Felix Kramer - Oh how beautiful life is

Kill Your Idols: With his third album "Oh wie schön das Leben is" (Oh, How Beautiful Life Is), the Viennese songwriter Felix Kramer has finally freed himself. In songs about envy, pressure to succeed, and the meditative withdrawal from supposed capitalist constraints, Kramer finds his fulfillment. After the inspiration on his previous albums "Wahrnehmungssache" (Perception Matter, 2018) and "Alles gut" (Everything's Fine, 2020) was still noticeably drawn from the classics, the influences of Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell, and Jacques Brel have, for now, run their course.

One can certainly feel that the trained guitarist Kramer has gone through the classical songwriter school, that he has also studied composition and thus knows exactly what he is doing, but he translates the insights gained in this way in an exceedingly original and individual manner. Kramer has left behind overly obvious choruses; he combines folk guitars with drum machines and influences from musicians like Mac Miller, mixing spoken word with sung passages.

Kramer is a precise observer who does not exempt himself from the equation, recognizing and exposing life's lies, including his own. Time and again, he seeks to uncover the beauty in darkness, no matter how hidden it may be. He does not negate any dark sides or tensions but draws them directly into the heart of his songs, albeit without weighing them down further. Kramer's Viennese charm lends these songs a lightness that suits them exceedingly well.

The single "Roadtrip," released in 2024 and also produced in collaboration with producer and multi-instrumentalist Max Wintersperger, showcases Kramer in an even brighter light. The lively country song travels through sunny landscapes with sensitive observations about the joys and struggles of such a vacation, creating a sense of freedom-loving vitality.

Work on the next album has already begun behind the scenes; songs are being written, tried out live, revised, and slowly taking their final form. "I'm quite slow," says Kramer. "I keep refining lines, constantly asking myself: What do I really want to say? At some point, I have a kind of distillate, sometimes just a single sentence that I really like, and from that sentence, I try to come up with a story." One can look forward to it.