Their First English Album, Consists of English Versions Of A Selection Of Songs From Their German Language Albums "Schrei" And "Zimmer 483".

Brilliant modern German alternative rock soon to be in English.

The 3 standout tracks on this album by the German Alternative Rock band "Tokio Hotel" also happen to be the three songs that were chosen as singles and videos (all 3 videos are included in the cd-rom features of this release):

Track 2: "Durch Den Monsun" ("through the monsoon" or "through the storm" in English) is by far the best track on the album and shows really brilliant musical composition and performance. It has a very haunting quality and is downright beautiful. The vocals are very powerful, despite the fact that the lead singer, Bill Kaulitz, was only about 14 years old when he recorded them (he was born in September 1989). On first listen of this track, or most of the album for that matter, Bill's pre-pubesent voice does sound quite a bit like a punk rock grrl's, but this does not detract from the listening experience.

Track 1: "Schrei" ("scream" or "cry" in English) is an all out Punk Rock "screamer" with the now standard "quiet, then really loud" punk fromula. But beyond the formula, it does stand out as distinctive. The quality of the music, not just the performance, but the composition as well, is well into the "above standard" range. It's catchy, full of teen angst and anger, and you'll have it running through your head after it's over on only one listen.

Track 4: "Rette Mich" ("save me" in English) is as good as "Schrei" but is very laid back in terms of mood. It's the "ballad" of the album, and has more of a "Goth" or "Emo Rock" quality. On this version of the album the vocals (for this track only) were re-recorded by Bill after his voice had gone through some of the deepening that puberty brings, and so here he sounds like a young man instead of a boy (or punk girl) for the one and only time on the album.

Other stand out tracks:
14. "Schwarz" which is reserved and moody and reminiscent of Nirvanna at their best.
13. "Beichte" is "good" but not "great" as it sounds a little "commercial" like the kind of alt-rock songs you hear on Disney Channel TV shows.
14. "Leb Die Sekunde" and 10. "Jung Und Nicht Mehr Jugenfrei" are similar in quality to "Beichte" and their only draw-back is the Disney-punk quality.

The other tracks are good as well, but none seem to stand out above the seven I mentioned.

As for trivia and info about the band. . .

Tokio Hotel is currently working on an English version of the "Schrei" album (as of late 2006).

Toko Hotel is HUGE in Germany and has an emormous following, mostly with teenage girls. They top the charts over there and their album has gone platinum there. They have been on the cover of all the teen magazines.
--As a result of this, there's also the inevitable "backlash" with Tokio Hotel "haters" who claim the band are "manufactured" like The Spice Girls.

The band, though all under 20, and though all did principal album recording in their early teens, CAN ACTUALLY play their instruments which is proven in several live performances (however!, truly "live" live performances by the band are in about the %25 range as they most often, in their early televised gigs, chose to "mime" to the studio recordings ala "American Bandstand").

Lead singer Bill Kaulitz and lead guitarist Tom Kaulitz are IDENTICAL twin brothers. However, they both have chosen RADICALLY differnt ways of expressing themselves in terms of fashion and hairstyle, so much so, that at first look most people would not be able to tell they are identical twins.

Bill: has a piercing in his right eyebrow, jet black hair styled in the "emo rock" fashion (early on, spiked up with bangs gelled down over one eye, and most recently, long with spikes and layers and blond highlites) and he wears a great deal of black eyeliner and other eyemakeup and subtle lipstick. His clothes are most often standard Alternative / Emo rock (i.e. blue jeans, converse shoes, black rock band t-shirts, spiked wrist bands and black nail pollish).

Tom: has a piercing in his lower lip, long, blond, natural dreadlocks (evidence they are real and not extensions can be seen in early pictures of the band which show Tom going through the dreading process). He usually wears his dreads pulled back through the back of a baseball cap into a big pony-tail. Tom doesn't wear any makeup and wears mostly "Hip Hop" style clothing (i.e. big baggy jeans and shirts, etc.).

Gustav (short blond hair), the drummer, and Georg (long dark blond hair), the bassist, who both were childhood friends of Bill and Tom, are more your standard Rock and Roll types.

All of the members of "Tokio Hotel" have been together for a long time and were first known as "Devilish" and released a limited release cd under that name. -- The Center Bullet "Philip Haggard Berry" (Austin, TX United States)

Limited edition CD+DVD. Digipak packaging. DVD includes making of the video ''Ubers Ende der Welt'', pictures and an interview (20 min).

The title track (single version) is backed with the Akustik Version plus desktop player & ''Hilf Mir Fliegen''.

German pressing enhanced maxi CD single includes - ''Spring Nicht'' (single, Orchestra & video/making of), 'In Die Nacht'' & ''Outtakes'' (O-Toene Ohne Musik-Nur Audio).