The Notwist News From Planet Zombie
The Notwist's News From Planet Zombie unfolds as a quietly powerful document of communal creation, rewarding repeated listens with moments of melancholic beauty and surprising warmth. Across professional reviews the record earns a patient thumbs-up: critics say the collection's strengths lie less in blockbuster reinven
‘Teeth’ is the best song because its haunting opener and unique backing vocal make it immediately memorable.
Shared criticism is still limited across the current review sample.
Best for listeners looking for surprise and covers and reinterpretation, starting with The Turning and Like This River.
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Full consensus notes
The Notwist's News From Planet Zombie unfolds as a quietly powerful document of communal creation, rewarding repeated listens with moments of melancholic beauty and surprising warmth. Across professional reviews the record earns a patient thumbs-up: critics say the collection's strengths lie less in blockbuster reinvention and more in intimate interplay, nostalgia-tinged melodies, and songs that grow in stature the more you live with them.
The critical consensus sits at a 78.4/100 score across 5 professional reviews, with reviewers consistently praising tracks that foreground togetherness and presence. Critics singled out “How the Story Ends” and “The Turning” as centerpiece moments, while “Like This River” was noted for its affecting closer quality; other mentions include “Red Sun” and “X-Ray” as highlights that repay close attention. Reviewers repeatedly return to themes of collective collaboration, communal recording, Krautrock-influenced propulsion, and a melancholic intimacy that makes the record feel lived-in rather than overproduced.
While some critics framed the album as refinement rather than radical change, that restraint is often presented as a virtue: the songs' emotional specificity and the band's care in arranging harmonies and room-driven textures deliver sustained rewards. For readers wondering whether News From Planet Zombie is worth listening to, the consensus suggests a richly detailed, slowly revealing work—one whose best songs emerge as the record's true payoff and which comfortably extends The Notwist's musical evolution.
This page gathers the full reviews below for a deeper look at the moments critics found most compelling.
Critics' Top Tracks
The standout songs that made critics take notice
The Turning
1 mention
"The Turning‘ is arguably News From Planet Zombie‘s centrepiece"— God Is In The TV Zine
Like This River
1 mention
"Perhaps the most surprising moment on News From Planet Zombie, for me at least, comes in the shape of album closer 'Like This River'."— God Is In The TV Zine
Red Sun
1 mention
"including a truly lovely reading of Neil Young‘s ‘Red Sun"— God Is In The TV Zine
another cover – 'How The Story Ends', originally by Georgia folksters Lovers but given a kind of jangle pop makeover that suits the song perfectly.
Track Ratings
How critics rated each track, relative to this album (0-100). Only tracks that made critics feel something are rated.
Teeth
X-Ray
Propeller
Red Sun
The Turning
Snow
Silver Lines
Who We Used to Be
How the Story Ends
Projectors
Like This River
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What Critics Are Saying
Deep insights from 5 critics who reviewed this album
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Critic's Take
The Notwist's News From Planet Zombie repays close listening, and the best songs on News From Planet Zombie show that in spades. The haunting opener “Teeth” grips immediately with that unforgettable backing vocal, while “The Turning” acts as the album's centrepiece, its driving rhythm and harmonies lifting everything higher. The closer “Like This River” is an unexpected, affecting endnote that underlines why these are the best tracks on the album. Persist with the record and its charms - the rewards are big and cumulative.
Key Points
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‘Teeth’ is the best song because its haunting opener and unique backing vocal make it immediately memorable.
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The album’s core strengths are its surprising covers, emotional depth, and rewards for repeated listens.
Themes
Re
Critic's Take
The Notwist keep refining rather than reinventing on News From Planet Zombie, and the result is quietly triumphant, with the best tracks showing both craft and warmth. The opening “How The Story Ends” exemplifies their complex melody lines, a crystalline statement of intent that makes it one of the best tracks on the album. Elsewhere the gentler “Snow” offers delicate acoustic floatation that sticks in the memory, while “Silver Lines” supplies the tight indie-rock muscle that rewards repeat listens. The reviewer’s tone is admiring but measured, emphasizing maturity and consistent songwriting rather than rash reinvention.
Key Points
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The opening “How The Story Ends” is the album’s best track for its complex melody lines and definitive statement.
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The album’s core strengths are mature songwriting, a balance of acoustic warmth and restrained electronic elements, and effective collaborative textures.
Themes
Critic's Take
The Notwist have returned with News From Planet Zombie, an album whose best tracks feel like documents of people making music together rather than studio perfection. The review repeatedly privileges the record’s tactile, communal moments as the album’s strongest points, implying that songs capturing that live-room warmth are the best tracks on News From Planet Zombie. The reviewer’s focus on presence and warmth suggests that standouts are those where you can "hear air moving around instruments" and musicians reacting to one another. This account, in the critic’s reflective, descriptive tone, frames the best songs as the ones that foreground proximity and emotional modesty.
Key Points
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The best song(s) foreground the live-room warmth and audible interaction between players.
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The album’s core strength is its insistence on presence and communal recording after pandemic isolation.