Konstantin Gropper returns in a rock-oriented, rounded format where the spirit of an aesthete expresses itself through restrained energy.
Konstantin Gropper is, without a doubt, an aesthete. Presented in his early days (Rest Now, Weary Head! You Will Get Well Soon, 2008) as an improbable German Neil Hannon, both by his choice to cloak his solo project behind a phantom band and by his theatrical—melodramatic yet amused—tilt, the small pop maestro still seems to stage a setting before placing his new songs within it.
For this Minus the Magic, the aim was to capture the essence of a live group recording and to illustrate the shift toward adulthood by looking back at his electric loves—ranging from Nirvana to post-punk, with a nod to Teenage Fanclub.
But beyond the simplification of the formula (for instance, shedding Morricone-like choirs), the signature remains: after an opening built from effective yet somewhat generic singles 4:3 Days and OK, the album unfolds at its heart a quintet of marvels where a refined, restrained energy is pointed straight toward the stars—such as There’s Waldo, which could have sat on Human, All Too Human (2015) by San Carol, another fictitious group that reinvented its adolescence.
Where Car Seat Headrest has recently revisited similar territories with a morgue-like ’90s mood (The Scholars, 2025) and an operatic build, Get Well Soon dons a glowier, more eighties shimmer (the exhilarating The Pope Washed My Feet in Prison) and a psychoanalytic-poetic writing that claims inspiration from both Burroughs and Jung. All this before, as Gropper announces, the lush arrangements return on another album due later this year. An aesthete, one day…
Minus the Magic (Scarlet Beast Records/Virgin Records/Universal). Released since May 22.
