This is a really good song. Really good to the point that I almost dare you to think otherwise, but then again I know that’s not how this works. Sometimes a track is just really good and a band is just really talented and I just have to explain to you how and why that is.

It’s always impressive when a group with a different native language chooses to perform their music in English because, let’s be honest, English is ridiculous. German drama-pop duo Me and My Drummer must have guessed that singer Charlotte Brandi’s vocals might be at their best when adorably navigating the foreign movements of the English tongue. They nailed it.

“You’re a Runner” opens with an inventively ominous tap-and-brush beat from drummer Matze Pröllochs, soon met with Brandi’s blunt and room-filling vocal offering:

“You’re a runner / why do you want to kill yourself?
Don’t confuse your speed with the turning of the earth”

With a Regina Spektor-like charm, the vocals are powerful, intriguing, and most of all, pretty badass. If I had to guess, she’s not even showing us everything she’s got.

Soon, upbeat percussion begins to mix with chorus-like vocal layering as the track seamlessly builds up into cymbal smashing, pitch-raising thing of pop beauty. It feels like a room full of instruments and voices are exploding from the party of two during the track’’s apex as Brandi belts:

“There are more hearts pumping like your own
Don’t you dare to hurt mine.”

Never shying from the lyrical darkness they came with, Me and My Drummer deliver a unique and constantly evolving sound – always satisfying, never contrived. I look forward to forcing people to listen to this track for a long time to come.

About The Author

Becky Holladay was a contributing writer to Jonk Music in 2012.