There is not actually a World Cup this year, but why let that interfere with putting out World Cup songs?
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[6.00]
TA Inskeep: A big-ass 2006 German World Cup anthem featuring Amadou & Mariam gets spun on its head to create a big-ass 2024 stadium hip-hop record, equally suitable for football matches. The key here is that producer Ericson keeps the drama in, with that giant chanted chorus, and pumps up the drums; I can’t imagine this won’t be playing across Europe all year. Works much better than it should.
[7]
Katherine St. Asaph: An interstitial-ready composition of crowd chants, synth daggers, sampled football lore, and DRAMATIC TENSION STRINGS that is ruthlessly manipulative yet not nearly huge enough to actually manipulate. Listening to an arena jock jam in isolation will obviously never feel as exciting as being at the arena, but it should at least feel as exciting as watching a pirated stream. (NOTE TO COPS: I have no idea what that feels like.)
[5]
Taylor Alatorre: Ill-fitting mash-ups of disparate dance genres, mindless rehashes of former World Cup glories, routinized rebel yells set to a faux-apocalyptic sound font, Americentric trend-hopping that resembles nothing that would ever come out of America: this is what the makers of “Planet of the Bass” should have taken aim at. Fun fact: though it’s hard to find confirmation of this in English, according to the German-language Wikipedia, RedOne (remember RedOne?) had a part in both writing and producing the original song being tormented here. Not that I’m a believer in inherited guilt or anything.
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Isabel Cole: My first thought, once the beat kicked in, was, “haha what the fuck this rules,” and you know what? I stand by it.
[8]
Nortey Dowuona: (Jason Bateman voice) I don’t know what I expected.
[6]
Alfred Soto: Rather too brief to impress itself, “Zeit, Dass Sich Was Dreht” uses the staccato strings of late ’90s Dre and the tics of Travis Scott to — what exactly? Often when I don’t speak the language I let the track explain itself rather than consult translations.
[6]
Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: Look I’m sure this is causing all sorts of discourse on German music Twitter or wherever they do inter-generational internet fights, but shorn of context, this just sounds sick as hell, like a Travis Scott song without the burden of context and ego. What’s left behind are a gargantuan hook that leaves me feeling like I could avenge 7-1, and raps from $OHO BANI that are just competent enough that they don’t distract from the upswell of energy powering this track.
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Ian Mathers: One of the quintessential TSJ experiences for me is not knowing what the heck is going on in a delightful way. Often, I then try to figure out what the heck is going on in order to write the blurb. But sometimes you just enjoy the chanting Germans.
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