and comedian from Mühlheim an der Ruhr in the Ruhrgebiet region in West Germany. At the time of releasing Torero, he is 67 years old. He released numerous albums and movies. I gave more bio information about him in the review of his most recent album, Helge Schneider – Die Reaktion – The Last Jazz Vol. II.

 

Helge Schneider – Torero – Track by Track

The eight track album lasts 39 minutes.

1. The Last Torero

The album starts with the title track. Despite the English title, the song has German lyrics. It’s a mixture of flamenco and jazz elements. Helge Schneider is doing a lot of the musical work himself, accompanied by his guitarist Sandro Giampietro. Promising opener.

2. American Bypass

The second song is a clear jazz track, which is also having a certain focus on percussion sounds. Towards the middle of the track, the song is having typical Helge Schneider lyrics, which come with of simplicity and irony. This typically causes that you underestimate the real musical level on which Schneider is recording. Like on this one. Great track.

3. Horses

Horses could easily be a title song in the soundtrack of a cowboy movie. At least, when Helge Schneider is doing the main character, as there is the typical “Helge touch” in this song as well. Cool blending of jazz and Americana elements.

4. The Wizard

The five minute track The Wizard starts with a long keyboard intro, before you run into a dialog about… Occupied toilets. The Wizard turns into a typical, hilarious Schneider song, which just leaves two possible reactions: either you feel it is disgusting or you love it. I love it. But better don’t spoil more details of this song.

5. The Guilty Doctor

The short story of this song: whichever kind of health issue you have, there is only one person who is responsible for that: the doctor. Based on that idea, Helge Schneider has been writing a beautiful fusion of jazz and blues. And Helge, who is a genre by himself.

6. The Eater

The Eater is about food. In 3.41 minutes, Schneider created a rather melodic and straight song. Nice vibes and good sound.

7. LOTC

The abbreviation stands for Love on the Couch. With trumpet sounds (Helge just bought it for this album) and his unique storytelling sides, the song strongly reminds of his early classics like Es gibt Reis, Baby. Superb.

8. She’s Gone

The album closes with the five minute song She’s Gone. A song with alcohol and melancholy, which again uses some blues and Americana elements. Lovely play on the trumpet, which has been (like other Instruments) overdubbed on the original recording.

 

Helge Schneider – Torero – Spotify

Here is the Torero on Spotify:

 

Helge Schneider – Torero – My View

Torero is a typical Helge Schneider album. He is doing his thing. You know what you get. One thing you cannot argue against is the high musical quality. If you like it or not, is a matter of personal taste. You can only find out by listening.

 

Ruhrgebiet

From Duisburg to Hamm – here are all postings related to the Ruhrgebiet in Germany:

 

Jazz on Flyctory.com

Here are all postings on Flyctory.com related to Jazz:

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