Rockbites: Maximilian Hecker's second dose of fragile

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Maximilian Hecker's second dose of fragile
5 November 2003

Young, Berlin-based singer/composer Maximilian Hecker released his second full-length, Rose, for Europe and the UK this past spring. It’s still available for the US only as an expensive import, just like his essential 2001 debut Infinite Love Songs.
    But Hecker’s current world tour along with fellow Berliner Barbara Morgenstern, sponsored by the Goethe Institute, might just lead to a North American release for his hyper-romantic, fragile but stormy music.
    Hecker’s first album was so boldly stylized with his wispy falsetto voice, acoustic guitar, fresh electronics, and just the perfect spice of extreme noise, that I couldn’t picture a follow up that matched its idiosyncratic beauty and avoided self caricature. But he’s managed to do that and more.
    On Rose, there’s less guitar and more piano. Hecker’s voice has matured and he’s turned it into a fairly magnificent instrument. In terms of his lyrics and vocal delivery, there’s some loss of innocence as he’s grown, in its place definition and clarity… but these songs are still wonderfully hyper-romantic.
    Rose begins with a track called Kate Moss—some impressionistic solo piano under white spotlight on a black stage, immaculately recorded, soon finds itself in the company of synthetic strings as we close our eyes. Hecker’s falsetto, reminiscent of Freddie Mercury here, cries “Seven days and not one glance from her/ Seven days are a thousand years… Girl I love you/ But Don’t call back, she said.”
    The theme of unrequited love continues, masterfully executed, throughout this record, with heartfelt, sweet lyrics and sweet but high-contrast arrangements. I Am Falling Now features a lovely, soft beginning that gradually crescendos, with Hecker’s “Hold me now/ Heal my wounds” turning from a plea to a demand. My Friends is this record’s version of the last one’s Cold Wind Blowing, in which the music goes way, way over the top as extreme noise sits alongside childlike gentleness.
    As on Infinite Love Songs, and reminiscent of Momus (Nick Currie) before him, Hecker plays all the instruments, with the exception here of bass on some of the tracks courtesy of Norman Nitzsche (of Berlin post-disco quartet Mina).
    If you have a taste for the quirky over the conventional, and know something about the pleasure to be found in wallowing in unrequited love, here’s your record of the year. | Maximilian Hecker on Kitty-Yo | | My Love For You Is Insane (full length MP3) | | world tour info | | top of page |

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