Album and tour by Die Verlierer: Nothing works anymore

“Exciting” is often a reliable marker for the exact opposite. It expresses itself meaningfully as an adjective in class discussions at art colleges, series trailers in public broadcasters and press releases for various cultural products. This is also what happened in the accompanying laundry list of the latest album by the Berlin punkers Die Verlierer, who “since their debut in 2022 (…) have quickly developed into one of the most exciting German-speaking post-punk acts”. “Ideale” is the name of the newly released third album and, as the text continues, is about “a present in which war, greed and power are becoming more and more present.” So far, so promo.

A tinkling guitar string opens the album with the title song, well-vibrating effects distort the sound - and then suddenly there is this indie guitar riff, fast and shrill, as if cut from an Arctic Monkeys song from the noughties. Hannes Berwig's voice sounds: The Loser frontman is also a visual artist and, as art director, is responsible for the band's strictly black and white appearance.

“Occupy a body/Infiltrate a clear mind/It's deep inside you/And it eats you up like carrion/It starts very slowly/so you don't notice anything/You've changed/Eradicated your smile,” he intones bluntly into the microphone in typical loser style, setting the tone for the content of the new album, whose songs are full of limiting vessels. There are bodies, cages and boxes that restrict and oppress, or, as in the really great stoic track “Waise”, the entire worldly life under the cloudy sky.

The Losers: “Ideale” (Bretford Records); live November 6th 2026 “Astra” Berlin, November 10th 2026 “Evil & Dangerous” Hamburg, November 11th 2026 “Junkyard” Dortmund, will be continued

The second major theme that immediately emerges is decay. That of one's own morals, one's character and the world, and perhaps there is even a bit of self-criticism in that, The Losers, who were allowed to appear at last year's Berlin concert as the opening act for the great Iggy Pop (who is now advertising Dom Pérignon's champagne), have finally reached the complicated fork in the road between underground and mainstream with their third album.

While the first release came across as downplayed and boring, “Ideale” sounds like good production and radio-friendly melodies with accurate guitar riffs (“Cage”) and catchy, nerdy political refrains (“Dirty money/is earned quickly/when death moves through the cities” from “Ice Age”).

Representing complex relationships in a less complex way can be a great strength, and flat love songs also have a certain tradition in the genre. The second album “Notausgang” seemed much more ballad-like than one had expected from the Berliners, but it worked surprisingly well with surprisingly painful images like in “Barbed Wire”.

This tradition is continued in the single “Bomben”, starting with a promising bass. But something doesn't work anymore. The metaphors when dancing “on the shards of democracy” are too flat, the impure rhymes (“hope” on “drops”) are sometimes well placed, but then their beautifully obliquely chosen form is not redeemed in the foreseeable content.

More of an inventory of a band's hesitation between the desire for success and not giving a shit, "Ideale" is ironically neither betrayal nor counterculture. Even if the latter shines through in some places with a snotty shine, when it says in “Plakat”: “Take your life/In your hands/But I don’t know/What it should be”. And how that could continue is actually a bit exciting – also musically.