New Music: The Notwist – How the Story Ends

I have to admit that even after repeatedly listening to How the Story Ends, I didn’t realise it was a cover, so imbued it is with the spirit of The Notwist.

The original, by Portland’s Lovers, is a sharp affair, stripped down and emotionally bare, grunge-like rock. One of two covers on News from Planet Zombie – the new album from The Notwist – it is transformed into a looping mantra of failed love, with 60s-referencing synths and a jangle-pop guitar stripped of joy giving the vocal performances an added ambience of loss, aching with regret.

The lyrics aren’t poetic; they’re more like prose in the way they come across as a tick list for a wounded soul – and it’s in bringing that out, hitting the listener straight in the heart with it, that The Notwist make How the Story Ends their own.

News from Planet Zombie comes out on the 13th of March via Morr Music and is available to pre-order on Bandcamp in digital, CD, and a range of vinyl formats.

Munich-based The Notwist have a series of live dates lined up to tie in with the LP’s release, with dates in Vienna, Paris, London, and Berlin among those already announced. Head to the band’s Instagram and Facebook pages for updates.