With just a few songs, Apollo Online makes it clear what the plan is: good guitars, sing-along hooks, rousing compositions, and turning the multi-instrumentalist's one-man show into a brutal band. The North American-German grew up between the Beatles and Beethoven, educating himself musically with Coldplay and Stevie Wonder. It's almost logical that he has made the German language cool again, freeing it from its cramps and jams. Apollo Online does this with a naturalness reminiscent of Bilderbuch or Wanda, and despite the infectious lightheartedness of his language, there is a gripping depth to his songs. He talks about losses and victories, about great love and even greater doubts. To put it in his words: “Nobody really knows/Let's go for a ride.”