Die Prinzen ("The Princes") is a German music group which takes its name from the Brother's Grimm fairy tale, The Frog Prince. (Hence the frogs that appear on so many of their album covers.) The band is made up of former members of the Thomanerchor, a choir of the St. Thomas' Church in Leipzig, Germany, where Johann Sebastian Bach was music director for many years. Their lyrics are "often humorous, tongue-in-cheek critiques of German government or society" (from Wikipedia).
Well, I can't say that we totally got all the political humor... in fact, about 100% of it sailed right over our heads. German is not a strong language in this household. When I help my son with his German vocabulary words, he has to correct my pronunciation on every single word.
No matter. These guys are cool - pop, fairly mellow, nice melodies. This was my first Die Prinzen album, and I chose it because it was a capella, and hopefully easier for us to understand, or at least pick out a few words here and there. I was right. We all like listening to Die Prinzen, for those times when we don't need a high energy anthem or crashing rock sound to get us going.
The album is made up of Die Prinzen's previous hits, done this time in a capella style. My favorite tracks are "Blaues Blut", "Millionar" and "Mein Bester Freund". The sound reminds me of the a capella groups I used to swoon over in my pre-college days, in the late 70's.
This album is easy on the ears, and palatable for kids. I can't vouch for the content (because I can't, um, understand one friggin word of it), but judging by the sound and the graphics on their albums, there's nothing hard-core here. This is a mainstream group, and one I hope to explore further. I'll let you know what I turn up.
Comments