New 2024 clear vinyl pressing, gatefold sleeve w/ pinted inner! 16 years after the last studio album comes the new album from LOIKAEMIE called "Menschen"!"Buckle up! Unbelievable, but true! Fucking axe!" The words of Saxony's biggest punk festival should not have been a jot smaller. With their surprise headliner, the Back To Future 2019 announced: LOIKAMIE is back! Within five years, a jolt went through the European Oi! and (street) punk scene twice: heavy emotions at the farewell in 2014, all the greater the euphoria at the live comeback! And even greater in view of 12 new songs!Since 2019, LOIKAEMIE has been a permanent fixture again, high up in the line-ups of festivals and clubs, and far beyond Germany. Thomas, Eddie, Paul and Bruno were not only able to continue seamlessly live, but to climb up a notch, at the concerts young and old meet in all their subcultural diversity, LOIKAEMIE is a band that - in the best sense - everyone can agree on. Creativity has also been reawakened: 2022 saw the release of "Lumpenmann" and "Tief im Herzen", the first new songs since 2007 (digitally and as a limited 7" single), joined so far by "Was Soll Die Ganze Scheisse?" and "Lasst Uns rein", already at home on a lot of playlists and all harbingers of the fifth studio album "Menschen", which is now being released. No wonder that after 16 years the expectations are huge, from the fans and the band itself. And "Menschen" is nothing less than a manifesto of what punk rock must sound like in 2023: Snotty and melodic, uncompromising and reflective, political and good-humoured. All twelve ear mills breathe the unmistakable LOIKAEMIE spirit and yet "Menschen" is a giant step forward. Already the exceedingly modern-sounding opener "Wenn wir alle so wären" (If we were all like that) sweeps away everything that is currently pogoing irrelevantly through punk on generalities, from the ensuing anthemic title track to the concluding self-invitation "Lasst und rein" (Let us in) the energy stays right at the top, at the same time the album is multi-layered as never before in the band's history. Street punk and rock'n'roll planks are joined by reggea, chanting, balladry and melodies that wouldn't have to hide in pop either. Instead of pithy statements, the lyrics tell pointed stories, share thoughtful thoughts on current miseries in the world, the scene or in their own heads. But there is also no shying away from the anthemic chorus, which from then on filled concert halls. Oi!, what banging hits they are!